Auditor Competence, Ethics, Communication and Team Leadership
The competence model (ISO 19011 clause 7)
Competence = education + work experience + auditor training + audit experience, applied through demonstrable knowledge and skills, plus the personal behaviours that make an audit credible. Generic knowledge covers audit principles and methods, management systems and their interaction, the organisation's context, and applicable legal requirements. EMS-specific competence covers environmental terminology, aspects and impacts, significance evaluation, monitoring and measurement techniques, emergency preparedness, and the sector's typical environmental issues. Sector competence covers the technology and legal regime of the industry being audited.
A lead auditor additionally needs competence in managing an audit and a team, planning, communicating, resolving conflict, representing the team with client and auditee, and reaching defensible conclusions under pressure.
Personal behaviours
Ethical, open-minded, diplomatic, observant, perceptive, versatile, tenacious, decisive, self-reliant, acting with fortitude, open to improvement, culturally sensitive, collaborative. Questions frequently test the tension: tenacity means pursuing the audit trail, not badgering a nervous interviewee.
Ethics and impartiality
No conflict of interest; no auditing your own work; confidentiality of information and of the fact of the audit; no accepting gifts that could influence judgement; honest reporting even when the conclusion is unwelcome to the client. Certification bodies cannot audit organisations to which they have provided management-system consultancy - the usual bar is two years - and internal auditors must not audit their own function.
Team leadership
Select the team to cover the competence gaps identified in the plan; brief the team on scope, criteria and risk; review findings for consistency so two auditors do not grade the same issue differently; manage an auditee who disputes a finding by returning to the evidence and criteria, not by seniority.
Worked example: an auditor assigned to a chemical site has never handled COMAH-type permit requirements. The correct action is to declare the gap and obtain technical competence for the team, not to rely on the auditee to educate the auditor.