1. Lessons Learned Carrie Weber SVP, Chief Risk & Compliance Officer
August 19, 2019

2. Agenda
Key lessons I’ve learned
Defining career moments
What you can do today

3. Key things I’ve learned
Culture
Culture – of an organization is so important to your career personally but also to how successful you can be as an internal auditor at a particular company. Each company I have worked at had a different culture and different operating styles. Not only do you have to learn the culture where you are but often times you have to adapt to that culture. I have seen many people try to come in and operate like they were in a previous company culture and it turns people off. Assimilate but don’t allow that to compromise you and your ethics. Know the landmines, political landscape, etc. be willing to make the effort – i.e. who all needs to review a report in advance? Also you have to make sure the culture is not leading the company into trouble – how much support does internal audit have? How does management react to audits, audit findings, etc? Does the message you hear from the top align with what you see happening at middle management level?

4. Key things I’ve learned
Crisis
Crisis – every company is going to have a crisis. Having a crisis is not the most important thing – what is the most important signal is how the company and the leaders respond and react to the crisis. While that may sound bad, crisis situations show what people are made of. They are amazing opportunities to learn, to work with people, to make a difference for a company. While they might be some of the most difficult things you do in your career, it will be a rapid period of personal growth and development. You also get to see who can truly be leaders.

5. Key things I’ve learned
Credibility
Credibility – to be successful as an internal auditor, you have a high burden of proof on credibility. You don’t run the business, you aren’t even in the day to operations of it. You probably don’t even talk to customers so what do you know. This is a high burden of proof. You need to research, spend time with the business and never come off as if you know more than the business does. That is a sure way to lose their trust. Anticipate what you might need to know to be more credible – see that out in advance of needing it. Don’t be a know it all. Better to be a good listener.

6. Key things I’ve learned
Communication
Communication – Leaders who are successful are great communicators. You don’t have to be in a leadership position to be a leader. A leader of a focus group, a leader of a special project, etc. To gain those positions, you have to be a great communicator – not a good one, not an average one but a great one. People have to understand your message. People also want to know what’s in it for them and they want you to recognize their point of view. You have to be able to articulate the risk to the business when you have a finding. You have to be able to demonstrate why it is important to the organization.

7. Key things I’ve learned
Collaboration
Collaboration – Good internal auditors are not those who dig their heels in on low risk items. Good internal auditors learn to collaborate with business areas and get agreement on prioritization. There is a way to collaborate, get your point across without seeming like you just want to pick on little things that add no value. Collaboration also matters in terms of working with business areas, learning what they are doing, assisting with projects, offering input on difficult challenges, etc. I have seen so many disagreements in my career between an internal audit and a business area over what is most important – you have to collaborate to arrive at a place where both sides can agree. But don’t compromise on ethical issues.

8. Key things I’ve learned
Calendar
Calendar – in any company, there are many risks, many processes, many divisions, etc. There are never enough hours in the day or days in the year to audit everything. How do you determine where to spend your time? Don’t just audit an area to audit it when there is not risk? Don’t minimize the scope of a high risk area if it is really a significant risk? Do you have a good balance of doing audit work versus education versus risk assessments

9. Key things I’ve learned
Career
Career – Internal audit provides an amazing career. Whether it becomes your sole career focus or whether it is a stopping place along the way, it provides some much perspective and opportunity. Take advantage of that while you can. Make sure you take a speaking role in exit meetings and kick off meetings, make sure you have a chance to do an audit in every area of the company, make sure you volunteer for opportunities in and outside the function. With that, I’m going to transition to some of my defining career moments.

10. Defining career moments
Feedback is a gift
What good looks like
No one is irreplaceable
Leaders are readers
Let’s debrief
Start looking ahead
Have the meeting before the meeting
You ask great questions
Feedback is a gift – it was someone who saw potential in me challenging me to be better. When you think about feedback like that, it truly helps you move forward. This was a pivotal moment for me because I “grew up” early in my career in culture where negative feedback was horrible. You have to have trust first but it truly is about challenging yourself to reach higher.
What good looks like - What does it feel like to work with top talent? What does good look like in this situation? Instead of focusing on what went wrong, turn that focus to what does good look like?
No one is irreplaceable – became the lowest performing high performer
Leaders are readers – always continue to grow and learn new things, just because something worked before, doesn’t mean it will going forward, seeking knowledge, what can you learn from how others succeeded or failed
Let’s debrief – Had a leader who always wanted to debrief after each meeting, unpack each comment said, each look that was given, talk about what went well, what didn’t go well, what we could do differently next time. While that may seem like a waste of time for busy person, what an incredibly insightful exercise. I learned much more about self reflection, emotional intelligence (understanding the impact what I said or how I said it had on others).
Start looking ahead – stop thinking like an auditor and start thinking about the future impact of things, future possibilities, what could be. Started my journey to be more strategic, to ask more questions, to look for ways to do things smarter, better, faster, etc
Have the meeting before the meeting – this is about preparation. I used to think I could just get up there and wing it. I had a mentor who used to say – have the meeting before the meeting. Walk it through in your head, say it out loud, plan out what questions you could get asked and how you might respond, etc.
You ask great questions, you always know what questions to ask – I never thought of myself as having a lot of curiosity but as I heard this, I really started to reflect back on my strengths and one of the things I’ve learned in my career is my desire to learn fueled by intellectual curiosity. Asking questions is way to engage people, learn, and build relationships – tell me more, what about this, how did you get there…..

11. Things you can do today Continuous learning
Have grit – hard work & experience
You are responsible for your actions, your decisions, your mistakes, your career
Career is a series of moves – up, down & sideways
Say Thank You
Surround yourself with people smarter than you
Be accountable
People matter
Be positive and strive to have a positive impact on others
Continuous learning – grow & acquire new skills and knowledge
Have grit – hard work & perseverance
You are responsible for your actions, your decisions, your mistakes, your career
Career is a series of moves – up, down & sideways
Say Thank You – handwritten notes, polite thank you, never underestimate the impact this has on people
Surround yourself with people smarter than you
Be accountable – do what you say you are going to do & do it sooner and better than expected
People matter – build relationships, have respect
Be positive and strive to be a positive impact on others

12. Questions?