Ep 6: The Dynamic Women of IIA Albania Changing the Audit Game

Welcome to Inspiring Women in Audit, the only podcast celebrating the achievements and journeys of women in the internal audit industry. In each episode, we spotlight the extraordinary stories, insights and expertise of these dynamic professionals. Our aim is to amplify their voices, inspiring a new generation of women auditors to share their knowledge, experiences, and unique perspectives. Remember to check our show notes for links to our social media channels and to subscribe to the Inspiring Women in Audit newsletter. This podcast is brought to you by i4 Global Results Limited the audit communication experts dedicated to transforming your audit reporting and your audit results through communication, optimization and collaboration. Now let's dive in to this episode of Inspiring Women in Audit.

Welcome to Inspiring Women in Audit, a podcast that is dedicated to empowering and uplifting women in the internal audit industry. By amplifying their voices, we aim to encourage women in the audit profession to share their knowledge, their experiences, and their unique perspectives. I'm your host, Tracy Marquardt, and I'm super excited today because I don't just have one guest. I have four guests, and I call them the ladies of the board of the IIA Albania. And we have Dorita Stambola, who is a chief audit executive. We have Idiola Bichaku, who is also head of internal audit. We have Silvano Zoto, Group Head of Audit. And Adela Prendi, who is an IT auditor. Welcome, ladies. I'm so happy to have you here.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Tracy, for inviting us.

It's going to. It's going to be such a great conversation. I know. And I just want to note for everybody listening and watching to us that you are all located in Tirana, Albania, and you're all in the banking sector. So I'm interested to see how that plays out in our discussions, is how you all end up in the banking sector in. In. In Albania. All right, well, listen, I want to just quickly go around the group and ask you, invite you to introduce yourselves, and I'm just going to go in the order that I see and I see Silvana first on my screen.

Okay, so let me thank you, Tracey, for this opportunity to share my insights and my experience in internal audit with other professionals. My journey in this profession started approximately 21 years ago when I was offered this opportunity to join internal audit team in the banking sector. I remember that I was very young and I didn't know a clue about what internal audit profession looks like. And I was asking my colleagues, what am I supposed to do? But slowly I understood that it was a great profession. Certainly it was not a highway There were a lot of bumps, ups, downs, insecurities, crossroads, surprises, not always good surprises, fights, we can call it like this, challenges. But I can say that for sure, I loved every day spent in this way as it was fully backed with patience and dedication. So, to cut the story short, my audit experience has grown up in the fields of financial sector banking and non bank institutions in Albania and abroad. Currently, for the last three years, I'm leading a team of internal auditors operating in seven different countries in Europe and Africa. Practically, I'm living the dream.

Because.

Because I never thought before this might be possible or for real. And also as mentioned before, passion for this profession drives me to volunteer in the IIA Albania for the last seven years as a board member. That's why we get connected to each other. And I feel that it's a mission for me to serve this professional community and to help others in the same way that I was helped by my mentors and teachers. Thank you.

Wow.

Thank you so much, Silvana. Adela, that's a hard act to follow. Tell us just a little bit about your background.

I feel intimidated now.

Just kidding.

So, Tracy, first of all again, thank you for inviting us. It's honor and I'd like to highlight the way you put it that you wanted to share with the world and your audience the energy and dedication and the passion you found here in Albania. So a big thank you for that. So I am Adela. I've been engaged in internal audit community for six years now as the coordinator of IIA Albania along with the ladies here. And I've been exercising this profession for two years until now as an IT auditor. And I plan to do it for many more years to come. So I'm here to share my journey, representing my generation in internal audit and provide its perspective as well.

Super, thank you. That's fantastic. Tarita.

