Meetings May End Your Internal Audit Career

Problem: Internal auditors spend way too much time in meetings. Internal meetings; meetings with auditees; one on ones with your internal audit manager, meetings about something; meetings about nothing; meetings about meetings. Most of them are a complete waste of time, and even those that aren’t a complete waste of time — 80% of those meetings are a complete waste of time.

Solution: But there’s a better way. Use these techniques to get your internal audit life back.

Average internal audit managers and internal audit executives generally love meetings and conference calls. 

That’s what they think internal audit managers do. They know this because that’s what their internal audit manager did, and the internal audit manager before them. Generally, their day involves walking into their office, checking email, going to a meeting, reviewing documents, going to lunch, having a conference call, reviewing more documents, checking email, going home, rinse and repeat.

You think I’m joking. I’m not.

Anyway, more on this later; for now, let’s get back to you and meetings.

The truth is the vast majority of meetings are a waste of time. They’re inefficient and ineffective.

But you can’t always control the meetings that you attend. Sometimes you’re forced to attend. What do you do when you’re forced to attend an internal meeting or a meeting with auditees that you have no direct interest in?

1. First, try to get out of it. 
 
 How do you do that? Be creative. 
 
 Oh, you want me to tell you how to do everything? 
 
Okay, try this: tell your internal audit manager that you can’t attend because you have a meeting with an auditee, preferably a conference call. Then pretend like you’re on the phone, but work instead. Or take the call somewhere else. 
 
Or go to the auditee’s office, and find out that they’re busy; then go work somewhere else. 
 
I get it. Some of you think you’re being dishonest with your internal audit manager. Fine. Then come up with another technique.

Or let me ask you one of those ethical or moral dilemma questions. What’s more dishonest: you telling your internal audit manager a little white lie so that you can go work you’re a$$ off and accomplish far more for them and the organization; or…wasting time in a meeting, squandering the limited resources of the organization and doing zero good for your internal audit manager or the organization.

2. Next, if you can’t get out of it, take your laptop and work during the meeting. 
 
Occasionally, look at the person talking, then go back to working. Your internal audit manager will think you’re really interested and taking notes.

If it’s a zoom meeting or conference, then it’s no problem to work during the meeting. In those cases, always have a second computer available to do your work with, in case you need to have a screen up to show you’re active on the call or conference.

But now lets’ talk about your own meetings. 

Meetings you control. As an internal auditor, you’ll have the opportunity to conduct your own meetings. They may be with auditees, or they may be within your organization.

Mastering leading meetings can help set you apart. They’re also a vital skill that you’ll need when you become an internal audit manager and internal audit executive.

I had an otherwise excellent internal audit executive, who took an hour to conduct a meeting that should have taken five minutes. One of the poor techniques she used to use was to ask if there were any questions.

She wouldn’t do this once and provide a reasonable amount of time for somebody to respond. No. Instead she asked if there were any questions multiple times. She would do this after each segment of the meeting.

But the worst part was that she would ask for questions, then wait, and wait, and wait, while asking multiple times if there were any questions. The auditees would inevitably, eventually ask a question; generally, for no other reason than it seemed to break the awkward silence. The problem was it almost always allowed the most difficult and argumentative auditees to highjack the meeting with complaints and arguments.

Here’s a rule of thumb for meetings and life: if you ask for problems, you’ll get problems.

When I became an internal audit manager, an internal audit executive, and CEO of my own firm, I applied these principles effectively. I’m happy to say, that I rubbed off on subordinates, and as an organization we started becoming much more efficient, if for no other reason than we were spending much less time in meetings.

So, what technique did I use?

Multiple. But the one that I will discuss here is — I got straight to the point. I didn’t dillydally around with a lot of introductions and small talk, and background, I got right to the point. After I got to the point, I addressed perhaps two or three bullet points under the main point, and I concluded by summarizing.

Finally, I asked if there were any questions. I waited only a few seconds for a response. It was an adequate enough time, but not an awkward amount of time. Occasionally there would be a question. And I would answer it quickly. Then, I would ask again; when there were no more questions, I shut down the meeting.

It wasn’t uncommon for a meeting to take 5 to 10 minutes; meetings that others would drag out for an hour or more. Think of all the time that you could recoup by getting your meetings down to five or 10 minutes.

When I first started using this technique, my internal audit executive was mildly shocked. They thought something was wrong. After all, how could a one-hour meeting take only 10 minutes? I must have been doing something wrong.

Then I explained it to her. She got it, but not entirely. She went on using the same old techniques she learned from the internal audit manager before her and so on. I went on kicking a$$ and taking no prisoners.

That’s what you’ll deal with when you apply many of the techniques I teach. So be ready for it. That’s why I teach you to keep these secrets to yourself. They won’t compute for the typical audit manager or internal audit executive. Their brains will malfunction.

For meetings, it’s difficult to hide your hack. So, you’ll need to deal with their pushback. Listen and agree with them. Then go back to your hack, saving a ton of time, getting your audits done on time and on budget, and taking over the world.

At your pace, you won’t be working for those internal audit managers and internal audit executives for long anyway. It won’t be long before they’re working for you. Or they’ll be interviewing for a job with you at another company, or even at your own internal audit firm.

But, back to your meeting hack.

Think of the by-products of this simple technique.

1. I saved over 80% of my time. I now had almost one extra hour to devote to auditing.

2. By keeping the meeting short, it took less time to write up. Think of all the time that saved.

3. By keeping the meeting short, I avoided all of the time-wasters — the auditees who had no direct impact on the audit, complaining about some small facet of the audit and getting other auditees all riled up.

4. And so on…I could keep going but you get the point.

If you extrapolate this out over a week, month, and year, you’re talking about saving some serious time.

Check out our Newsletter “Secrets of Millionaire Internal Auditors — Mastering the Game of Internal Auditing & Getting Rich While Doing It” for street-smarts, in-the-trenches internal auditing hacks, techniques and strategies that you won’t get anywhere else.