We also explored in greater detail the first two characteristics – business alignment and internal audit stakeholder relationship management. In this next installment, we examine and discuss characteristic #3 – empowering leadership – and the individual components that include servant leadership, investing in personal growth, and embracing diversity and inclusion:
- Servant leadership
- Investing in personal growth
- Diversity and inclusion
Servant leadership
Highly effective internal audit functions have operating models that look to reduce the distance between the top of the function – the Chief Audit Officer (CAO) – and the auditors working on the ground, every day, with the auditees. They reduce the layers of ‘management’ between the CAO and the ‘customer’ of the audit function. A rule of thumb often applied here in larger functions is no more than 5/6 layers of reporting hierarchy in the organization with the CEO being layer 1, CAO layer 2, Head of Audit layer 3 etc. However, I would challenge all internal audit functions to operate with no more than 4 layers to reduce the layers of reporting and the inevitable distance this creates between the CAO and the day-to-day work…