Hello again, Desi. And also from my side, thank you very much for inviting us. When you have been in Albania. For us, there's been a great honor that you came here and it was really opportunity to talk with you and to know you in person. And I'm really glad of that. And thank you for this invitation tonight. And regarding myself, yes, I have also started after I finished the university. In fact, since I have been students, I started to the bank and I started American bank in Albania. Market here in Albania has been. I have started 23 years ago. Market has been very vulnerable. A new one in Albania since we passed from the communism time to democracy time. So banking system just started here. And I'M really glad that started to the same period that I also started from the students to work in the banking industry. So it looks to me that of course with. With other people that has been much more professional than me. We started this banking industry and to build from the scratch things here in Albania. The products and everything. So I started as a customer service a student time for six months to American bank of Albania. Then I've been transferred to a department from one department to the other. Then I finalized my internship program to the finance control department. And that was the area on the time that I really liked. And I did it for three years after that was open a new bank in Albania. That was with a new standard. Was a European bank. It was Raiffeisen Bank Albania just came had offices in Vienna. They all came to open the business here in Albania. And it was a very really good opportunity for us to work to a kind of company that will bring some new standards in the market. And were leader in that moment. And in fact, maybe they are still in the market. And yeah, it was opportunity to learn a lot. Then I was introduced with the internal audit. So I get an offer from this bank to come. And I had a meeting with the CEO of the bank of the time and went to be. I didn't knew in fact still yet how to and what to choose. It was a little bit difficult for me. But I remember he did me only one question. So what do you like to do? And I told that I want to learn as much as I can. So I want to learn and to expand my knowledge and everything about this kind of business. And he said, okay, for you is much more better the internal audits, he said, because it is a helicopter view. You can learn everything and you can start everything. And in fact, suddenly, I don't know. I started as a kind of management position. And then for two years newer two years after I was promoted as chief audit executive. And now for 17 years I'm working to this position in internal audits. During my career. As Silvana said, we have a lot of ups and downs. Since also as an industry, as the banking, but also is internally loaded. Also introducing these standards in the market. Because it is poor, let's say market at the beginning, but now has a lot of changes. You can see them 20 years later. You can see a lot of changes. How you feel proud that you have been part of this journey and part of this development in the country. And I'm really very proud to have been since in the scratch and in the starting to this business in Albania. And five years ago I was introduced with the Institute of Internal Audits. And I'm really glad to be part of this woman community, but also the auditors in the country. And I'm really enjoying a lot this platform of internal audit institutes and worldwide communication that we have to the Global Institute, but also European Institute and also other network institutes. So it is really a lot of opportunity and you can expand your knowledge and everything. So I'm really glad and proud to be part of this institute and also hearing this call. Thanks very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Dorita and Ediola.

Yeah, hello. Well, Tracy, so nice to see you. Even virtually when we had the opportunity to meet and finally get to introduce ourselves in our sweet Tirana, it was just, just a fling of an idea of having to do this. But you are a doer and thank you for that. It's nice, nice to see each other here now since we are telling the stories. Once upon a time I had just finished my studies on international relations diplomacy, and for sure it was not in my mind to do a career in internal audit. But then the opportunity came in and a bank here in Albania invited me to, to join them as a junior internal auditor. It was a chance for sure to, to become an internal auditor. But it, it's not by chance that I'm still here because it came out to be a professional and personal journey of enrichment. And since more than 15 years now that I am with the industry, with internal audit industry, I feel nothing but open space to be filled with new knowledge and new experiences. And this is something that maybe not all professions can do. Even in the banking industry, where you also said that we, we come. It's not easy and it's not common and it's not for granted that after more than 15 years, you still have open spaces to fill with knowledge, with information and experiences. Internal audits can do that. So I am glad that I still have things to do and I still have things to experience and to learn.

Wow, thank you. That's fantastic. Because when I, you know, sitting back, reflecting on all of these things, I think, wow, if I'm, if I was listening to you and I didn't know anything about internal audit, I would actually want to try internal auditing because it sounds that good, right? And I'll tell you, with the four of you, it's that fun. So let me tell them, Let me tell our listeners a little bit about how we all met. And it started out with LinkedIn, right? That's how I met Sylvana So, Sylvana, you were involved with gamified training and you were a participant in several gamified training audit championships in the last few years. I know you had a team and you made a video and it was just a fun video and the team really, really enjoyed it. And so I asked if I could just interview you to find out what you loved about it. And that's how we met. I think that's amazing.

Yeah. Actually, as you are saying, it all started with the games. Perhaps I am a fan of games. It's something that stuck with me since childhood. Perhaps I'm not exhausted yet with this part. So, once upon a time, I was attending one of the webinars that you were hosting together with Dominic to introduce Audit Championship in North America. And I was surprised when I heard my name stated by Dominic as one of the witnesses of European Audit Championship that took place one year before. And you, Tracy, invited me suddenly to share something few words about our experience, our gaming experience in our country. So I joined, I jumped into the call and I shared few insights of our experience. And also it was a nice learning experience, it was a nice networking and connecting experience. But let's say at the top of it, it was a fun experience because as you mentioned, our video, it was a lovely video. It was done with a lot of patience and with a lot of. It was coming in the middle of COVID time when for us it was very, very, let's say, special icon experience. So that's the way how we get connected. And afterwards, with a blessing from our boards IIA Albania boards, I had the pleasure to invite you in providing some trainings for our professional community in Albania, because you are one of the outstanding trainers in this field, international arena. So it was obvious that, okay, we thought it's a good opportunity for us. And guess what? You accepted. You were willing to support and to help us to share your knowledge and wisdom with our colleagues, which we appreciated a lot. As we mentioned, training was done in May and it was a real success. So thank you for sharing with us your piece of knowledge.

