Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

My first two years at HORNE were pretty exciting and filled with fast-paced learning. But, I slowly started to feel eager for a bigger more impactful role in a project. Then, one day my performance advisor was talking about having to travel to Tennessee for a client meeting. I immediately chimed in, “I want to go to Tennessee!” He smiled and said, “Well, I don’t need you on this project right now, but we have a big project coming up that’s also in Tennessee. And, it’s a big one.”

Due to some recent unfortunate events in my life, I’ve been thinking a lot about failure. At HORNE we are very positive about failure and see it as a necessary element of success in the workplace as well as in our personal lives. We encourage the act of failing forward, but what does this mean?

I think our philosophy aligns well with the Winston Churchill quote “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” We choose to see our failures as necessary learning opportunities on the way to a successful career. But in order to live this out we have to remember several things that define the way we handle failure. I have compiled a list of a few things we need to do in order to use our failures for ultimate success.

Living out our commitment to our communities is a critical part of reaching our firm’s 2020 Vision: “We deliver unrivaled focused expertise. We collaborate to proactively guide and serve our people, clients and communities to realize their full potential.” Even our Wise Firm culture is founded on We and Service. It’s safe to say that we are a firm that believes in giving back and serving others and that it’s not just talk. One of my favorite ways we do this is through our Summer of Service program.

It is difficult for me to describe how the culture at HORNE has affected me without first giving you some historical context about me. I was born in New Delhi, India. I spent eight years working my way up to manager at a Fortune 500 company but then gave up my career in order to marry my husband, who lived in Houston. After we were married I got my first job in America and I have to admit it was not what I was expecting.

When I graduated college, I was pretty excited to start my career as a full time team member at HORNE. I had previously interned with HORNE so I was able to gain a little insight into what life is like here but I was also nervous as I knew my responsibilities would increase. Not only would my responsibilities in my job increase but little did I know, my responsibility to our culture would also increase.

Growing up I attended the same school through eighth grade and then I moved to a different school for high school (well, almost all of high school, but that’s a totally different story due to Hurricane Katrina). I always felt bad for the new kids who started at my school and tried to welcome them as best as I could. I can remember always thinking to myself how hard it must be to come into a new environment where people have known each other for years, where relationships have already been established and how intimidating it can be to be judged just simply for being new.

With the world’s biggest sporting event among us, I would like to take you back to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

American air rifle shooter, Matt Emmons, was competing in the three-position event in which participants shoot multiple shots from 50 meters away in varying positions­­—stomach, knees and feet. Emmons stood on his feet for his last shot of the competition. Leading by three points, his last shot only needed to come close to the bull’s-eye to guarantee him the gold medal. He took a deep breath and fired. Bull’s-eye! 

It’s clear to me that HORNE is rethinking the way we do things. One area that recently caught my interest is around engagement. In her book Own It, author Meridith Elliott Powell charges us to recognize that today’s employees are different. Simply stated, we need to redefine the expectations of both leaders and employees in team member engagement. Failing to increase team member engagement means losing great talent to other companies or failing to help those that stay reach their full potential.

I thought I understood culture.  I thought I understood organizational change and development. I mean, I have a degree in anthropology after all. But boy was I wrong.  

After a few months at HORNE, I looked around and thought that we were “fluffy.” That our ideas and ideals were too lofty and that our heads were in the clouds. I thought that we changed our mind too much, and that it reflected negatively on leadership because we couldn’t make up our minds and stick with our decisions. I can’t help but think I’m not the only one that was looking at it with the wrong perspective.