The Chief Audit Executive (CAE) Briefing is now a FREE course for all CAEs. If you are the CAE in your organization, or you report to a CAE in a large organization, you may register for this course at:
https://jasonmefford.mykajabi.com/offers/ezsxLzjQ
If you are NOT a CAE, this course is not for you.
This week’s video provides you with a tip for improving your annual audit planning … how you can get your team more involved and improve morale, and taking some good old fashioned R&R during the holidays.
I’m referring to “Rest & Reflection” and discuss some ways you can reflect and re-charge your internal battery during the holidays. Most learning actually comes from reflection after learning and doing. For us to show up for our team as the executives we should be, we need to take care of ourselves and reflection is one of the best ways to do just that.
Take some time during December and block out time on your calendar for some R&R.
With the end of the year coming, that also means I will have 2 slots opening for individual executive coaching. If you would like to be considered for one of the slots, set up an appointment so we can talk and see if this would be a good fit for you: calendly.com/jasonmefford/30min
I’m also scheduling more “Lessons from a CAE” recordings for my Jamming with Jason Podcast and I’d love to hear from you.
To set up a recording session so you can share your career path and lessons learning with the internal audit profession on the #1 podcast in the world for internal auditors, just schedule a recording session here: https://calendly.com/jasonmefford/recording-session
It only requires 45-60 minutes of your time, but the benefit of sharing with others in the profession is priceless.
Talk to you next week.
Transcript
1
00:00:01.560 –> 00:00:12.059
Jason Mefford: Welcome to another episode of The chief audit executive briefing, hey, this week I was talking to some of the members in the chief audit executive forum.
2
00:00:12.660 –> 00:00:19.320
Jason Mefford: And, you know, besides talking about some of the things that we normally talk about like independence and reporting relationships and
3
00:00:19.710 –> 00:00:30.030
Jason Mefford: Some of the things that are going on how to deal with the external auditor. We were also talking about year in planning and I wanted to share something with everybody out there.
4
00:00:30.840 –> 00:00:41.940
Jason Mefford: There’s some companies that are actually taking what what I think is actually a great approach and their year and planning or they’re planning for next year.
5
00:00:42.480 –> 00:01:01.710
Jason Mefford: You know, we’re a lot of you are probably going through this depending on what your year end is but a lot of audit shops kind of run from a January to January timeframe. So that means many of you are probably in the process of planning for next year. And here’s the little tip for you.
6
00:01:02.940 –> 00:01:05.220
Jason Mefford: You know, most of the time we come up with the audit.
7
00:01:06.330 –> 00:01:19.110
Jason Mefford: engagements that we’re going to do. And then we go out and we schedule we assign people to that and, you know, kind of schedule those out for the year and say, hey, you’re going to work on this. You’re going to work on that. Here’s the great idea.
8
00:01:20.280 –> 00:01:31.950
Jason Mefford: You actually allow your staff to get involved in. Let them provide input into which audit says next year, they would actually like to work on.
9
00:01:32.550 –> 00:01:40.050
Jason Mefford: So one of the ways to do it. You can think of it, if, if, if you’re into fantasy football or some different things like that where
10
00:01:40.530 –> 00:01:51.600
Jason Mefford: People essentially get to bed or kind of put in for which of those audits, they would like to work for. So one of the ways that works really good
11
00:01:51.930 –> 00:02:06.810
Jason Mefford: You decide. You know, as the chief audit executive who is going to be the lead on that particular project, but then allow others in your team to kind of vote on which ones they would like.
12
00:02:07.380 –> 00:02:15.150
Jason Mefford: To be a part of. And you can do it in some different ways, right. So for example, when my son was in the military in the in the army.
13
00:02:16.620 –> 00:02:23.970
Jason Mefford: When they would transfer, he would get the opportunity to put in kind of his top three places he would like to go. Okay.
14
00:02:24.390 –> 00:02:34.440
Jason Mefford: And so what they would do then is decide if you know one of those top three was available if it was that was the location that he would get sent to
15
00:02:34.920 –> 00:02:47.220
Jason Mefford: If they were not available if they were already full. Then he ended up getting shipped somewhere else instead. Okay. But what this does. It’s a great idea because it allows your team.
16
00:02:47.850 –> 00:03:03.120
Jason Mefford: To provide input and, you know, they know what they would like to do. We can’t read their minds and so a lot of times actually allowing them to do this, it ends up increasing or improving the culture in your team.
17
00:03:04.140 –> 00:03:08.460
Jason Mefford: And it helps make sure that you know you’re not going to end up having the same audit team.