Absolutely. My pleasure. And it was such a positive experience. And you know, a lot of credit goes to Adela for coordinating all of that. And I think we had, what, 35. Do we have 35 in the room? I can't. I can't remember, but it was a lot, but it was a really good time. And that's when I met Dorita and Idiola as well and got to meet you, Silvana in person and Adela in person. And I just thought, what a group of firecracker, energetic women. And this is why I thought we've got to have them on the podcast. Even though the podcast was really new at that stage, I just thought this is just the energy that you all bring to your interactions and the camaraderie that you have, I think is. I just haven't seen it at this level. And so I wanted to share that with everyone who's listening to the podcast. So no pressure, ladies, but I'm looking forward to how this rolls out as we go along, because I really would love everyone just to see what you bring. It's. And the passion and commitment with which you serve the internal audit community in Albania, I think is also amazing. So I had to have you on the podcast, and I'm so glad you could be here. And, and thank you. So let me. Let me see now. So we've kind of talked about how you got into internal audit, what you. What you really love about it. So let me come to then, the IIA Albania, because I normally don't. Number one, I normally don't have four guests on, and normally they're not all from an IIA around the world, but there's. I thought there's some reason that you all are on that board and that you bring so much passion and commitment to it. So what is the mission of the IA Albania and how do you all fit into that?

Well, Tracy, the vision of IIA Albania is pretty simple in a way that it resonates with each member and each individual being part of the internal audit community in here. So its mission is to be the national voice of the internal audit profession by advocating its value, the value of internal audit, by promoting the best practices in this field, and by providing its members with exceptional services. In this case, I would like to add also the ladies here to jump in and provide maybe some more background on our best practices and our services, offering trainings and conferences and what we try to do here for our members.

If I may add only one statement here, our motto since the beginning, at least for the part that I am volunteering, has been sharing is caring. So what we are trying to do is we are sharing and get connected with everyone as much as we can to all kinds of platforms. As Adelia mentioned, it might be conference, forums, meetings, a beer, a game, any kind of discussion. We use it as an opportunity to get connected and to help each other, to support each other. Because for the first time we met each other, let's say in 2011, it was 13 years ago. It is a very small country, it is a very small community. But it happened that we didn't know each other. We just know our names, but we didn't met each other in person. And since then we discovered this kind of strength and we discovered the good, like the win, win strategy of being connected and sharing a lot of things. So that's one thing.

And I feel, I feel like, you know, you really like each other. You know, like it's. It's not just that you're internal audit, it's not just that you're on the board of the IIA Albania is that you actually really like each other and you enjoy spending time together. And I. And I feel like it's my feeling and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that it helps you be creative and it helps you bring, be able to share those things with your membership.

And we share the same patient not only with women in board.

Absolutely, absolutely. Because absolutely.

It's a very, very kind, very fun atmosphere when you cooperate with your peers. And we get a lot, but a lot from these experiences.

You now trace it. The famous formula of synergy. One plus one equals three. And definitely our mantra. It's so natural. But definitely us coming together has helped us to achieve much more that we would have done individually. And that's a thing that we have experienced in real life.

I mean, that's fantastic. And I think you're right. One plus one is three. So with the four of you, I can't even calculate the number.

Right.

So. And you mentioned, Sylvana, that it's not just women, it's men as well. Can you talk to us a little bit about like the, the breakout, the breakdown of the membership and because we're seeing a lot more women enter the internal audit profession, whereas 20 years ago it was perhaps more male dominated. So what does that look like for you in Albania?

I could just talk about. We've been in audit in Albania very briefly and then for sure we can continue to expand. Any idea that we want to expand in terms of membership, as you were rightfully asking, Tracy, in Albania, at least in the Institute of Internal Auditors in Albania, more than 70% are women internal auditors. And that's a ratio that we see also in the higher leadership positions. Women in Albania have always been part of the internal audit industry. And it's a fact that in several professional platforms we see the majority being women.

I think that's fantastic. I love the number more than 70%. I'm not sure every country could Say that.

Yeah, yeah, you can add a little bit that maybe it starts since the university here, that all the auditors are coming, majority from the economy and from finance universities. And here in Albania, you can see that also the students in such universities, the majority are girls or women. So it starts maybe since the university and much more men in the IT, technology, engineering, etc.

And certainly there have been a lot of changes in Albania, as you said, in the last 20 years, where, you know, it's not just the work is shifting. The way work is performed is shifting. Who's doing the work is shifting. So there's been a huge growth and a huge change there in terms of what's happening in particular in Albania.

Right when I started, since we are doing the storytelling and we are trying to. To even give an example and maybe inspire people or women in Internal Audit. One of the advantages that I had when I joined the company back 15 years ago was that I was already famous.

Why?

Because I had just joined a team of 30 people, out of which 28 were men. So I was the second lady, the second girl joining this team. And the team was called the Department of Black Suits, All Dressed in black. And that was the good part. So everyone knew me, everyone knew that I was the new girl in Internal Audit. But it was not easy because I didn't fit the profile. I didn't fit that stereotype. I didn't wear black all the time. And for sure, I did wear the smile all the time. And that was not even something that was really accepted. So, yes, a lot has changed and we are experiencing that. We have experienced that. We are so glad that we are where we are now.

Really.

