Enabling the Success of Your Internal Audit Team: Management Best Practices and Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Dear Audit Managers! Managing an internal audit team is much more than just assigning tasks and monitoring progress. The most successful managers work hard to enable their audit teams by creating an environment where the probability of success is high, while avoiding behaviors that that reduce the probability for success. This article outlines best practices for enabling success and highlights common pitfalls to avoid, using real-world scenarios to illustrate both.

Best Practices for Enabling your Audit Team’s Success

1. Provide "Air Cover"

Auditors often face resistance or pushback from auditees. We’ve heard it many times. “Why are you doing an audit now”? “I’m very busy, why are you asking for all of these materials”? “I don’t think I can accept this finding”. As a manager, your role is to protect your team from unnecessary conflict and political pressures. You need to set a good playing field right from the start, and you certainly need to intervene when resistance escalates. The goal is to clarify the expectations of your stakeholders and to also reinforce the legitimacy and necessity of your team’s work. Fly high in the sky, and shape the playing field as best as you can to ensure your team’s success.

Common Problem Solved: Stakeholder resistance that can derail the audit process and demoralize auditors.

Bad Practice: An auditee questions the validity of an auditor’s findings, and you remain silent, leaving the auditor to defend themselves without support. This undermines their confidence and credibility.

Good Practice: An auditor flags a critical issue in a high-profile project, and the project manager becomes defensive. You step in to clarify the auditor’s role, reiterate the importance of the findings, and ensure the auditor can proceed without fear of retribution.

2. Set Clear Expectations

Define the scope, objectives, and deliverables for each audit upfront. Ensure your team understands what success looks like by providing templates, examples, or previous audit reports. Begin with the end in mind. Whenever work seems to be getting derailed, or your team is spinning wheels, step in and remind them of what good looks like.

Common Problem Solved: Scope creep and misaligned deliverables that lead to wasted effort and frustration, delays in project completion, key controls not tested, key pivot points not identified and actioned.

Bad Practice: You assign a vague project with little direction and expect auditors to figure it out on their own, leading to misaligned deliverables and wasted effort.

Good Practice: A new team member is unsure how to structure an IT audit report. You provide a detailed template and walk them through a completed report to ensure they understand the expectations.

3. Foster Psychological Safety

Create an environment where auditors feel comfortable asking questions, expressing concerns, and admitting mistakes. Open communication fosters innovation and collaboration, ultimately leading to a much better product.

Common Problem Solved: Fear of mistakes that discourages innovation and openness.

Bad Practice: An auditor points out a potential risk in your strategy, and you dismiss their comment, discouraging them from speaking up in the future.

Good Practice: During a team meeting, an auditor hesitates to bring up a potential oversight in your plan. You thank them for their input, explore their concern, and adjust the plan as needed. Another good practice is to seek input and questions from the team, showing them you value their input and are willing to adjust your ideas.

4. Build Bridges With Stakeholders

Proactively nurture relationships with key stakeholders to smooth audit processes and resolve conflicts more effectively. Make sure your stakeholders know your business (the audit business), and also make sure they know what you're doing, when you're doing it, and what is expected of them.

Common Problem Solved: Poor relationships with stakeholders that lead to resistance and non-cooperation.

Bad Practice: You ignore stakeholder concerns, leading to resistance that hampers your team’s ability to complete the audit.

Good Practice: Before an audit of a sensitive department, you meet with its leadership to set the tone, explain the audit’s purpose, and address any concerns. You share expectations of, and impact to their team.

5. Invest in Professional Development

Support your auditors’ growth through training, certifications, and mentoring. Highlight their achievements and encourage ownership of their career paths.

Common Problem Solved: Skill gaps that hinder auditors from tackling complex or emerging challenges.

Bad Practice: An auditor asks for new opportunities or training, but you deny the request, leaving them stagnant in their role.

Good Practice: An auditor expresses interest in cybersecurity. You arrange for them to attend a relevant workshop and assign them to an upcoming IT audit.

6. Empower Decision-Making

Trust your team to make decisions within their areas of responsibility. Micromanaging stifles creativity and reduces morale. Stop over directing, instead ask questions. Guide them through the thought process, it’s one of the most powerful ways to develop your team.

Common Problem Solved: Lack of autonomy that frustrates auditors and slows down progress.

Bad Practice: You insist on reviewing and approving every minor decision, delaying progress and frustrating the team.

