Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

We all know how important it is to set boundaries. We set all kinds of boundaries that act as walls to keep the good in and the bad out. But how often do we think through our professional work/life boundaries? From my experience, these lines are not thought out as well as others and are too easily blurred. I’ve heard many successful businessmen and women tell me that one of the hardest areas to tackle is work/life boundaries. This begs the question: Why? Why is it so difficult to create and maintain good boundaries at work?

Improving corporate culture is a huge investment in both time and money. But at HORNE, we believe these investments are necessary to win the war for talent in the changing business environment. In Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series, we focused on improving career/life integration, personal flexibility and workplace diversity. Today, lets discuss the impact of continuous feedback. 

Last week, I started the conversation about HORNE’s commitment to improve our culture, which focused on defining my own career/life integration while maintaining my client service expectations. I want to continue that theme today, but let’s talk about diversity and its impact on the war for talent and business development.  

We spend a lot of time and money at HORNE on improving our culture. It’s an investment that focuses on improving career/life integration, personal flexibility, workplace diversity, and continuous feedback. We believe these investments are necessary to win the war for talent in the changing business environment. But making big changes internally can lead to a lot of questions, like will these changes affect client service and business development? And if yes, is that a good thing or bad thing? In this three-part series, my goal is answer those questions and add insight into how building a culture of continuous improvement benefits both team members and clients.

What does the concept of WE and SERVICE mean to you? For me, this concept is foundational, it is fundamental to my purpose. At HORNE, it has become our “North Star” for the way we make decisions, always pointing us to true north. When we think about a WE and SERVICE approach, I think it can be evaluated as two main components: attitude and ownership. For me, and for our team, the importance of a positive attitude and an ownership mentality make all the difference in our journey to build the Wise Firm.

Do you ever find yourself sitting at your desk, trying to remember why you’re here? Why do we continue to come in every day to THIS job at THIS firm?

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”  - Proverbs 12:15

Here at HORNE, we are building the Wise Firm. That is our culture. We want to be like the wise man from the biblical parable who built his house on a strong foundation. When the great storms came, he was able to overcome because he had built his house on a solid foundation. 

A few weekends back, I spent the weekend with my wife, kids and grandparents. I enjoy talking with my granddaddy as he usually asks how things are going with work. This time, when he asked about work, I took the opportunity to ask him what he thought I could do to make a BIG impact. In his usual fashion, he responded by telling a story with a moral, rather than giving me a straight answer. 

Long before I chose to major in accounting, I was made aware of a very concerning stigma. Women in the corporate world don’t make it to the top and IF you do, you have to be a special kind of women to break the ominous glass ceiling. The kind with no family obligations, limited personal life and widely disliked. And, if you can’t relate to that, then be prepared to earn half the salary of your male coworkers and have little chance at promotion.