Well, I think your community is just very lucky to have, specifically, I can only speak for these four women or to these four women. The community is very lucky to have you on the board of the iia, because what I see you doing and creating is exponential. The one plus one is three. It's exponential. And what you're bringing to that, and I think being able. Being able to. To do that and to communicate well and to build those relationships, because we, you know, we know relationships make the audit world go round. Right. Without those relationships, it's very hard to. To get the results that we're looking for. All right, super. So, listen, I want to ask you, maybe, Sylvana, I'll direct this one at you. Is there a piece of wisdom that you have learned in your career that you could share with everyone that might help them in their journey?

Yes, indeed it is. And it's not one, there are three. First of them, it is related to one of the lessons that I learned partly during exercising this profession, but also it was one of the lessons given from my father. It will stay strong on your own feet, because this is something that you will have it forever. And let your heart and good intentions be your guide. Because everything else, it's a temporary thing. So if you are following things with your heart and with a good purpose, for sure you will succeed. The second one is accept challenges as they come. As I mentioned a bit before, it was not a highway, this journey of 20 something years. But not always I was able to enjoy it. But I want to share with my colleagues, with my peers, that please try to enjoy as much as you can the whole journey, even though it might be part sometimes it's a lesson that you can learn and you can see the beautiful side, the opportunity to improve yourself from this, let's call it bad exercise. So definitely it's worth to enjoy every minute of. Of this kind of work in in profession as it is the light, because the light also it's not. It's not beautiful. Every day we have our good moments and our bad moments, but in the end of the day it's something that we really appreciate as it is. And the third one is related to what you say. Communicate, communicate, communicate. I would like to emphasize it because this is something that I really learned on the way of doing this profession. So communicate with the good intention to listen and to help others. Because this is a good strategy not only for the profession, but you can apply family, your kids, friends, peers, colleagues, with everyone. It helps you to align your thinking. It helps you to build relationship, because without relationship you are lost. To build a relationship not only physically, but also in a virtual law. Because as I mentioned to you, I'm working for a group of companies located to seven different countries. And if you are not connected with the people that are living and working miles away, it's hard to do the job. And only through communication you can solve even the most, let's say difficult problems, the hardest one that makes it impossible. So that's more a piece of, let's say, wisdom that I want to share that I learned. Not always easy, but it's worth to share.

I love that. Well, you know, I'm going to work backwards for them. You know, I love communication because that's what I do each and every day is teach communication skills with internal auditors to help them get better results than ever before. To build those relationships, to get Those great audit reports out into the world. But I love the. The second one of accepting challenges. This is something that I try to motivate people with on my. Some of my LinkedIn posts, because I think growth is at the end of our comfort zones. So even I don't even know, you know, if you were all comfortable coming on the call and you're like, oh, gosh, I haven't been on a podcast before. What's going to happen? How am I going to feel? Am I going to be nervous? But you just put. You all just put yourself out there and said, I'm going to. I'm going to speak and have my voice heard. And I think by doing that, we raise everyone right. And. And again, I mean, you guys are just so fabulous together that, that I wanted to. Wanted the world to meet you. And then you said, let your heart be your guide. I love that. It sounds to me I'm gonna, you know, lead from that. It sounds to me like, be. Be your authentic self. And don't just think with your head, think with your heart, too. And I know some auditors struggle sometimes with, well, we have to be objective and, you know, so therefore, we can't bring emotions into it. And I. I think that we can't not bring emotions into it because we're human beings and that those emotions are okay. We need to have enough emotional intelligence to understand what to do with those emotions that we feel and then how we interact with our business partners, our audit clients, and our colleagues. I don't know. Dori, what do you think?

I'd like to start with the challenge. Yeah, it's true. I also have shared the same opinion. We should challenge ourselves every day, otherwise we cannot grow. And I like the challenge. I like this racing. And I can tell that we should not have a challenge with nobody but ourselves. So we should be a better person of ourselves every day. In my opinion, there is a space and room for everybody to shine in this world. So we have not to compete with each other, especially women, but we have to support each other. And I like to grow the people also in the leadership role. I like to empower the people to grow with them. And a better team, you have a better work. You do. So I like to have, as much as I can, empowerment of the people and most professionals that I can have. So I always say to my colleagues that somehow in the leadership role, we manage people much more other than work. So we should be focused on specific human needs of the people. And if the people comes as happy at Work I think in my opinion also the work can be done better. And also I always mention to my team that we spend majority of the time we spend in the office eight hours. Then we go three, four hours at home and then sleep and then the next day again to the work. So it looks like we are staying with each other much more than at home. So this time that we are spending here, it should be the best time and we can give the best for ourselves. And yeah, in my opinion, we should be a better person of every day and we should compete ourselves and this is with our empowerment. That my personal goal is to be rich. And by being rich, I mean should be more healthy in my mind and body, professional side and also to the growth to be every day to be a better person. So this is the wellness, let's say of is my passionate to be, to live a good life and to have a life balance that I'm really investing at least a lot. What I read, what I listen, what movies do I see, how do I sleep well, what I eat, how I exercise. And these are the things that if I do this better, I think that also I'm performing better at work and also in our relationship that we have with each other. So, so I try to hang out with people since I've been five years old. Five years old. So I give a lot of attention to the energy, the good energy of the people that I'm surrounded with. So this is the challenge for me every day. We should be challenged and to grow ourself and to be a better version of ourself.