18
00:03:08.880 –> 00:03:19.680
Jason Mefford: Going out all the time you’re mixing it up more and you’re allowing people to kind of develop in the areas that they would like to. So I think that’s a great idea.
19
00:03:20.190 –> 00:03:38.520
Jason Mefford: So if you’re not already completely done with your planning, I would suggest that you try to incorporate something like that into your planning so that you allow your team to give you input on where they would like to go and and what they would like to develop professionally.
20
00:03:39.810 –> 00:03:51.480
Jason Mefford: Now the second thing that I wanted to share with you this week as well, is we’re into the month of December and December is one of those crazy months where it’s either super busy.
21
00:03:52.290 –> 00:04:03.390
Jason Mefford: Or there’s also these pauses and times where it’s kind of dead. And so, December is a great time to do a little r and r
22
00:04:03.990 –> 00:04:15.990
Jason Mefford: Now again, and you know, from a military background, you know, the soldiers would go off to what they call the R and R which stood for, you know, rest and relaxation or rest and recuperation
23
00:04:16.650 –> 00:04:28.950
Jason Mefford: But I’d like to put a little twist on that. Okay. We all need a little r&r at the end of the year, but the r and r is we need some rest. And we need reflection.
24
00:04:29.490 –> 00:04:38.280
Jason Mefford: And here’s the reason. You know, we learn a lot in the classroom, but we learn more when we actually take that information.
25
00:04:38.700 –> 00:04:52.140
Jason Mefford: And then go out and try to, you know, do it actually implement it and learn through experience. But what I found is often the greatest learning happens when we’re reflecting
26
00:04:52.680 –> 00:05:03.330
Jason Mefford: Right. So we’ve learned it. We’ve done it. Now we’re reflecting on what went well, what did not go well, that’s where a lot of the real learning comes in.
27
00:05:04.200 –> 00:05:13.290
Jason Mefford: So during this time, you know, again, hopefully many of you are taking some time off from work, but I would suggest that you plan some rest.
28
00:05:13.710 –> 00:05:21.900
Jason Mefford: And reflection. So take some time block out some time in your calendar, whether you’re going to be in the office, or if you’re not
29
00:05:22.290 –> 00:05:29.190
Jason Mefford: To where you can actually. First off, get caught up on your rest so that you’re not so tired because it’s important to recharge our batteries.
30
00:05:29.610 –> 00:05:37.650
Jason Mefford: If we’re going to show up and be the kind of executive that we need to be when we’re at work. We have to take care of our health and rest as well.
31
00:05:38.430 –> 00:05:50.160
Jason Mefford: The reflection side, you know, again, over this break do some things you normally may not do go buy a book, read a book, you know, it could be, you know, whatever.
32
00:05:51.870 –> 00:06:00.570
Jason Mefford: Excuse me, something that you maybe normally don’t do so it doesn’t necessarily have to be for business. In fact, I’ve got a book over on my shelf here.
33
00:06:01.290 –> 00:06:04.770
Jason Mefford: It’s a Charles borkowsky book that I’ve been wanting to read for a while.
34
00:06:05.460 –> 00:06:12.060
Jason Mefford: Guess what i’m doing over the holiday break. I’m reading that book is one of the books that I’m going to be reading over that time.
35
00:06:12.450 –> 00:06:20.640
Jason Mefford: So take time maybe read a book, you know, catch up or listen to some podcasts do something that’s actually helping to feed you.
36
00:06:21.300 –> 00:06:30.150
Jason Mefford: As well and take time to help you recharge. During this time, you know, that could also be an online training or something else that you’ve been wanting to do for a while.
37
00:06:30.780 –> 00:06:41.070
Jason Mefford: One of the things that I’ve liked and you can see that over there on the wall is every so often I like to paint. So that’s actually a painting that I did this last summer.
38
00:06:41.970 –> 00:06:51.270
Jason Mefford: Read a little bit before that. Anyway, in one of my r&r periods. I actually took some time to go ahead and do some painting as well.
39
00:06:52.290 –> 00:06:54.960
Jason Mefford: So with that, I know this one’s been a little bit longer but
40
00:06:55.710 –> 00:07:07.710
Jason Mefford: You know, again, those couple of things. Think about how you can start incorporating your team more into the planning allow them to provide more input maybe on which projects they would like to work on.
41
00:07:08.160 –> 00:07:22.680
Jason Mefford: In the coming year and then make sure to take some time for rest and reflection during this holiday period. So with that, my friends have a fabulous rest of your week and I’ll talk to you next week.
