Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

A few years ago, my husband was offered a promotion in another state, in a location that did not have a HORNE office. This promotion was a wonderful opportunity for him, but not great news for me. Just a year before this news hit, I transitioned to a new director/performance advisor and I was just now hitting my stride. Moving was not in my plans, but I knew it was best for our family and that we had to take it. 

When I was in college working to obtain my bachelor’s in business management, if someone told me that one day I would grow up to become an acrobat, I would have told them they’d lost their mind. Pigs had a better chance of sprouting wings and taking to the sky than I had of navigating a trapeze. Yet here I sit ten years later, constantly walking a tightrope as I try to balance work and home life.

Merriam-Webster defines flexibility as the quality of being adaptable or variable. HORNE set out several years ago to explore what flexibility meant to its people. Through this journey, one thing became clear—the “definition” of flexibility differed from one team member to the next. There was too much variability in flexibility to establish a rigid policy. So instead, we created a philosophy together as a firm. This philosophy, known as Fearless Unrivaled Flexibility (FUF), is centered on three principles: commitment, trust and communication.

Last week, I wrote about 5 Ways to Avoid Needing a Vacation After Your Vacation. As promised, today I would like to share with you a few things I did once I returned from my trip that also proved to be very beneficial.

Have you ever come home from a vacation and returned to work on Monday feeling like you need a few days just to recover from PTO? I know I’ve experienced this almost every time I return from a trip, especially if I take a full week off.

When my soon-to-be husband at the time, asked me how I felt about moving to Oxford, Mississippi, for a potential job opportunity he received, there were several immediate thoughts that popped in my head. The first being, "Will these two Bulldogs fit into the rival city?" Not that I thought there would be a group of people with pitchforks staking out our house, but you know, I figured we'd end up being good candidates for solid yard rolls every Halloween. The second thought was, "What about my job?" 

After completing my first busy season in the Ridgeland office, I moved to HORNE’s Hattiesburg office as the only team member in my department.  I had a plan set in place to tackle some of the obstacles I may face, but ultimately knew that most things never go as planned. Luckily, I had a team standing behind me that was ready to take on those challenges as well. I have heard the words “flexibility, feedback, and full potential” a dozen times before, but soon they applied to me in a very real and transforming way. I found meaning in them, and it was due to the support of the people around me.

My family’s personal Fearless Unrivaled Flexibility (FUF) journey officially began about a year and a half ago. For the last 13 years, we’d been a family of three (or five if you count the dogs). During that time, the idea of expanding our family has been sporadically discussed. Commitments to our son, his sports, our relationship, our careers, and our family and friends were always excuses not to expand our family, but the thought always lingered in the back of our minds.