Leadership Academy raises internal audit bar

Internal audit sounds technical and back-office. But the fight here is really about trust. Boards want to know whether the audit function is actually strong enough to challenge management, spot risk early, and say uncomfortable things clearly. Leadership Academy is leaning into that shift by selling quality assurance not as a once-every-five-years box check, but as an ongoing governance tool built around the IIA’s new standards. ### What changed in the standards? The baseline changed on January 9, 2025, when the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Global Internal Audit Standards became effective. Those standards replaced the older framework and pulled more of the board directly into governing the internal audit function. They also made quality and performance more explicit parts of the job, not side topics. ### Why does that raise the bar? Because “good enough” internal audit is harder to defend now. Under the new framework, the chief audit executive has to maintain a quality assurance and improvement program covering the whole function, communicate internal quality assessment results to the board and senior management at least annually, and report external assessment results have to happen at least once every five years. ### So what is Leadership Academy actually pitching? Leadership Academy’s offer goes beyond a standard external quality assessment. It breaks the work into four streams, with the core external review as the mandatory foundation and a broader “Quality Assurance Services” layer for readiness reviews, topical reviews, and QAIP development to the board and management, not just an assurance function that shows up after the fact. ### Why does board trust keep coming up? Because the standards now tie internal audit quality more tightly to governance credibility. The IIA’s own language says internal auditing should strengthen value creation, governance, decision-making, and organizational credibility. Domain III of the standards is literally about governing the internal audit function. Leadership Academy talks about quality ratings helping win board trust, that is not marketing fluff pulled from nowhere — it tracks the direction of the rulebook. ### What do the ratings really mean? Historically, “Generally Conforms” was the top rating under IIA quality assessments. Under the newer framework, guidance around conformance has evolved, and firms advising the market now talk about “full” conformance or full. Don’t aim for a pass — aim for a rating that boards can read as evidence of a mature, credible function. ### Why bundle committee assessments into this? Because once internal audit quality becomes a governance signal, it naturally spills into how boards and committees oversee the function. Leadership Academy’s broader positioning links audit quality to committee effectiveness and oversight cadence. This isn't just about reports anymore, it is expected to help govern the function’s mandate, independence, resources, and quality. ### What does this mean for chief audit executives? It means the job is getting more strategic and more exposed. A CAE now has to show conformance, performance, communication discipline, and a credible improvement