Tag Archives: Family Business Management

06/4/20

The Passage In-Between

Below is the letter I sent to my graduating seniors at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business in New York City, where I’ve taught Family Business Management and Entrepreneurship for the past 10 years.

As I was acknowledging the students’ accomplishments and, upon graduation, their facing a transition into the unknown, I thought of parallels to family businesses I have known. They too managed transitions. Both the graduating students and the family businesses have come to that place where one door closes and another has yet to open. For the family business, this is where the parent, as the incumbent generation, and the adult child, as the rising generation, reflect on past accomplishments and encounter a sense of an uncertain future.

For family businesses, these are times of opposing life stages, where the parent’s tolerance for risk decreases and the child’s desire to bring change increases. Here the parent is transitioning from ‘doing’ the work of the business to being a ‘memory holder.’ At the same time, the child is transitioning from a supportive role to one of leadership — to being held accountable for the future of the business, the family, and the positive continuation of their legacy. As the transition occurs, there opens an ‘in-between passage’ wherein the role changes are not yet recognized or feel correct. This is a ‘liminal space’—a place of both uncertainty and opportunity.

Here is my letter to my graduating class:

Congratulations to those of you graduating. 

I expect when you first started college, you could not envision how your graduation would be. You may have had, upon starting college, a feeling of entering unknown territory – a liminal space – an in-between place where one door has closed and before another opens. 

Then over time and after hard work, you settled in, moving forward and upward in seniority among college students. Suddenly the time has come, and another liminal space appears. 

2020 continues to be a year unlike any other any of us have experienced prior. Anticipations and expectations evaporated in front of our eyes, replaced with ambiguities, uncertainties, and even, perhaps, chaos. And the year is not over yet. 

As entrepreneurs, we need to be able to accept the ambiguity within liminal space. It is the space where normal and familiar activities cease. It is the threshold if not substance upon which creativity and innovation thrive. 

Trite as it is, the future is yours. And remember; as you embark on your new ‘you,’ you may fail at times. It’s what we do. Remember then the imperative truism of entrepreneurship — that the creative process succeeds for those willing to fail fast and fail often, for creativity is a cyclical and spiral process that can require constant re-invention. If there is any lesson to take away, this may be it.

 

02/16/20

This Is What I Want

While teaching my class on Family Business Management at Baruch College in New York City, I’ve had the opportunity to draw a parallel to the well-known axiom related to real estate—location, location, location. When applied to family businesses, it’s communication, communication, communication.

Critical for any business as well as any relationship, in family businesses the mandate for communication is needed to address the challenges of business operations, ownership, family dynamics, family-business goals and shared values.

Lines of communication are often thought of with regard to these collective concerns. But there’s an aspect of communication in a family business that’s not commonly addressed, and yet, if neglected, can precipitate internal discord and even cause the business to ultimately fail.

In a recent interview with Tharawat Magazine, consultant and author Chris Yonker touches upon the necessity for individual family members to feel free to communicate, and pursue, their own interests and individual values:

“Yonker’s outlook pushes for the assignment of roles within the organisation or otherwise based on interest rather than obligation or expectation; to Chris, success is the alignment of purpose and place.”[1]

Pressure upon next-generation family members to join the business can be obvious, or subtle. They can be driven by a sense of duty; a feeling of indebtedness to the family history; parental expectations. Often they feel deeply inhibited with regard to saying what role they are genuinely interested in; what kind of future they want for themselves. According to Yonkers: “Those in line to take over must have the opportunity to speak up if their interests lie elsewhere and, in doing so, bring clarity to the question: who is most fit to lead?”[2]

The wrong person in the wrong job can create many kinds of problems, particularly when they are placed in a leadership position. They may be ineffective, causing confusion, conflicts on the job and among family members, and even loss of valuable employees and necessary talent.

It does no good and potentially great harm for the business or the family to force a young “heir apparent” into a role they are not interested in, or unfit to fill. Given the complexity of the issue and of family dynamics in general, uncovering these types of concerns may necessitate calling in a skilled family-business consultant.

[1] McCabe, M. (2019, October 15) The Path to a Harmonious Business. Tharawat Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.tharawat-magazine.com/sustain/yonker-harmony-family-business/#gs.cbp8bi

[2] Ibid.

01/29/16

Assessing Emotional Intelligence – The Results Are In

For the past two weeks I have been writing about emotional intelligence and its role in family business. From the many responses I have received, it is clear that this topic has struck a chord with readers.

This week I want to briefly show the value of applying emotional intelligence assessment within a family business. The case is presented by author Ernesto Poza in the 4th Edition of “Family Business,” published by South Western Cengage Learning. I use this text in my Family Business Management class in the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, City University of New York.

Poza writes about a family with challenging dynamics. They wished to create an environment of engaged conversation while ensuring all stakeholders were sufficiently respected. Following an assessment of the family’s facility for emotional intelligence they developed a Family Rules of Conduct. The rules they agreed to were:

  1. Focus on the future, not the past.
  2. Be a good listener.
  3. Put yourself in the other’s shoes.
  4. Stay focused on principles, not personalities.
  5. Make “I” not “You” statements.
  6. Say “Got it” whenever speech-making blocks progress.
  7. Disagreements are okay, as long as we are committed to arriving at an improved final decision.

What do these rules tell you about the family’s overall level of emotional intelligence?

Do you think the application of emotional-intelligence assessment tools was useful in this case?

01/17/16

You Are So Emotional!

Yes, I am emotional. l am your sister, brother, son, daughter, mother, father, another family member. We not only work together, we grew up in the same family. We share common experiences and emotional history–ingrained touch points that can trigger easily. Because of this familiarity, emotions can spill over into a family business much more often than would be acceptable in a non-family business.

In themselves emotions are not bad; they are valuable. Their energy drives the human psyche; they serve as social signals. When funneled properly emotional energy can be used to achieve significant positive outcomes. Unbridled, emotions can cause untold devastation.

Denying one’s emotions or discrediting those of others is destructive. It is important to cultivate an emotional intelligence to recognize our own and other people’s emotions; to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately. We are then better equipped to manage our thinking and behavior to maintain harmony in our families and success in our family enterprises, especially during times of increased stress.

Emotional intelligence is so vital to the success of family businesses that as part of my Family Business Management class at Baruch College, City University of New York, I have students assess their own level of emotional intelligence, and – since we can increase our capacity for emotional intelligence – develop a plan for doing so for themselves.