beBetter 

This blog is the second in a five part series adapted from the AICPA White Paper, Becoming the Firm of the Future, which is available here.

This blog is the first in a five part series adapted from the AICPA White Paper, Becoming the Firm of the Future, which is available here.

This blog has been about encouragement and development, but sometimes we need to talk about the challenges we are facing, too. And I’ve got a real issue in my world, many of us do: developing other leaders.

In the accounting profession, succession projections are outright scary and our profession’s leadership development mindset, which is too frequently boasted as “sink or swim” or “figure it out,” is killing us. Together, the numbers and the mindset have created a leadership void that literally threatens our ability to remain relevant.

Whenever our grandson, Davis, would ride with us to our old house, we would cross a wooden bridge to enter the Northshore section of the lake. Almost every time, Davis would say “CeCe, do you remember when Pops broke the boat?” 

When Davis was about 3 years old, he and his dad were on the boat with us. I had just recently acquired the boat, so I was still learning about being the captain. We cruised over to go under the bridge. What I didn’t know at the time was that the canopy was too tall to go under the bridge. So, BAM! Thank goodness it just collapsed and didn’t hurt anyone. Davis has never forgotten that boat ride. Neither have I, and now I never forget to take the canopy down. I learned from that mistake, and I am a safer and better helmsman as the result. 

The Sunday before a big speaking engagement, I had plans for a nice quiet afternoon to reflect on my thoughts and comments for the meeting. I like to have some time to prepare or stress out completely.

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking to The University of Southern Mississippi Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Honorary. What an impressive group of students. We had a tremendous turnout, but what really left me glowing was the work of my HORNE team.

Several HORNE team members attended, and watching this group of young professionals network, smile and represent our firm so well, all after a long work day, was just incredible. They were approachable and many of the students interacted with them.  They networked with the accounting professors, and I even think they listened some to my presentation, or at least they were kind enough to pretend. 

Last week I introduced you to the ABC’s to Outstanding as we talked about controlling the “A” which is your attitude. Today, let’s focus on the “B.” It stands for Better Focus.

What’s the biggest risk of losing our focus? Wasting our time and our potential.

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular. ” - Tony Robbins

The fact is, we can’t multitask; our brains are simply not wired that way. Numerous studies have shown that when we are constantly interrupted, or are attempting to multitask, it will take up to 500% longer to achieve a specific task, and usually with less accuracy. But, if you focus with uninterrupted time, you can do things twice as fast. So, always create time in your day where you are 100% focused on your most important task. Why?

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share with you a few things that, if you do them daily, will change your life and career. They are easy to do. I like to refer to them as the ABC’s to Outstanding.

John Maxwell says, “Talent is not enough.” Our single biggest obstacle is not believing in ourselves. Not holding ourselves accountable is a close second. What we tell ourselves matters most on who we become.

Today, I want to discuss the first piece of the ABC’s to Outstanding: The A stands for Attitude. Who control’s your attitude? You do! Yet, how often do we let events turn us negative, mad, jealous, victim or just gloomy? Things as simple as someone pulling out in front of us, or breaking in line at the grocery completely change our outlook on the day. We even keep negative friends that affect our attitude and anchor us to the negative side. Why do we so often give that power away? Outstanding requires that we recognize when we are giving our power of attitude away and turn it back positive.

I must admit, I have fallen in love with the word “unrivaled.” I thought about it again this morning as I was checking my LinkedIn account and saw that an old friend had reached out to me to connect. We used to compete in tennis, and eventually became team mates. (Hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.) As soon as I saw his invitation, I thought of his tenacity as a competitor and how it was unrivaled compared to the other players I competed with. There was just no comparison to how hard he would compete to beat you. 
 
Reminiscing about our playing days brought me back to HORNE’s 2020 Vision. The first sentence reads, “We deliver unrivaled focused expertise.” Right in the center of the sentence is the word “unrivaled.” It means we that pursue our focused expertise with uncommon discipline and tenacity. 
 

The final element of development described in The Seed by Jon Gordon is the harvest stage. This is the stage where one begins to reap the harvest they have sown from their seed. During the harvest stage, purpose becomes crystal clear. It’s a time of great abundance. 

I realize that I have been blessed with an abundant harvest stage. Thanks to my partners and team members, my purpose has become crystal clear to me. I have never been more convinced that my place of service is in helping others reach their full potential. My love for HORNE makes it easy to know that this is the place for me to pursue that purpose.

In previous weeks, I have reflected on the first two stages of finding true purpose as described by Jon Gordon in his intriguing book, The Seed. The third stage that he identifies in the search of true purpose is the growing stage. This phase is where I really began to feel my roots take hold and spread. It was in this stage that I began to nurture and influence more people, while new people began to nurture and influence me. 

Why is the growing stage so painful? I think for me, it is because I could see myself becoming the person I was born to be and yet there were unforeseen barriers and setbacks that were very painful.

Over the past few months, I have been reflecting on my own growth toward finding my purpose. In my last blog I spoke about remembrances from my early preparation years. This caused me to reflect upon The Seed’s second stage, the planting stage. Jon Gordon says, “During the planting stage, you realize it’s not about what others want you to be. It’s not even about what you want yourself to be. It’s about what you were created to be.” 

Effective leaders have a better understanding of themselves and their own identity. As I reflect upon my journey to become a leader, I recognize that my unique capabilities and passions are based on the life experiences, both good and bad, that forced me to learn about myself, stretch myself, and become more effective at leading. These experiences were my preparation stage.

I hope most of you have taken the opportunity to read The Seed: Finding Happiness in Life and Work, by Jon Gordon. This book focuses on the development stages of discovering one’s highest purpose. The first phase in this journey is the preparation stage, which occurs as we are growing up and educating ourselves through schooling and experiences.

My wife and I recently went zip lining in a scenic location in the mountains of North Carolina. For those of you unfamiliar, zip lining is a popular outdoor recreational activity where you are harnessed to a cable hundreds of feet off the ground and “zip” along the line at high rates of speed between landing stations. I have never actually heard of anyone falling from a zip line, but that reality quickly escaped us the first time we stood on the platform.