Our company is about to enter a rigorous Quality of Earnings audit, and I am worried my leadership team will buckle under the intense data requests while trying to run the day-to-day business. How do we use conative profiles to delegate these transaction tasks without causing operational burnout?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A Quality of Earnings audit is an incredibly stressful period that can easily distract your leadership team from their core responsibilities, causing performance to slip just when you need it to remain stable. To survive this pressure, you must delegate audit tasks based on the hardwired conative drives of your team members rather than their job titles.

Conation is the innate, natural way people solve problems and take action. By understanding your team's conative profiles, you can assign transaction roles that match their natural strengths. For example, a team member with a strong Fact Finder instinct is naturally built to handle the intense, detail-oriented requests of forensic accountants. They will thrive in compiling historical ledger data and explaining complex accounting adjustments. On the other hand, someone with a high Follow Thru drive is perfect for organizing the due diligence data room and managing the project timeline. Keep your team members who have high Quick Start or Implementor drives focused on running the daily operations and hitting their quarterly Rocks. This division of labor prevents your leadership team from burning out, keeps your weekly Scorecard metrics healthy, and ensures the transaction process moves forward smoothly.