Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

There are so many ‘first times’ in life that we will never forget. I certainly have experienced my fair share at HORNE and they have positively guided me to beBetter. I can remember my first complicated project and how it made me doubt myself; the first time I received good feedback from the team for hard work and good performance; the first challenge that I had to face as a foreigner and English being my second language; and the first time I was exposed to the client.

A few weeks ago I attended the AICPA Women’s Global Leadership Summit. This summit was attended by nearly 500 female professionals and about 10 male professionals. In case you are wondering, yes, I was asked multiple times why I was in attendance. You see, simply stated, public accounting and HORNE do not have enough females in leadership roles. At HORNE, we are very much focused on how to improve retention of our female professionals and help them advance to leadership roles at our firm. 

I am part of that change. The question for me becomes, “How?”

I’m a female in a profession that is traditionally dominated by men at the highest levels of the organization. My entire career has been marked by the word “only”—the only woman on the board, the only woman at the table, etc.

Or, so I thought.

When we first began to work on HORNE’s formal sponsorship program, I began to look back over my 30-year career and realize that I had mistakenly placed that “only” label on my own path. In fact, in hindsight, I realize that there were many other people who played very important and intentional roles in my “only” positions. I did not get to be the only woman by myself.

There have been times when I would have felt fortunate to be the only man in the room. This wasn’t one of those times.

Last October I was privileged to attend the AICPA Women’s Global Leadership Summit. I had gotten word from one of my partners who attended the previous year that I would be in the minority. He wasn’t kidding. With close to a thousand women from all over the country, there were five male attendees. Actually, there were more male speakers than male attendees.

My wife and I take walks during the week. It’s hard since we both work full-time jobs, but it’s an investment we make time for as often as we can.  During our walks, we cover a wide range of topics from money, to in-laws, to you-name-it. Today, we hit heads and identified some key areas that we both struggle with. In order to work through those things, we’ve determined that we need to speak the other’s language, and speak it well.

Belonging Shown to be Key Indicator in Achievement

I grew up in public accounting. As a female in an industry where leadership is traditionally dominated by men, it’s safe to say I’ve experienced challenges. And, because of my own journey, championing a diverse and inclusive culture within our firm has long been a passion of mine. However, I’ve realized over the last few years that diversity and inclusion isn’t actually enough. We have to take it to another level.

What we really are striving for is a true sense of belonging. For everyone.