Family Matters: Navigating the Human Side of Business

Many of our clients want to start involv­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of their fam­i­ly in their busi­ness and have no idea where to start.

So, when Francine Car­lin, Prin­ci­pal of the Busi­ness Har­mo­niz­er Group – who advis­es and coach­es fam­i­ly enter­pris­es – told me she was head­ing towards retire­ment, I thought it would be a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to have a con­ver­sa­tion with her, and to share some of her wis­dom. Francine’s work with a cou­ple of our clients has been very impact­ful because she focus­es on cre­at­ing strong, healthy dynam­ics for the busi­ness part of the fam­i­ly – just like they would want for the per­son­al side of their lives.

Here is a link to the full inter­view. Look out for the next blog about how to start suc­ces­sion planning.

• • •

One of the biggest things I’ve learned from Francine is that although there are all sorts of tech­ni­cal aspects to fam­i­ly suc­ces­sion plan­ning – legal, account­ing, gov­er­nance and poli­cies – unless there is very good and healthy com­mu­ni­ca­tion between the fam­i­ly mem­bers, no agree­ments will be reached or followed.

This is about cre­at­ing har­mo­ny in the human side of busi­ness need­ed to get busi­ness done – like much of the work we do with our clients.

Prin­ci­ples, Guide­lines & Agreements

At the heart of reach­ing har­mo­ny and con­sen­sus, lies great com­mu­ni­ca­tion and a will­ing­ness to see if there’s com­mon ground about what every­one wants and needs.

Out beyond ideas of wrong­do­ing and right doing,
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.

-Rumi

In fam­i­lies, these con­ver­sa­tions can be emo­tion­al and com­plex but nec­es­sary to ensure everyone’s best inter­ests are met, and to ensure con­ti­nu­ity of the business.

In our expe­ri­ence, a sea­soned facil­i­ta­tor or coach can make the process much eas­i­er. Some­one who can help to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly dynam­ics to estab­lish trust and get agree­ment on val­ues, bound­aries, rules of engage­ment – and to gen­tly guide peo­ple back when they get off track.

More about this, and the prac­ti­cal­i­ties of start­ing suc­ces­sion plan­ning, in next week’s blog.

The Chal­lenge

• If you are lead­ing a fam­i­ly busi­ness, how well are you doing to cre­ate align­ment and har­mo­ny with suc­ces­sion plan­ning in mind?
• What do you have to do to take it to the next level?

Oth­er Blogs

• Nav­i­gat­ing Suc­cess Togeth­er: Why Aligned Exec­u­tive Teams Matter
• CoachAGories: The Art of Using Ques­tions to Build Con­nect­ed Teams
• How Do You Know You Have the Right Core Values?

Old­er Podcasts

• Jim Collins 6 Char­ac­ter­is­tics of the Right Peo­ple in the Right Seats
• Is Your Cor­po­rate Cul­ture Real­ly Aligned with Your Core Values?

Fam­i­ly Busi­ness Resources

• Fam­i­ly Busi­ness mag­a­zine and conferences
• Saud­er’s Busi­ness Fam­i­lies Cen­tre, UBC
• Busi­ness Har­mo­niz­er Group, Francine’s website