Delivering with Care and Modeling Wise Firm Culture in a Period of Explosive Growth

Over the last 15 months, HORNE has experienced unprecedented growth in our number of team members, revenue, the markets we serve and the services we provide. These are exhilarating times and we should all feel good that our hard work is being rewarded. 

We are where we are today for two reasons: 

1. We have kept the main thing the main thing and have done the main thing better than our client expected.
2. Through the good and bad times, our leaders have modeled our culture.

Paradoxically, this growth is also a potentially dangerous time for the firm. We can find ourselves so caught up in today and meeting the next deliverable that we are blind to what got us to this point and differentiated us from our competition — both in how we deliver for the client and how we find, develop, and retain great people.  

Know what the main thing is and keep it the main thing — no matter what.

The main thing is the essential task/core competency our client hired us to deliver.  

This sounds easy but trust me, it isn’t. No project or engagement executes as we envisioned it when we competed for the work. Issues, scope creep, organizational and resource friction and stakeholder priorities not knowable before engagement/project kickoff emerge. The natural tendency of leaders with a heart of service is to make these new tasks/priorities the main thing. Don’t.   

Yes, you must address these pop-ups. Excellent customer service demands it. Whack the pop-up mole and get back to the main thing. Most importantly, communicate to your people continually that the pop-up is a short detour and they’ll be back on the main thing as soon as the fire is out. 

Exceed client expectations — B+ isn’t good enough and you often get tested on stuff that wasn’t in the book. 

We know from our Net Promoter Score training that any score from the client less than a 9 or 10 is the equivalent of an F. Scores of 8 or less mean the client is lukewarm to your company and will drop you if they believe the competition will provide a better solution or service.     

Trouble is, you are often facing challenges (especially at the beginning of the project/engagement) you didn’t plan for and must scramble to resource for and address. Nobody, not even HORNE (who in my experience responds well) immediately responds elegantly to a major hiccup or disruption.  

You’ll retain your client’s trust and a score of 9 or better if you remember two things: keep the main thing the main thing and get your leaders to overmanage and overcommunicate guidance concerning the “oh dear, oh my” until you’ve tamped it down. Trust me, though there will be periodic reoccurrences throughout the life of the project/engagement, these subside significantly from 6-10 weeks in. So fight through the churn; pile on with leaders and guidance; keep a level head, and you’ll get through it.   

Transitions and finishing well.

Your reputation is made in a transition. A transition highlights to the client if you correctly thought through when the main thing needs to change and if you’ve resourced and staffed correctly to keep the next main thing the main thing.  

The client expects you to be ahead of them in identifying the next main thing, staffing and resourcing in advance, and providing proven solutions for addressing it. The last thing the client will remember about you and your team is how you finished, and it will be the first thing they tell a prospective client who calls inquiring about your performance.

Need proof? Reflect on the Bible story of Solomon or the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI and you’ll understand how not finishing well can negate everything accomplished previously, no matter how spectacular.  

Remember, the client knows the project/engagement is winding down, too. Overmanage the end of the project/engagement and do regular, formal updates throughout the process. Keep some stars on the project until everything has been tied up neatly and to standard. Nothing sends a worse message to the client than concluding that they no longer merit the A-team since their project/engagement is winding down.    

In my next blog, I'll discuss how living our culture sustains a team that delivers with care.