Leadership

In today’s business environment, nothing can be truly accomplished without the active support and enthusiasm of a team. Accordingly, the ability to lead, manage and develop a team is essential to maximizing results. Teamwork is all about successful team and individual performance, which is a win-win for all.

This course examines the key characteristics of high-performing teams. It presents techniques for leading and managing teams on a day-to-day basis and for developing them over the long-term. It demonstrates ways to motivate team members, build consensus, deal with conflict, and create an environment that stimulates input and allows team members to grow. It addresses how team members, while not leading the team, can make important contributions to the team’s effectiveness. Finally, it highlights common pitfalls to avoid in order to reduce costly employee turnover.

Good leaders know that using the same leadership approach in every situation is not always effective. When a leader’s style of communication is misaligned to the situation of his or her team members, problems in goal setting, motivation, conflict management and execution may arise. Clear communication between management and employees is fundamental to the operation and success of all businesses. Strategic leaders can quickly assess what style is best suited to a given situation and adjust their approach for improved communications and overall results.

This course explains why it is important for leaders to adjust their leadership styles to fit the situation at hand. It describes a range of leadership styles and helps participants identify their commonly used styles. It outlines specific leadership techniques and explores how to use them effectively. It also examines the impact strategic leadership techniques can have on active listening, goal setting, coaching, and performance evaluation.

Successful supervisors and managers know that proper supervision does not happen by accident. It takes careful preparation and planning, and the ability to adapt the supervision approach to the specific needs of the individual and set of tasks they are performing. Additionally, it requires long-term thinking, in the form of on-going coaching and mentoring. Although, not receiving adequate feedback is a common complaint from audit staff at all levels, successful supervisors and managers commit to contributing to a culture of giving continuous feedback to team members.

This course reviews best practice techniques for supervising and coaching teams, including teams that are working remotely. It shares tips for monitoring performance to avoid unwanted surprises. Finally, it shares techniques for providing feedback effectively to staff, both verbally and in written format. In the spirit of continuous improvement, participants will also learn how to encourage others to give them the feedback they need to continue to grow and excel.

Working paper files are one of the most important outputs of an audit engagement. They document an engagement’s objectives, procedures, results, and conclusions. They are the basis on which senior audit personnel judge the appropriateness of procedures performed, evidence gathered, conclusions reached, as well as whether the engagement complies with professional standards.

This course highlights the requirements and principles for producing good working papers. It shows how staff can make their working paper files easier for supervisor review. It outlines best practice approaches audit managers can use to review working paper file effectively and efficiently. It shares tips and strategies for developing productive review notes that can be cleared properly and easily. It also highlights requirements for finalizing and archiving files in adherence with standards.

In an ever-changing world, maintaining the status quo is just not good enough. One must be creative and find new and innovative ways of doing things. Professional auditors are no exception. While not known for their creative prowess or imaginative thinking, many are starting to apply techniques that help them to think creatively.

This course is based on the principle that creativity can be learned and improved. It focuses on steps that professional auditors at all levels can take to improve their ability to find optimal solutions for the challenges they face. It starts with outlining approaches for correctly identifying and defining the challenge or opportunity at hand. It introduces techniques for stimulating “out-of-the-box” thinking and for identifying possible actions. It sets out a framework for selecting the best course of action and for developing an implementation plan for success.

Many auditors can fall into the trap of approaching every engagement in the same way, every year. The secret to improving engagements lies in the auditor’s ability to think creatively and take early action to successfully change their team’s course of action for improved results. Innovation is a skill, like any other, that can be learned and honed over time.

This course shares proactive strategies and best practice tips for ‘re-engineering’ engagements for improved quality and efficiency.

Time. It is scarce. It is non-renewable. It is often wasted. But it is also manageable. Individuals who understand and follow good time management practices waste less time, produce more results, and often experience less stress. And they are better able to achieve their goals in both their professional and personal lives.

This course explores techniques that individuals can use to manage time, while they are working on their own and as part of a team. It also highlights some of the most common time wasters and explores how they can be overcome. This course also reviews effective meeting protocol and uncovers techniques participants can use to ensure every external client meeting, and every internal team meeting, is a productive use of everyone’s time. In addition, this course shares strategies for effectively dealing with difficult meeting participants.

Anyone who has trained others knows that it requires a unique skill. Although some presenters may seem that they are just “born with it”, these are skills that can be learned and honed over time. Learn techniques that are specific to training and facilitation, including presenting with confidence and handling questions with ease and poise.

This course explores key training and adult learning principles and its impact on training design. Also, participants learn how to “think on their feet” to respond to questions and challenges effectively, and with poise and grace.

Business development is an art. Although it may seem intimidating to some, business development skills can be learned and developed. At its core, business development is all about creating long term value for key stakeholders, building and strengthening relationships, and demonstrating technical and soft skill expertise.

This course explores a proven 5 step approach to developing new business from new and existing clients. It helps participants identify the skills needed to effectively utilize these strategies to bring in exciting new opportunities for growth. Finally, to develop as leaders within their practice, it provides an opportunity for participants to identify their key stakeholder relationships, proactively anticipate their requirements, and create a relationship management plan to effectively deliver on expectations.