THE AUDITOR ONLINE

As we enter into late fall, we prepare for our Thanksgiving traditions (or you may have celebrated them already if you are outside the United States). These traditions originated to give thanks for bountiful harvests; in recent times they are also good times for giving thanks for the bounty that we have in our lives.

As an auditor, I am thankful for so many things. See if you agree with this list, and write to me with what you’re thankful for. I’ll include the compiled list in the December installment of this column.

I’m thankful for:

The many friends I’ve made through my auditing. Many of my audit clients are also my friends. I would not have close friends in near and far-flung locations if my auditing work didn’t bring me into contact with them in the first place, and my life would not be as rich without these friendships.
The skills I’ve developed through auditing. I am a better auditor now than I was before, and I hope to keep refining my skills (and learning new ones) as I continue. I can now rephrase a question two or three different ways to help me be better understood, more easily think on my feet and process information on the fly, quickly identify complex relationships between processes, and better understand how data analysis is applied to process management. I’m also becoming a whiz at drawing a flowchart of a complex process at differing levels—top level, mid level, and detail (low) level. Flowcharts help to tell a story, so my charting skills are becoming better over time.
An enjoyable career. One of my friends says that she’s such a good auditor because she’s naturally nosy. That’s somewhat true for all auditors, I think. We’re a curious bunch and we enjoy finding out about different processes, learning new areas of a facility, and applying our critical-thinking skills to the audit process. I’m so blessed to be able to earn a living doing work that I love, so that I can have the life I want.
The opportunity to travel. Yes, travel can be a hassle—we all have stories of the airport security line from hell, the business trip where nothing went right, etc. But, I’ve also had the opportunity to go to great locations, combine work with visits to family and friends, and in one memorable summer, I was able to do a six-week cross-country drive with my family, stopping to audit along the way. I averaged 1.5 audit days per week (some weeks 3 days, some weeks less) and along the way my family got to meet many of my auditing client buddies and my buddies got to meet my family—the reason I do what I do. Even better, my family members got to see some interesting places they wouldn’t have seen otherwise, and they gained a new appreciation of Mom when seeing me in a business setting. (“Gee, she doesn’t just watch movies in a hotel room; she works pretty hard when she leaves us to go work.”)
The ability to share my thoughts with a wide audience. In addition to writing for The Auditor and speaking at conferences, I regularly blog at www.improveyourbusinessnow.com and Twitter my thoughts at www.twitter.com/marymcd. This sharing of ideas has generated a two-way conversation with folks I have never met via blog comments. Some of the best conversations I have are via Twitter posts, even though Twitter limits its posts to 140 characters. It’s amazing what you can share in 140 characters. I consider my pal JF to be a kindred spirit although we’ve never written to each other anything longer than the 140-character limit that Twitter imposes. You can be succinct and still be genuine and share your thoughts, which helps when doing any writing.
Finally, on a purely personal note, I’m most grateful for my wonderful husband and two beautiful, smart, and funny children. Being blessed to be with them is sufficient; everything else is icing on the cake.

About the author

Mary McDonald is the CEO/CTO of McDonald Consulting Group, a process improvement firm located in Austin, Texas. She is the author of five books, dozens of articles and papers, and loves consulting, training, and auditing. She can be contacted at marymcd@mcdcg.com.