Memories From an Old File Cabinet

I love that the term we call our culture, the Wise Firm, is based on the Biblical parable and a song I grew up singing in Sunday school. “The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock…and the rains came tumbling down.” This little song got me thinking about how we build our team members? Do we really build them up with a rock like foundation? Do we encourage them to reach their full potential?

I recently found an old file cabinet in our Grenada office with some old evaluations of team members, one of them being mine. The year was 1990 (And yes, we even did evaluations and goal setting back then too!). The comments made by my partner in charge at that time showed me how much I have grown over the years. Here are a few of the comments from way back then:

1. “Cathy needs to speak up more.” (seriously…me speak up more?!)  
2. “Cathy needs to develop more confidence in herself.” (Okay…yeah maybe)
3. “Cathy needs to learn to listen more. (LISTEN?  WHAT?  I HEAR YOU!)

Wow! I mean talk about making a girl feel good about herself or what? But you know what?  Those were the most truthful words anyone had spoken to me in my career and I set out to prove what I could do. In other words, I thought “I’ll show him!” But little did I know these improvements were not to be accomplished overnight.

Recently, at my grandson, Graham’s, 2^nd birthday party, we compared pictures from his 1^st birthday party. It was neat seeing how he had grown in just a year’s time. That brought me back to my 25+ year evaluation from the old file cabinet. I wish my mentor was still here so he could see my progression. I would hope that he would be proud to know he played a meaningful part in my growth at HORNE and the bigger thing called life. I have had many others that have helped me along my journey to reach my full potential and the list would be a mile long if I had to write everyone down. Not surprisingly though, the list is not comprised of only my superiors, but mainly my fellow team members that inspired me to go above and beyond. 

What are you doing to inspire those around you to build something great on a strong foundation? As the last line of the song goes, “The rain came down and the floods came up….but the house on the rock stood firm!!” Go out and encourage and inspire someone to greatness today! 

About the Author

Cathy is a manager in franchise services at HORNE LLP where she focuses on providing general accounting and business advisory services to multi-unit quick service restaurant franchisees.She is a talented people developer whose career at HORNE exemplifies the mindset of owning your career.