Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

In September 2018, my husband, Kevin, was diagnosed with Stage 3 Cancer. The doctors told us that the cancer was aggressive and so was the treatment. They explained to us the treatment would be long and it would be hard. My husband, who is a classically trained Chef, would have to eat through a feeding tube surgically inserted directly into his stomach to stay alive. Because of this, he would go on to lose 90 pounds. The doctors instructed us to pray. We were already putting that recommendation in practice and would surely continue.

I recently shared my belief that “balance” (as in “work-life balance”) was a lie. It is obviously a lie many still believe, so let me offer you my argument against balance and see what you think.

Balance gives the false sense that all things can get equal playing time, at the same time, and that there’s a magic formula you’ve just got to persevere to find. I’ve found this to be impossible. Whether it’s hobbies, career, family, volunteering, traveling or anything else you have passion around, prioritizing one area will result in de-prioritizing another.  If I am striving for balance, I’d need to find an exact point of equality among all the things I find important. And every time I chose one over the other, I’d throw off that balance. And, for me, feel like I was failing.

When I started at HORNE, I didn’t realize how much I could actually love the firm I worked for. I haven’t been at HORNE long, but I have learned so much about myself, my profession and my firm. I even vividly remember my first new hire orientation, HORNE FastStart. They told us that HORNE was big on flexibility. But that it wasn’t a policy, it was a philosophy and it even had a name—Fearless Unrivaled Flexibility. At the time, I didn’t really understand what that meant. I assumed it meant that I would occasionally be able to leave work early on Fridays or that I could even leave work in the middle of the day to handle a personal errand if needed.

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.

HORNE was recently certified as a Great Place to Work®, with a 91 percent approval rating. One of the open-ended questions asked team members to describe one unique thing that makes HORNE such a great place to work. As I reviewed those comments, culture was the repeated theme throughout the list. More specifically, our flexibility philosophy was at the top of the list.  

As a new mom going back to work, I was worried about how I would adjust. Trust me, I love my job and wouldn’t want to do anything else, but having my daughter introduced an entirely new sense of responsibility and a major priority shift. So yes, I was worried that my job would suffer and others would guilt me into thinking I wasn’t working hard enough.

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?

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.

“Creative accounting”… When you search Wikipedia for “cooking the books,” you are cross referenced to creative accounting. It’s interesting to me that this euphemistic term has such a negative connotation. It has long been a way of referencing accounting practices that may literally uphold the laws and regs under which we practice, but often practices that miss the intent, or spirit, of the law. I want to challenge this way of thinking about creative accounting.  Why? Because I know that creativity in the accounting profession is a requirement—we’re not compromising ethical standards, not at all. But the concept of creativity means understanding that business as usual is not at all the business of the future. Or, as we say at HORNE, status quo is not an option!