I love that and I also love that concept of being rich. And it doesn't, rich doesn't have have to mean money. Money.

Of course, yeah.

Your rich comes from your, your attitude and your mindset and the people you surround yourself with and what you offer them and then what you receive as well. So I, I, I do love that and it makes me think though a little bit about this whole work life balance thing. So you're all busy internal auditors. I've never met an internal auditor who had nothing to do with. Right. Everyone always has a lot to do. There's maybe some pressure to get everything done in a certain time frame, certain deadlines. And I know some of you have families and as you said, you know you have to go home and then you have three or four hours at home and then you get to sleep and then you go back to work again. So how do you and you all are active on in the iaa Albania. So how do you, how do you manage it all? I don't know, Adela, how do you manage to have, you know, to thrive and have a very amazing work life balance or do you with all of these things?

Well, of course balancing is not easy. It's a process and it takes a lot of hard work to know your own limits. So in my case, I would say that the key is prioritizing. By that I mean first prior prioritizing your own well being. I know it becomes even harder when we try to excel in every field like work, try to excel in families and in social gatherings, and sometimes the pressure becomes too high. But I think that at first you have to be in a good shape in order to manage all of this. It's you who got to be in a good shape. And you can do it if your mind is not clear and you feel like you're a lot of, of under a lot of pressure. So in my case, I usually take a step back, do one of my favorite activities, which might involve hiking or gardening, cooking and which fulfills me and put my mind at ease. So I come back even more with more energy and a clear mind or more refreshed. So what? It works for me.

Yeah, but I, I know because when I was there, you did a lot of walking.

Yeah, yeah, a lot of walking.

And I, I kept like, why don't you take a taxi or, or public transportation? She's like, no, no, no, I'll walk. And it was, I think at least a 30 minute walk.

Yeah, it's like a meditation process. By the time you walk, you can also analyze and try to think what to do next or what you just did.

You can be processing the day or you can be processing a problem. It's all going on in the back of your head. You might not even be focusing on it, but that opportunity to walk home or to walk to the office, it just lets all of that kind of. Maybe you can even start work early because you're walking and thinking about, you know, the things that, that you have to do for work. But I was very impressed. And it was hot. Was it not hot when I was.

Even hotter on the next days? You were lucky.

I found it quite, quite warm. What's the temperature now?

30 something degrees? 32 maybe. This is not hot. This is not hot.

Cool down.

But the summer season movies started starts here in March, maybe in April and ends in October, maybe even sometimes in November. So regarding to the weather. We are lucky in this country.

Well, I know when I was there, so I did the audit report writing workshop for two days and, and I did some walking around, but I found it quite warm. I did not get to the south of the country and this is why I would love to come back because I want to see more of the country and spend more time there. I know we're digressing from the whole internal audit topic, but it was very, very beautiful and, and Toronto was fun to, to explore.

Tracy, you are, you are asking us what's the secret? You are all so energetic and everything. Imagine having more than 250 days of sun per, per year. The energy is there. So yeah, we have that. It's not, it's not ours. It's. It's the patrimony of the country and.

It is combined with Mediterranean hot bread blooded people that we are. We have to accept it. It's something.

That's where the firecracker energy comes from.

We are the product of. Yeah. Of the environment.

That's the root cause of our patient.

And that's fantastic. That's fantastic. All right, listen, I got, I wanted to ask you because I always ask all my guests if you wanted to give or if you could give some advice to young women out there. Maybe they're at university or maybe they're new in business and they're considering internal audit or they want to, they're already in internal audit and they want to rise to where. Because we have three heads of audit here. I mean this is, this is incredible. Right? So what would you, what advice would you give? Who wants to start?

I can start. We have all the way. All, all of us have started from the scratch from the very basic roles. So when you move to the audit, maybe not always you just choose this profession, but you try to understand when you are working here. In my opinion, this is one of the best positions that you can learn a lot if you want to learn about the business. This is the best position. And also I can tell that it's not boring at all. Maybe the others can see us as boring, I don't know. And it could be the perception of the auditor. But in fact, since I'm working here in audit now and to this position for 20 years in audit in this position, everybody's asking me, are you bored then so what are you doing? You can do, can move, etc. But I move every month because every month we go and have different engagement, have five audit fields at the same time. We can learn a lot and we can meet a lot of people and we can go from one audit to the other. And in my opinion, it's not boring at all. You are always updating with the most new regulation, laws, business side and everything. And also with the people with the structure and what is happening products and everything in your industry. So in my perspective, this is the best position that you can have. And I also see in my department that everybody's telling why you don't have the. This turnover rate is so low in your department. But I think that is not me in the leadership role. But this is the kind of position I think that the people like when they come and they understand this role. They like the internal audit and they still get with it. And people, I think in this profession are more sharing with each other. Not only us here in the institutes, but I feel comparing with the other profession, people are sharing a lot with each other here. And we do not have competition as kind of role, since we are independent somehow and from standards. And it's so easy for us to share about the profession, as in our mission as the institute and global Institute, to share as much as possible and progress through sharing. So I always, when we do this session of the students and the future auditors in the university, I always. And also the colleagues, because we have done together and Yola, Daeda, Silvana and also the other colleagues all together, that for me are the best part. So they give me a lot of energy. And I think for everybody, the students and I share that for me you should do as every other maybe profession in life you should do with passion. If there is no passion to this profession, maybe don't choose this. Choose a profession that you really like to do. And if you are here, so do it with dedication and with the happiness and joy because you have to enjoy such thing. And for me it's the most beautiful journey. And if I would go to repeat again my career, I would go the same.

