What We Do
Enhancing Your Leadership Skills
Peter Drucker estimates that 6 out of 10 management failures are due to faulty communication. What are you doing today to ensure that you are effectively communicating to your team and your clients? In this interactive session, you will discuss ways in which leaders influence others within an organization. You will also identify ways to motivate others, communicate with others, resolve conflict, and make effective decisions. This course will give you the opportunity to strengthen your techniques for managing your team. In addition you will learn about your behavior style and how to adapt your style to meet the needs of others.
Perception is Reality – Working to Enhance the Image
Is your internal audit department viewed as a valued advisor and consultant or an unavoidable irritant that must be tolerated? The very nature of auditing places the internal auditor in an adversarial role with management and operations. We show up saying, “We’re here to help,” but the organization hears, “We’re here to find out what you’ve done wrong.” Their perception is their reality. What can we do to enhance our image and become more effective in our role within the organization? In this session participants will learn how to:
- Recognize the social styles of customers and co-workers
- Determine how to improve versatility by adapting individual behavior to enhance communication
- Develop their own 30-3-30 to market themselves and the audit process
- Identify verbal and non-verbal communication which may alienate our customers
Communicate Your Way to the Top
Research shows that over 70% of a person’s success in business is attributable to their ability to communicate with others. Yet what percentage of our training time do we typically spend improving our interpersonal skills? This session focuses on developing and enhancing communication techniques which are critical for success in business and in life. Learn why communicating with others can be a challenge and what you can do to enhance your own communication style. Discuss ways to listen more effectively. Practice interview and negotiation techniques which stress win-win solutions. This will be a fun and interactive session for those who want to enhance their interpersonal skills. In this session participants will:
- Define the elements of the communications model
- Understand their communication style and how they are perceived by others
- Learn what they can do to enhance that perception to achieve their goals
- Discuss verbal blind spots and appropriate methods for addressing
- Learn how to communicate confidently in tough situations and handle breaches of trust or the perception of a breach.
- Practice techniques to enhance their negotiation skills
Why Do People Turn to the Dark Side?
Ethics and Integrity – Popular buzz words for the past decade. Yet almost daily we learn about another organization whose employees have decided to take matters into their own hands and increase their take-home pay or the company’s profits through creative accounting and other unsanctioned means. What has caused this phenomenon to occur and what should we be doing to improve our corporate culture? Sometimes it’s more than just knowing the “right” thing to do. In this session, we will discuss the challenges of professional ethics and learn a framework to assist in ethical decision making. Participants will take an ethics test to see how they stack up against our corporate fraudsters – or learn what might cause them to turn to the dark side.
Walking The Talk – Are You Willing to Pay the Price?
Ethics and integrity have been popular buzz words for over a decade. Yet we still hear about financial statement fraud, misuse of assets and theft. Why aren’t people walking the talk? As internal auditors we have a responsibility to behave ethically and promote ethical behavior within our organizations. We also have a role in evaluating the corporate culture to ensure the control environment is conducive to making ethical decisions. But it’s not just knowing or educating people on the “right” thing to do. Are we willing to pay the price to make the “right” choice? In this session participants will learn how to:
- Distinguish the difference between ethics and integrity and the impact on their responsibilities.
- Evaluate the role that values play in making ethical decisions.
- Follow a framework to assist in decision making
- Identify ways to create a more ethical environment in their departments and organizations.
The Red Flags of Fraud: Are They Waving in Your Organization?
The Red Flags of Fraud – those ominous indicators that something is going on within your organization, your department, your process. Something that might be to your detriment or that of your group. What are those indicators and what are you doing about them? This interactive session will discuss examples of red flags and how they led to fraud within organizations. Different forms of fraud result from different factors and circumstances. We will learn how the behavioral red flags of perpetrators vary depending on the fraud scheme. The IIA standards require that we evaluate the potential for the occurrence of fraud and how the organization manages fraud risk. Are you doing your part or are the red flags waving at you?
