The Auditor's Mindset: Self-Talk and Auditing Performance

June 4, 2018

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. —John Milton

In the 1950s, the concept of more effective living was a topic widely written about. This viewpoint, called positive thinking, was introduced by the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, who published several books on the subject, most notably The Power of Positive Thinking.² In support of his ideas, Peale subsequently reported numerous cases where people overcame challenges and obstacles with the aid of positive thinking.³ Peale’s work, however, was never subjected to what authorities in the fields of psychology and human behavior would describe as scientific research. Until recently, most academics in these areas would likely have considered Peale’s work with some amusement. Nevertheless, as a result of the work, Peale gained widespread public notoriety and attention, in which few authors ever receive. More recently, evidence supporting the many benefits of positive thinking is accumulating.⁴

At this moment, if you are not doing well on the job, or in your personal life, then it might be related to what you are saying to yourself.

The idea of positive thinking is useful to improve our psychological worlds. Through research, several different elements offer the potential to help explain how thinking can have an impact on one’s behavior and auditing performance. The focus of this article is on the element of selfdialogue or self-talk.

SELF-TALK

Puff, puff, chug, chug, went the Little Blue Engine. “I think I can—I think I can—I think I can—I think I can. …”

Up, up, up. Faster and faster the little engine climbed, until at last they reached the topof the mountain.

And the Little Blue Engine smiled and seemed to say as she puffed steadily down the
mountain. “I thought I could. I thought I could. I thought I could. …”⁵

As children, many people heard the words spoken by the Little Blue Engine: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” These same words can benefit internal auditors. The well-known phrase uttered by the Little Blue Engine is an example of a mental strategy known as self-talk.⁶ The way the Little Blue Engine talks to herself clearly affects her performance (getting over the mountain). In the same way, the mental technique of self-talk (what you say to yourself) can help you perform better on auditing tasks you are responsible for completing. At this
moment, if you are not doing well on the job, or in your personal life, then it might be related to what you are saying to yourself.

For example, consider whether you ever told yourself any of the following:

It is going to be another one of those days!
I will never be as good as the others.
I do not have the talent.
If only I were a little smarter, then I could be the best auditor in the department.
Auditing is boring.
No one likes auditors.
The other auditors on my team do not like me.
If only I had more time, money, or were taller or younger.
I cannot seem to get organized.
Nothing ever seems to go right for me.

If you are like most people, you told yourself similar negative things in the past. These statements are “sappers”—types of negative self-talk that sap your energy, your self-confidence, and your happiness. Sappers are destructive self-talk, as they prevent you from achieving goals and feeling good about yourself. They are self-fulfilling prophecies because what you tell yourself every day usually ends up coming true. If you tell yourself that you will not have a good day, enjoy your job, or lose weight, then you will not; it is that simple.

The story of the Little Blue Engine’s sister reveals the impact of sapper self-talk on performance:

Puff, puff, chug, chug, went the Little Blue Engine’s twin sister. “I can’t do this—I can’t do this— The mountain is too big—I’m tired—I’m hungry— I’m irritable. This is impossible—I can’t do this.”

Up, up, up. Slower, slower the little engine climbed until it just conked out.

The Little Blue Engine’s twin sister just frowned, and all depressed … she fell down the mountain. “I knew I couldn’t do it—I knew I couldn’t do it—I knew I couldn’t do it.”⁷

These stories represent the utilization of two different styles of self-talk—with two different outcomes. The Little Engine That Could uses positive self-talk to make it over the mountain, and the children receive their toys. Her twin sister does not make it over the mountain because her negative self-talk saps her energy and attitude.

These two stories reveal the power that our self-talk has on our success and happiness. As leading
psychologist Pamela E. Butler writes:

We all talk to ourselves. What we say determines the direction and quality of our lives. Our self-talk can make the difference between happiness and despair, between self-confidence and self-doubt.
Altering your self-talk may be the most important undertaking you will ever begin.⁸

The life of Olympic decathlon gold medal winner Dan O’Brien is a real-world example of Butler’s words. In 1992, O’Brien failed to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, despite being a favorite to win the gold medal. In the 1996 Olympic Games, he returned to win the gold medal. What was the difference for O’Brien between the 1992 Olympic trials and the 1996 Olympic Games? Why did he fail in 1992 and then crush the field in the decathlon events in 1996? Quite simply, O’Brien altered his self-talk. As O’Brien explained:

Now I know what to do when I feel panic, when I’m nervous and get sick to my stomach … Instead of telling myself I’m tired and worn out, I say things like, “My body is preparing for battle. This is how I’m supposed to feel.”⁹

For O’Brien, changing his self-talk pushed him to Olympic glory. In the same way, changing your selftalk can enhance your life at work, school, home—everywhere. As Steve Jobs once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”¹⁰

Now you might be asking: How do I change my self-talk so that I can get over my own personal mountain to achieve my goals and dreams? Consider the following auditing-related example. A selfstatement such as “Hey, you messed up during the interview with the auditees because you did not reduce their fear of you as an auditor,” could be replaced with more positively. “I'm going to succeed; the next time I interact with these auditees, I will attempt to reduce their fear of me as an auditor by educating them on the purpose of the audit function. Once they realize that my purpose is to help, not take away their jobs, then my interview should proceed more effectively.” Constant utilization of constructive self-talk should become internalized so that the internal auditor learns to use it in their mind to improve performance.

The following exercise will help change your sapper self-talk to self-talk geared toward achieving maximum auditing performance. After answering the questions, take a close look at your responses. Do your self-talk examples contain a lot of destructive sappers, or is your self-talk supportive and motivating? If the former is true, that should be a signal that what you are telling yourself is causing many of the negative events and emotions you are experiencing. In other words, you are the person responsible for sapping yourself. The good news is that you now know you are talking to yourself in a negative way, so you can change your self-talk.