Good Practice: An auditor needs to adjust their testing approach mid-audit. You trust their judgment and encourage them to document their rationale. If they are unsure, you are available as a sounding board, providing guidance on their decision (not yours!)

7. Ensure Adequate Resourcing

Advocate for the tools, time, and staffing necessary for your team to succeed. Avoid overburdening them with unrealistic deadlines. Understand the scope and complexity of the work and provide support to align necessary resourcing.

Common Problem Solved: Burnout and reduced quality due to overwork or resource constraints.

Bad Practice: Despite obvious resource constraints, you pile on additional tasks, leading to burnout and lower-quality work.

Good Practice: You notice your team struggling with a tight deadline. You jump in to understand the workload and resourcing and you help the team to figure out how to get the work done efficiently and on time.

8. Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration

Encourage your auditors to collaborate with other departments to break down silos and foster mutual understanding. Get an understanding of who your audit team should be collaborating with, and enable them to collaborate.

Common Problem Solved: Siloed operations that limit the effectiveness of audits.

Bad Practice: You discourage interaction with other departments, leaving auditors with incomplete information and less effective recommendations.

Good Practice: During a compliance audit, you arrange for your business auditors to meet with the IT team to better understand automated system controls.

9. Recognize and Celebrate Achievements

Acknowledge your team’s hard work and successes. Recognition boosts morale and motivation. In particular, reflect on key challenges that the team was able to persevere through.

Common Problem Solved: Low morale and disengagement due to lack of acknowledgment.

Bad Practice: You take credit for the team’s success without acknowledging their contributions, demoralizing them.

Good Practice: After a challenging audit, you write a thank-you email to the team and highlight their individual and team efforts during a leadership meeting.

10. Model Ethical Leadership

Demonstrate integrity, fairness, and transparency. Your behavior sets the tone for the team’s culture.

Common Problem Solved: Erosion of trust and credibility due to inconsistent or unethical leadership.

Bad Practice: You ignore an ethical lapse in your own conduct, eroding trust and credibility.

Good Practice: You discover a minor issue in the audit process and address it transparently with the team, emphasizing continuous improvement. You share your mistakes, what you learned from them, and how you responded to get to a positive outcome.

11. Show Empathy

Understand the unique challenges, emotions, and workloads your auditors face. Empathy creates trust and motivates your team to perform their best.

Common Problem Solved: Stress and disengagement due to lack of understanding of personal and professional challenges.

Bad Practice: An auditor’s productivity drops, and instead of understanding their situation, you reprimand them without exploring the underlying issues.

Good Practice: An auditor confides that they’re overwhelmed by personal and professional demands. You adjust their workload temporarily and check in regularly to provide support.

12. Be Approachable

Maintain an open-door policy and encourage team members to share concerns, ideas, and questions freely. You use the time to find opportunities to enable their success.

Common Problem Solved: Ineffective communication and missed opportunities for improvement due to fear of speaking up.

Bad Practice: Your distant and unapproachable attitude discourages auditors from seeking guidance or proposing new ideas, stifling innovation.

Good Practice: An auditor hesitates to propose a new process improvement idea but feels comfortable bringing it to you because of your approachable demeanor. You discuss it openly and encourage further exploration.

13. Demonstrate Consistency

Follow through on commitments, provide steady guidance, and ensure your actions align with your words.

Common Problem Solved: Confusion and lack of trust due to unpredictable leadership behaviors.

Bad Practice: You promise support during stakeholder conflicts but fail to follow through, leaving auditors feeling unsupported.

Good Practice: You consistently hold weekly check-ins and provide constructive feedback, building reliability and trust with your team.

14. Inspire Visionary Thinking

Help your team see how their work contributes to broader organizational goals, inspiring pride and purpose.

Common Problem Solved: Lack of purpose and disengagement due to not understanding the impact of their work.

Bad Practice: You assign tasks without connecting them to larger objectives, leading to disengagement and a lack of motivation.

Good Practice: You explain how findings from an internal audit can drive strategic improvements, making auditors feel integral to the organization’s success.

Conclusion

Managing an internal audit team requires more than audit methodology, business, and technical expertise. It involves creating a supportive environment where auditors feel empowered, valued, and protected. It requires you to constantly think about how you can enable their success. By implementing these best practices—and avoiding common pitfalls—you can foster a culture of excellence and enable your team to deliver impactful audits.

If you’re ready to elevate your internal audit management approach, contact us today. Let’s build an environment where your auditors can thrive.