Creating an Ethical Environment – Finding the Fraudster
Almost daily we learn about another company whose employees have decided to take matters into their own hands and increase their take-home pay or the company’s profits through creative accounting and other unsanctioned means. What has caused this phenomenon to occur and what should companies be doing to change the tide? What can we, as internal auditors, do to help identify weaknesses in the system and improve our corporate culture? In this session, participants will learn how to:
- Identify the primary red flags of fraud
- Evaluate their organization utilizing the COSO framework
- Understand personal, professional and organization ethics
- Strengthen their organization’s control environment
COSO
Are you utilizing COSO to its full extent? The COSO framework has been around since 1992 but most organizations only implemented the portions they had to for Sarbanes Oxley. The 2013 updating of the COSO framework takes the existing components and makes them come alive with 17 principles guaranteed to raise management’s awareness of potential issues and opportunities for improvement. This is a great course for both internal audit and management. You will have the opportunity to understand the detail behind each of the 17 principles and evaluate your organization on how well you are doing in achieving these objectives.
Facilitation Skills
To be successful in business a person needs to be able to facilitate meetings, groups, and sessions. Facilitation is more than just standing in front of a group and asking questions. You need to be able to gather information from a group, synthesize the data, and come to consensus on action steps. This interactive workshop will provide participants with:
- An understanding of the uses of facilitation
- The basic steps for facilitating a meeting or workshop
- Improve techniques to improve the ability to think on your feet
- Lessons learned and tips for success
(This workshop can be customized for a specific Control Self-Assessment session.)
Audit Report Writing
The audit report is the culmination of our audit and often the hardest part of the audit. How much do we say and at what level? Audit reports need to be clear, concise and motivate management to take action. Does your report do all that?. This interactive workshop will address:
- The readers of the report and at what level to be writing
- The five elements of an audit observation and how to write to get results
- The structure and organization of the report
- Streamlining the review process and the difference between edit and review
- Common grammar issues
- Writing more succinctly with proper tone
Building The Best You
This workshop focuses on identifying and building your personal strengths. The foundation stones of honesty, integrity, and character are explored in how they relate to your personal success. Your attitude is of utmost importance to your personal well-being and many of Zig Ziglar’s tried and true methods are taught so that the participant will leave with the knowledge of how to make any day – no matter the circumstances – a great day.
Building Winning Relationships
Difficulties in relationships can lead to difficulties in every area of your life. It is important to work on building positive relationships with those around you. This workshop will explore the specific steps you can take to build strong relationships both at home and at work. The DISC assessment can be used to allow people to understand the difference perspectives each person brings into the relationship.
Goal Setting and Achievement
This workshop will help participants build a balanced life and achieve the goals they set for themselves. This skill-building training explains the necessity of having an organized goals program and the benefits of consistently achieving goals. Zig Ziglar’s seven step process is introduced and an accountability system is offered to help the participants take what they have learned and implement it on a daily basis.
Ethics for CPAs – It’s a Matter of Choice
“Why do good people do bad things?” we often ask ourselves. Yet faced with similar circumstances, would we have made the same choice? This course provides a look into ethical philosophies for both our personal and professional lives and discusses the values upon which our choices are based. Ethical behavior is more than mere knowledge of right and wrong but making the right choices for our profession and organization. The public looks to us as a standard of ethics and integrity and the Texas State Board holds us accountable for protecting the CPA brand. Are we meeting these obligations?
This course is a 4 hour classroom-based workshop designed to meet the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy’s (TSBPA) Ethics Course Requirement for Licensees for four hours of continuing education. It also satisfies the annual ethics requirement for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA).
While this course will meet the annual license requirements for CPAs, CIAs and CFEs, it is for anyone who wants a better understanding of personal, professional and organizational ethics. Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about why people make the choices they do and what can be done to influence those choices.
To simplify things and make things cost-effective, we are available to bring this presentation in-house, making it easy to have all of your CPA’s certified at one time as well as discuss ethical issues specific to your organization. Or sign up through the Houston Chapter of CPAs to attend one of the upcoming public offerings by clicking here: www.houstoncpa.org
2020 Offerings
January 30 – February 27 – March 27 – April 24 – May 28 – June 26 – July 27 – August 28 – September 25 – October 30 – November 20 – December 11.
Additional Offerings Throughout the State of Texas
– September 29th at the Rio Grande Valley Chapter – Click for Details