Wow, I love that. To have joy. I think auditors should have joy too. I think some days are tougher than other ones, but just to approach the whole thing with joy. And auditors are perfectly positioned to facilitate positive change in organizations. That's my opinion. And to find that joy in it, use those communication skills. And I love that, you know, goes back to what Sylvana said of sharing is caring. And I love that you go to the universities to speak to all the students. I think that's really, really proactive. And I think as an. As an industry we need to be doing more of.

All the girls can share that. We do a lot of activities, like voluntary activities like mentoring like going to the universities, these conferences around tables that we do in the country. And everything is done voluntary from us. Our job is this, that we are doing instead of audit to one institution. And the other job at the institute is completely voluntary. But in fact, if you can ask and also philosophical question is what makes the people most happy is to make happy the other person. So when you share, it makes the other happy and to empower the others. So I think that's why maybe this is the bond that is gathering us together. So we like that we are doing this voluntary job and we spend a lot of time and hours, in fact worth knowing better. Because sometimes we skip the family on the phones, etc. And still continue with each other with late hours and discussion with special about the institute and things, the activities that we have to do. But yes, I think that this is something that give at least me, but also I'm sure everybody, it gives a lot of fulfillment and a lot of realization and also the the growth of our self. Personal one.

Absolutely.

If I may add just one thing taken from what Dorita said, I absolutely loved it. I can say that we have also the opportunity to impact our colleagues in this profession, but also we have the opportunity to make a positive impact in our companies. It's not just theoretically, but we can be the ones to change our, let's say, the way how the others are perceiving us and we can help others do better. It's not easy, it's something that it takes a lot of time and patience, but it's not impossible. Only in that way we can really add value and be considered like trusted advisors. But we can be the ones to walk, let's say, to work with our examples in this way, to be the ones to show that yes, you can do it, you can change, you can do things better. Because that's our intention and that's the beauty. And that's the most rewarding part and hard part of this profession, at least for me.

Absolutely.

It's all about people. It's not only about procedures and processes, it's about the way how we treat people. It is connected with relationship, it is connected with communication. But at the heart of it is do we really intend to get a connection with people in order to get them better, to do a better job, to have successful results for the company. That's the question that pops up in my mind when I'm trying to share with my colleagues as well all the time. If it's not the right intention, go check it again, because something is wrong and you have to revisit your topic.

That's a great perspective.

I like the idea. Or I like that Sivana mentioned people going back to what, what would we say to, to a younger woman or even young person to, to join internal audit as a career path, but also, as we are saying, as a. As a life experience. I would, I would say exactly because it is about people, although we may forget, although that we may somehow overlook it. And people can be our colleagues, other staff, the clients of our companies, where we work in, or even further stakeholders of the community, where we, where we, where we live and where we conduct our operations. It's exactly for this reason that should someone not be ready to confront, not ready to stick to the ideas, to be fair to the right thing, should he not or she be not courageous to go up to the end of the road, then Internal audit is not a profession that I would recommend because only through these characteristics and through these personal traits, internal auditor can go a long way and can make sure that is adding value.

I love that. Auditor should have courage, I think. Right.

I love that. And I love that it's now also part of the standards. And I like that we are using that taxonomy. And this is something that you don't need even to think about it because it's there and we need to have it.

Super.

And I'm going to come to Adela, as you talked about generational, the generations on the call, what would advice would you give a young person or a young woman who wants to, or who might be thinking about a career in internal audit?

I would like to go back to my own experience when I was an intern. I did try, I did try some positions, some departments in a bank. And when I went to the internal audit department, we had this clique, this chemistry. And this is the moment when I realized that this is the kind of space I would like to work because I found very supportive people, very collaborative. They had incredible knowledge and yet they were open to communications, to different perspectives. And they made everything look so easy and doable. So this was a pivotal moment back at those days. So I suggest the young generation also do the same. You know, they should try different positions until they find the one which is made for them. But I would strongly, strongly recommend internal audit in this case.

