Tag Archives: family business leadership

04/7/18

Developing Future Leaders

For family businesses to thrive through succeeding generations, the development of future leaders must not be left to chance. It’s the responsibility of the current head of the family business to recognize and nurture leadership qualities in members of the rising generations. Here are seven strategies for accomplishing this critical task: 

  1. Be a model of leadership yourself.
  2. Demonstrate honor and respect for family members who are leaders.
  3. Recognize that there are as many different leadership styles as there are leaders. Consider the differing yet effective leadership styles of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Hawking, Winston Churchill, General Patton, and Steve Jobs. Encourage the development of individual and innate leadership styles within your own family.
  4. Provide younger family members with opportunities to lead.
  5. Help them learn to identify leadership opportunities within and outside the family business.
  6. Encourage their involvement in leadership activities in a variety of life areas such as in school, in professional associations, in your community as well as in your family business.
  7. Encourage them to think in terms of what they want to accomplish for the family and the business.

Of course, it’s important for the head of the family and current leadership to monitor the path of potential next-generation leaders; to see where they succeed; where they struggle; to guide, correct and mentor them. The future of the family and the business will be in their hands.

02/3/17

Listening to Chopin

An entrepreneurial client recently mentioned one of his favorite Ted Talks: The Transformative Power of Classical Music, by presenter Ben Zander. By way of various piano renditions of a piece by Chopin, Zander illustrates several aspects of understanding classical music that I found extremely relevant to family business success. https://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion

Ben Zander is conductor and music director of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. I had known him through his book, national best seller, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. In it he describes his leadership style as a conductor as one of embracing possibilities. He has subsequently taught workshops on his approach to leadership in corporate settings.

Several ideas from his Ted Talk came through to me as having critical relevance to family business:

  • No one is tone deaf; rather, perhaps, they have not learned how to hear the music. The capacity of family members to be instrumental in business success may be overlooked even by themselves. Look for signs of it in their conduct of everyday life.
  • An important characteristic of a leader is not doubting for one moment the capacity of people to realize whatever it is that the leader is dreaming.
  • The job of a leader is to make the players powerful, and this awakens possibilities of creativity and expression. Making other family members powerful awakens possibilities in them that will benefit the family.
  • Placing similar emphasis on every note in your business will distract you from your view of the big picture.
  • Expecting a perfect performance does not allow for the creativity and spontaneity that produce a resilient and viable next generation.

All of these ideas point to ways of embracing possibilities within your family business. They speak of a leadership style of openness and confidence in the family, the business vision, and in success for generations to come.

06/2/16

The Three Faces of Innovation in Family Business

The presence of entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a culture of Innovation within your family firm is possibly the strongest predictor of long-term success.

It’s important to understand that innovation is not confined to the development of new products and services, although this is indispensable. The vital part that innovation plays in business processes and organizational procedures is often overlooked.

Process innovation, sensitive to new technologies, consumer practices–a plethora of changing marketplace conditions –enables your business to make responsive changes in the ways that products or services are produced and delivered. Organizational innovation involves changes in management, workflow, and operations. These are often sensitive to generational outlook and leadership styles, as well as advances in office and plant technology.