Five Personal Investments for Career Success

A commitment to excellence and self-improvement can sow the seeds for success regardless of your profession.

In more than 40 years of internal audit and association management leadership, I have worked with immensely talented individuals from all corners of the globe. The experiences gained during those years taught me many valuable lessons, including how vital it is to constantly invest in my career.

Investing in personal growth, I found, can be grouped into five areas, and I encourage others, irrespective of their profession, to consider these strategic investments in their careers:

1. Pursue Excellence

Don’t settle for being only good. Pursue greatness in everything you do.

Professions across an array of industries are constantly evolving and adapting to the needs of a dynamic business environment focused on emerging risks and economic challenges. In this climate, individuals have an obligation to those who depend on them – management, customers, shareholders and others –not to settle for just being good. The needs and challenges they face demand greatness from professionals who must excel in their profession and deliver value for those they serve.

Throughout my career, I determined that whatever the challenge, whatever the requirements, whatever the goals set before me, I wouldn’t just meet them. I would do whatever it took to exceed them. It’s this mind-set — an unyielding personal mandate — that can propel people to great success.

As the business world evolves, we also must pursue new skills and attributes. Beyond developing technical skills required by the rise and impact of new technologies, we also must nurture a broad range of nontechnical qualities.

For example, in my own profession, surveys have found that the leading attributes sought of internal auditors include analytical and critical thinking, communication skills, data mining and analytics, increasingly in-depth IT knowledge and business acumen.

We’ve learned that the days are long gone when technical skills were the sole focus of many professional job descriptions. Today’s successful professionals demonstrates an understanding of the key issues of relevance to the organization’s they serve, while keeping an eye on the horizon to identify and respond to tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities.

2. Invest in Continuous Learning

Approaching every new experience with an open mind and a passion for learning will expand your effectiveness. Throughout my career, I found ways to continue learning. During the first three years as an internal auditor for the U.S. Army, I completed a variety of training courses to help me perform my job at the highest level. At the same time, I was pursuing my MBA outside of the workplace.

Later, as a Chief Audit Executive, I wanted to attend the Army War College — a course in strategic studies that prepares senior military leaders. I made the case to the leadership of my organization to support my application, and they agreed.

I pursued similar learning opportunities at my subsequent positions as deputy inspector general for the U.S. Postal Service and inspector general of the Tennessee Valley Authority. In the end, I understood the complexities behind how nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail is handled and how electricity is produced. Hardly trivial matters in my pursuit of excellence.

Without a passion for continuous learning, it is less likely to be effective in our work. You should become a sponge for knowledge and, I would strongly suggest, supplement training you might receive on the job with additional training/education funded with you own dollars.

3. Make Your Own Breaks

Why fund your own training? You should look for opportunities to broaden your footprint in your career field, not simply to accomplish the next task. Opportunities often arise from such personal investment. As 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon asserted: “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”

I am a big believer in making your own breaks. Throughout my career, many of the opportunities presented to me came as the result of my own efforts. I didn’t knowingly cause these opportunities to present themselves, but my pursuit of excellence got the attention of the people who offered those opportunities to me.

For example, because I wanted to put my MBA degree to best use, I taught accounting and other business courses at the community college near Fort McPherson in suburban Atlanta, where I was positioned in the internal audit department. I continued to pursue my passion for training by joining the faculty of the Government Audit Training Institute. It was one of those classes that got me noticed by the right people and led to my position with the Postal Service. It so happened that an acquaintance of the Postal Service’s new inspector general was in a class I taught. That acquaintance reached out and told her, “This is somebody you should look at.” The next day, she contacted me, and I went for an interview. I got a job offer soon after.

Similar opportunities came my way because of my efforts to grow and develop in another area of my career. I have always wanted to be involved in associations related to the financial management and internal audit professions. Serving in these associations allows me to partner with others and provide valuable input in service to my profession.

I became active in The Institute of Internal Auditors for several years, including serving on the Government Relations Committee and Standards Board. By 2000, I was chairman of the Standards Board, where I became acquainted with then-IIA President Bill Bishop. He asked me to join the headquarters team as vice president of the Institute’s Learning Center, which included oversight of all the training, education, and certification programs, plus what was then the IIA’s Research Foundation (now The Internal Audit Foundation) and IIA bookstore.

Recognize the potential you possess to create new opportunities beyond the specific job you are hired to do. You can find ways to increase your visibility in the profession by actively providing voluntary service to others.

4. Be Relevant to Those You Serve

During my time as director of Internal Audit for the Army’s FORSCOM command, one of my commanding officers was a general who had a reputation for being difficult. He told me bluntly, “I don’t like auditors.”

My only response was to tell him, “Well, I’ll do what I can, sir, to be as helpful to you as I can. I’m your auditor, and I will help you in any way I can.”

I took his comment as a challenge and worked hard in the following months to figure out how to convince him that I could be of value. I got the opportunity a short time later.

Shortly after his arrival, a group of soldiers at Fort McPherson were quickly deployed for an unexpected military operation. All of their personal belongings had been left in their barracks. Instead of going to the general and asking what I should do, I took the initiative.

“You know, sir,” I said, “all of these soldiers who just left have their personal belongings sitting over in their barracks. What if we did an audit to ensure that all of their personal affairs and belongings are secure?”

His reply: “That’s a good idea.”

From that time on, he began to soften toward the internal audit function. I would have been of no value to him if I just audited the stuff I normally did, the things on those traditional lists. But going to him with a solution for a new risk — something he cared deeply about — really made the relationship connection.

We all – internal auditors and others – should continually look for ways to increase our value to our leaders. We should challenge ourselves to find creative ways to gain the leaders’ support, especially those we might believe do not really value our work. Become the team member they just can’t get along without.

5. Develop Courage in the Face of Adversity

Rising above the fear of failure can be the greatest motivator for success. We have all heard the story of the incredible fortitude and tenacity of Cynthia Cooper and her audit team in the face of the enormous adversity they confronted to expose the fraud at WorldCom. Most of us may never come up against adversity of that magnitude, but most will encounter challenges that demand inner strength and tenacity. There may be times when an engagement turns contentious. There may be times when a risk may be devastating. Determine now to stand courageously in the face of such obstacles and pressures and offer strategies to resolve the issues.

There have been several times during my career when I needed that kind of courage. One stands out above the others. When I was serving as director of Internal Review for the Army at the Pentagon, I encountered what I later came to view as “the audit wars.” The auditor general for the Army wanted to expand the scope of his operations to directly oversee internal review. But I shared the view of other Army leaders that allowing internal review offices around the world to report directly to commanders, the equivalent of their CEOs, made for a stronger model.

Although it was a stressful time for me, I proposed a period during which his audit team and those that I oversaw would run identical tests to determine what success each team could achieve. At the end of the agreed-upon test period, the supremacy of the existing model was readily obvious. Had those on our side of the debate not been courageous enough to stand for a test to prove the efficiency and skill of our team, it’s likely that the Army would have eliminated a valuable resource used by military leaders around the world.

The Road to Success

Don’t hesitate to invest in your career to ensure you remain relevant and valuable to your organization. Greatness will be defined by the skill set and technical sophistication you possess to adapt to the needs and expectations of your stakeholders. While fundamental principles and standards will always serve as a foundation for your career, it is passion for remaining focused on the needs of stakeholders that will lead the way to success.