You know everything about your clients — you know their financial situation inside and out, and their goals for their businesses, and you know their plans for retirement and their hopes for their children. But how much do you know about yourself and your firm?
Two new books recently got me thinking about self-knowledge — "
Havens' book details the work he and his partners did while he was executive partner of Mississippi-based Horne from 2012 to 2021 to build what they call "the Wise Firm" — a "magnetic culture" that would set the Top 100 Firm apart. The journey that Havens and his partners and staff take to create a firm that inspires a profound sense of belonging in all its people is studded with plenty of insights and valuable advice. But what struck me about it was how often Havens and his team found their plans stymied or even endangered because of something they didn't know about themselves.
In one case, for instance, it was having to drill down into their turnover rates to discover that they were far higher than average among certain groups — women and people of color, in particular. In another case, they had to discover that a characteristic they had previously prided themselves on — their collegiality and the "kindness" of the firm — actually masked an unwillingness to have hard conversations. Unearthing, examining and grappling with these truths were critical to advancing the firm.
Havens is bracingly honest about how Horne worked to fix its own flaws, and he's open about his own shortcomings, as well as his crises of faith along the way. Vetter, however, takes openness to whole new levels. A longtime thought leader in accounting and technology, she shares a host of deeply personal stories about some of the most difficult parts of her life, but while she is willing to be extremely vulnerable, the book never devolves into voyeurism because the point isn't the trauma — it's the lessons she learns from uncovering its causes.
Vetter digs past the immediate pain to understand the patterns and long-term behaviors that lie behind them. Understanding those patterns and the stories that create them is the first step in being able to control and change them, and that's a lesson that applies as much in the workplace as in your personal life.
Firms can only go so far without putting themselves under the microscope, and the same is true of accountants: In the end, the most successful knowledge workers will be those who start by knowing themselves.