I love that because I think it's great career advice for any person coming out of university or they're new in their careers to try different functions within the company. And it's great to actually get involved in the company's Sort of talent rotation opportunities and things like that, because then you can. And once I do find that once you rotate into internal audit, a lot of folks want to stay or at least go back in once they finish the. The rotational program. Because I think you learn so much in internal audit, and this is what I loved that you were saying earlier, is the dynamic nature of internal audit. I think it was Idiola, perhaps it was you, where you were saying, it changes, or Dorita. It changes. It was Dorita. It changes all the time. You're always doing something different. You're always learning something different. It could be about the business, it could be about a topic. And that's, I think, for me, that was one of the great things about internal audit, because I, you know, I thought I wanted to be an accountant. I thought I should be an accountant because I was a chartered accountant. So, well, I must do accounting. Right? Because it's in the name, it's in the designation. And what I found was accounting is just the same boring shit over and over and over again. Right. And so once I got into audit, I was like, holy cow. It's a whole different perspective. It's a whole different world. It's fun and exciting and it's tough sometimes. And like you said, there are challenges, but when we choose to, you know, take that challenge on and overcome those, we grow, and it just creates a wonderful opportunity. I mean, when I look at who's here on the call, I'm thinking, we must have almost 60 years of audit experience on this call. That's quite amazing. Yeah.

If I may share something, I was having finance department in the company, in the bank, and then I went to operations, and so I went through different parts of the company. And when I jumped into internal audit, I saw that that's the profession that I was made of. So since then, I did never come back. So practically, I'm really going after trying, as Adela said, and recommended other parts of the business, because you might not know what it fits you the best.

It's a good.

So definitely, once an auditor, always an auditor, right?

I would not say that, because. Why? Because we are preparing good auditors not only to keep for ourselves, but to help the company in different positions in different parts of the business. Because in my previous company, but even in the actual one, different heads of audits, or let's say senior people from audit are upgraded in specific position into the company in finance or in operations or in risk. Equal profile functions, let's call it like this. And I was very happy to see my colleagues grow up and contribute their professional background in another part of the business. It's an opportunity to come back again, that's for sure. But it's good that people want to try and to get out of. Definitely for me is number one.

So they learn an audit and they rotate out into the business. But I still think it applies once an auditor, always an auditor, because it somehow it gets in your DNA, you know, and you, you take it with you. You take.

Yeah, it becomes learning, becomes a philosophy of life, way of thinking, way of living. And that's, that's what I meant. But it's very correct what Silvana mentioned, and I think we need to mention, even in your podcast, Tracy, the fact that one of the greatest mission and added value of internal audit function, every internal audit shop department, is also the mission of somehow professional academy. Because every auditor, through the helicopter view that we mentioned, through the amazing opportunity to understand, to better deep dive the industry where he or she works, is excellent opportunity to make middle managers future leaders. And this is something that internal audit has proven throughout years and throughout several sectors and industry that they can do it. A real professional academy. This is how I see internal audit and somehow this is how I also approach new recruits. Trying to say to them that this is just the trampoline to, to the, to the, to the wider sea.

Super. So listen, I think my final question would be about legacy. You know, when you think about. I know none of you are anywhere near retirement, but when you think about, you know, when you do retire or when you do decide to go do something else, what's the legacy that you would like to leave behind? Maybe first for your individual perspective and then through your work with the IIA Albania. Who wants to take that?

Yeah, sure, sure.

I hadn't thought about it until you asked, but I believe that you would agree that audit reports our. But yeah, jokes apart, for sure, that that would be, that would be nice our audit reports to remain legacy for years and years to come. But in the end, the truth in my perspective for sure is broader than that. And not only in my perspective, it's exactly this impact that we leave behind, but not only through our audit reports. We mentioned the years and years of striving for excellency in all we do as internal auditors in the highest integrity standards that we apply in our daily routine and daily living as internal auditors. But this would mean very little if we hadn't created value and impact through more sustainable systems. Systems can be procedures, can be tools, can be instruments can be people. And the way that I see it from my perspective, the feeling or the belief that I have touched the life of others, as many life of others as I could through adding value and through positive impact. Empowering women as we are talking about, inspiring them to become the lionesses of their own stories and to pass through this strength to others. That is the sustainable system that I'm talking about. And I believe that that would be the best of what I would think of my legacy.

I love that. Thank you. Anyone else want to jump in?

Well, Fabiola said almost everything, but I can. Listening to her, I can say in addition that yes, our. Let's say the motto is internal audit is protect and improve. And also we need to live a better environment of internal auditors in the country, in our country and also to be a better, well regulated and also in our organization that we are working for, of course, that we have to improve our internal control system of our industry when we are working. So every day it is I think that is much more improved institution than 20 years ago, 10 years ago, one year ago, I think. And also we have gave as internal auditors role our contribution to this. But in the country in general, I think that we. I. My personal goal, but also to the whole board is to making people together, all internal auditors of the country to make them together in our conferences that we are organizing. And also to be able to leave a better regulatory environment in the countries then we are working to change the law, to change the regulations and to do a better system and regulative environment for the other generation to work in internal audit. And this is the best legacy I think that we can leave the people that are developed and growth and really have a good environment of the standards of interrelated applied in lba.