DISCOVERING YOUR NEGATIVE SELF-TALK EXERCISE

To help discover if you engage in negative self-talk during the course of a day, respond to the following questions, each of which will require a significant amount of thought. Fully relive these situations so that your answers are as accurate as possible.

1. List a project or activity that you began or considered beginning. What did you tell yourself as you started or failed to start it?
2. Think of a time when you were feeling lonely. What were you telling yourself at this time?
3. Think of a day when you were feeling stressed and overwhelmed at work. What were you telling yourself during this chaotic time?
4. Think of a recent criticism you received from a coworker, boss, or teacher. What were you telling yourself at this time and after the criticism?
5. Think of a recent compliment that you received from a coworker, boss, or client. What were you saying to yourself at this time and after the compliment?
6. Think of a day when you were feeling negative about yourself. What were you saying to yourself at this time?
7. Think of a day when you were experiencing symptoms of illness, such as a headache or achy bones. What were you telling yourself during the time when you were experiencing these symptoms?

After you answer the questions above, write down some of the instances of negative self-talk you listed above, and opposite each write a positive self-talk alternative. Some examples of this approach are provided below:

Negative self-talk	Positive self-talk
I hate working within a team.	1. Although this is a new experience for me, I know that if I make a good effort toward cooperating, we will make a much better product than if we were working by ourselves, and it will be fun getting to know each other.
I will never lose this extra weight.	2. I will lose this weight. It will take a lot of determination and willpower. I will achieve my goal of losing one pound per week.
I will never be able to earn a good grade on one of these exams.	3. Someone once said, "If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.” I need to find out what I am doing wrong and correct my study mistakes and how I take tests. With effort and persistence, I will get an A on the next exam.
I am nervous about this audit interview with this new client. I will probably make him nervous and he will not provide the important information that I need.	4. I am prepared for this interview. I have done my homework. I have done plenty of interviews across a variety of settings. I got this one!
S/he will never go out with me. S/he is out of my league. Why should I even bother asking her/him on a date?	5. Seize the day! If I do not ask her/him out, how will I ever know if s/he would go out with me? Once s/he gets to know me, s/he will love me!

After you completed the exercise, examine what you wrote in the negative self-talk and positive self-talk columns. Do you see a pattern? Do you see that your self-talk is demotivating and negative, and that it saps energy, happiness, and self-confidence? Conversely, do you notice that your positive self-talk is motivating and supportive? Give yourself an advantage in all aspects of your life by making your self-talk positive in the future. Now that you are aware that your self-talk might be negative and practiced changing it to be positive, you are well on your way.

Finally, you should create situations so that positive self-talk becomes a habit. Try to be aware of what you are telling yourself over the next several weeks. From the moment you get up in the morning, throughout your workday, and until the moment you go to sleep, remind yourself to engage in positive self-talk. Repeat the exercise above daily until you start to notice that you have difficulty identifying any negative self-talk and chased all the sappers away. The benefit? Improved performance not only in your auditing world but also in your overall life.

NOTES

1This article is adapted from the author’s book: Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence (Sage, 2017) coauthored with Charles Manz and Jeff Houghton.

2 Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (New York: Spire Books, 1956).

3 Norman Vincent Peale, The Amazing Results of Positive Thinking (New York: Fawcett Crest Books, 1959).

4 See, for example, Güler Boyraz and Owen Richard Lightsey Jr., “Can Positive Thinking Help? Positive
Automatic Thoughts as Moderators of the Stress–Meaning Relationship,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 82, no. 2 (April 2012): 267–77; Martin E. P. Seligman, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life (New York: Free Press, 1998); Abir K. Bekhet and Jaclene A. Zauszniewski, “Measuring Use of Positive Thinking Skills: Psychometric Testing of a New Scale,” Western Journal of Nursing Research 35, no. 8 (September 2013): 1074–93.

5 Watty Piper, The Little Engine That Could (New York: Platt & Munk, 1930).

6 See, for example, Steve Andreas, More Transforming Negative Self-Talk: Practical, Effective Exercises (New York: W. W. Norton, 2014); Thomas M. Brinthaupt and Christian T. Dove, “Differences in Self-Talk Frequency as a Function of Age, Only- Child, and Imaginary Childhood Companion Status,” Journal of Research in Personality 46, no. 3 (June 2012): 326–33; Małgorzata M. Puchalska-Wasyl, “Self-Talk: Conversation with Oneself? On the Types of Internal Interlocutors,” Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied 149, no. 5 (July 2015): 443–60.

7 Christopher P. Neck, Heidi M. Neck, and Charles C. Manz, “Thought Self-Leadership: Mind Management for Entrepreneurs,” Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship 2, no. 1 (1997): 25–36.

8 Pamela E. Butler, Talking to Yourself: Learning the Language of Self-Support (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981).

9 Quoted in Carolyn White, “Sharpening Mental Skills,” USA Today, August 8, 1996, C3.

10 Quoted in Steve Tobak, “Steve Jobs’s Inspirational Words,” CBS News, October 6, 2011, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ steve-jobss-inspirational-words.

About the Author

Dr. Christopher P. Neck

Dr. Christopher P. Neck is currently an associate professor of management at Arizona State
University, where he held the title “University Master Teacher.” He received his Ph.D. in management from Arizona State University and his M.B.A. from Louisiana State University. Neck is author and/or co-author of a plethora of books including "Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence" (2017, Sage Publishers). Dr. Neck’s research specialties include employee/ executive fitness, self-leadership,
leadership, group decision-making processes, and self-managing teams. He has over 100 publications in the form of books, chapters, and articles in various journals.

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The Auditor's Mindset: Self-Talk and Auditing Performance