Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

A few weeks ago, Harvard Business Review published an article titled The Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief and as I read it, I immediately wanted to share it with everyone I knew. David Kessler, an expert on grief, discussed with the author his perspective on the current coronavirus crisis and how what we are really collectively feeling is grief. He elaborated on the idea of multiple  kinds of grief that we are experiencing.

Whatever happens to you is for the good of the world. That would be enough right there. But if you look closely, you’ll generally notice something else too: whatever happens to a single person is for the good of others. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.45)

Three months into my career at HORNE, it is the culture that stands out. Different from previous experiences, I believe HORNE’s culture is the direct result of an intentional pursuit by our leadership to engage and empower each team member for the benefit of the firm.

When I joined HORNE, I had no idea what I had signed up for. I was just excited for a fresh start and the beginning of a new journey. I was suffering from burnout from my last firm and didn’t feel like I belonged. I just wanted to try something new. So, I joined HORNE in 2016.

It was the spring semester of my junior year in the Adkerson School of Accountancy at Mississippi State University. I knew I wanted to do an internship somewhere near Jackson, MS, but I also wanted something that would be comparable to the Big 4 experience that everyone hears so much about. So, I began researching and found HORNE. After attending their Full Potential Leadership Program for college students and going through the interview process, I knew this is where I wanted to be. I met a firm that wanted to invest in me reaching my full potential, loves feedback and is evolving with the future.

When I first started at HORNE, I was based in the Ridgeland, Mississippi, office. It wasn’t long after that I was assigned to a project in New York and after being there for almost four years, I received a call informing me that I would be moving back to Ridgeland. I began to think of all the fun times I had in New York but quickly became overwhelmed with the task of moving in a fairly short amount of time.

The sense of belonging we strive for every team member to have here at HORNE is the same need that it is recognized as the third level in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The bottom four tiers of Maslow’s pyramid (including belonging) are considered deficiency needs. Maslow’s theory suggests that only once the lower four levels have been sufficiently satisfied can an individual reach their full potential. Thus it's not surprising that we want to feel a sense of belonging in our lives, both personally and professionally.

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.

Does collaboration really make a difference in the workplace? Does it make a difference for our clients? Does it make a difference in how everyone feels about their work family? Does it make a difference in how well they do their jobs?

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?"