There was a young female consultant, let’s call her Courage, who was supporting her client during a recent certification audit. Courage the Consultant has a fantastic relationship with her client, and together they had invested not only a lot of time but also passion into building the Integrated Management System.

In July 2019 I received a phone call from a young woman, Kristen who had completed her Lead Auditor Integrated Management Systems training with a competitor through classroom training. She told me that she had come away with some knowledge after the training however she now felt that she was on her own when it came to Implementing what she had learnt. There was no ongoing support or network for her to ask questions on her continuing journey.

From 1998 to 2008 I worked for a software development company. I had a mix of roles, from support, training and finally quality manager. When I came on as the quality manager, I had the benefit of working within the business as an employee in different roles and despite the cutting-edge product that we offered our clients I knew that behind the scenes there was a significant challenge that needed to be overcome; a siloed work culture that hindered collaboration and hindered their progress.

In 2015 I was working with a client called Bruce. He owned a business that supplied industrial equipment to the mining sector. Bruce was being pressured by his customers to be certified to ISO 9001, and he was doing it under duress. But what he didn’t know was that this certification would change his entire outlook on quality management systems.

By having the guidance of an expert in the industry, you are not left guessing where to start and what the next step is. You might find that you actually start rather than procrastinating.

We’ve all been there. Our first time with a client as an auditor or a consultant. We worry that we might not ask the right questions, or you’ll get found out that you’re a phony and don’t know what you are doing!

Let me share something with you – we all go through this. It is normal. We are human. I know that people think that Auditors are robots, but we are not! So, it’s ok to show our human side too.