Wonderful.

If I may add just one statement. It's not just our wish, but it's our responsibility. We have to pass through this knowledge and this wisdom that is transferred to us by our teachers and mentors and people who helped us along the way. So now it's our turn to share with other new generations and to lead them to our examples. And that's the best thing that we can do.

Love it.

Love it.

Adila, I don't know. You're so far from retirement, I don't know if. Do you already have an idea? Yeah.

Now you make me think of it.

So.

Personally I would like to make lives easier for every individual, for our community. And we're doing this through IIA which serves here as a platform when we can put our ideas into action. We have continuous meetings and more job to be done here. But I guess we are on the right way. So big up to this ladies here.

I feel like you're on the right way.

Do it.

Yeah. Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah.

Ladies, it's been such a pleasure to have you here on the podcast. Episode six, Inspiring Women in Audit. You all inspired me so much when I met you in Toronto. The energy, the creativity, the. I'll use the word again. The joy that you brought was fantastic and it's forever a memory that I will hold. So thank you for being here. I'll just go around one and see if there's any. Any last thought that you want to share. So I think we'll start with Adela. Any last thought you want to share?

I have nothing but gratitude for providing this podcast and inspire many others. And I really hope we do have other meetings. I mean, you being here physically and we can come up with better ideas.

I love that. Thank you, Dorita.

Well, the same. I'm really happy and wanted again to thank you, Tracy. I'm really glad that mentor and have your party in my life and mentor in person. So yeah, you are inspiring us. In fact, we are trying to inspire the others, but you inspired us and it was a really great opportunity for us to be together here in this event. And also we can. We have to continue again and to do others and to collaborate and to do whatever is needed and to develop and to. To support each other as women and. But also as human beings.

Absolutely. Thank you. And it's really. It's ripple effects. Right. Somebody asked me what I found inspiring and I said it was getting up on stage and inspiring others to go be inspiring. Right. So it's the whole ripple effect. Wonderful. Idiola, anything from you.

It.

It was amazing experience. My first podcast, of course, it was amazing when you. When you talked about it, but leaving the moment is extraordinary. Thank you for that. Thank you for the additional bond that we created together. I continue to strengthen with my fellow colleagues from the institute. You did that again. The triple effect again. Hopefully this podcast will be heard and will become inspiring for the rest. For sure, we are here locally in our small reality, small community in Albania. But even at larger scale, we are here at any time to all our internal audit fellows to share, to gain experience and in such a way to grow together.

Thank you.

And Silvana.

I was listening to the last messages of my colleagues and it came to my mind, just one statement, one quote of Mother Teresa Tikaj Kuta, who was Albanian by blood, and she used to say, not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love. So practically, what you are trying to do with your podcast, it's a mission. Congratulations on what you are doing and please keep it up. You will inspire much more professionals, women or men, into the world. So thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. It is a mission. It comes from the heart. I felt like it was. There was something missing out there. And this is my contribution to the world, to try and change the world and make it a better place for everyone to amplify women's voices in our internal audit industry. And I would like to take just a moment to ask everyone listening and watching to connect with you on LinkedIn. So we'll put your LinkedIn profile links in our show notes for everyone to connect with you. And as idiola you offered, I think it's a great way to, you know, increase the connections and if anyone has a question or would like a word, you know, you're there to, to support them. And just to announce also that this week is our soft launch of the Inspiring Women in Audit LinkedIn group. This is where we're creating a safe space for everyone who's interested in the podcast and interested in, you know, women supporting women, that kind of thing to, to join us and to, you know, communicate within, within that space and just to create more for everyone. So if you're interested and you're listening or you're watching, check us out. It's Inspiring Women in Audit LinkedIn group. And also this podcast will be on, will be streamed, the recorded version will be streamed on LinkedIn and it will be on Apple and Spotify as well under Inspiring Women in Audit. So there you go. Thank you so much, ladies. It's been an absolute pleasure for me to see you again and continue out there creating the magic that you're doing in Albania and beyond. Thank you.

Thank you. Tracy and Abkaos for you.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you. And greetings from small country from Romania and beautiful one.

Definitely. Thanks, ladies.

Thank you.

Hi everyone. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Inspiring Women in Audit podcast. We'd love for you to stay part of our growing community. So subscribe wherever you're listening. If you're enjoying our content on platforms like itunes or Spotify, a quick five star rating from you would mean the world to us. It's a small action that supports our mission immensely. Don't forget to extend explore the show notes for various links and join our vibrant community on all our social media platforms. Your interaction and support play a crucial role in amplifying the voices of Inspiring Women in Audit and spreading their inspiring stories even further. Thank you for being a part of our journey and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Inspiring Women in Audit podcast.