We are internal auditors helping each other become more impactful.
It’s that simple.
TEA™ is about helping internal auditors be more effective. And that, by extension, elevates the internal audit profession. Everything on this website is provided without charge. We only ask one thing. If this helps you in some way, please share your story and the lessons that helped you. Your success helps everyone else. And everyone else’s success helps you.
The Essential Auditor was begun by Bud Schrock. He had always felt that internal auditors are in a position to have a huge impact on their organizations. But, that isn’t always what he saw. So, over the past 20 years or so, he considered why some internal auditors make an impact while others struggle.
The result is – The Essential Auditor™.
In a general sense, you develop influence with someone (anyone) when you add value to their lives. That means you either help them reach a meaningful goal or you help them solve a significant problem. People who can do that are welcomed and appreciated. In marketing terms, they’ve created a valuable brand.
TEA™ provides internal auditors with a path to develop their their own high-value professional brand.
We’re all different, of course. TEA™ can’t simply provide you with a brand. Instead, it provides a simple and practical brand-development process that’s focused on internal auditors. When you’re clear about what you want and how you can help others achieve what they want, you’re on the way to becoming essential.
We have a point of view, of course.
We refer to this as the TEA Manifesto™️. We believe that these choices help an internal auditor add more value to their organization:
- Intuition and curiosity over pre-established audit programs
- Allocating audit resources to activities that strategically matter over adherence to a traditional audit plan
- Providing actionable insights over the reporting of facts and data
- Collaborating with management over strict auditor independence
These aren’t absolute of course. They emphasize relative importance. When these competing ideas bump up against each other, we simply believe that the choices in green add more value.
You should carefully consider whether this manifesto matches up with your beliefs. If they do, they are a powerful foundation for creating an effective professional brand. And they are integrated throughout the Essential Auditor™.
