Blog
Family Businesses in Transition
When families are feuding, fairness is always an issue—and usually, it’s about more than just money, it’s often about feelings.
Announcement: We have a New Employee!
Having a new employee announcement process is very important. Especially when a non-family member is joining the family business.
Feedback is an Art
Prioritize your ideas. Limit your feedback to the most important issues. Consider the feedback’s potential value to the receiver and how you would respond – could you act on the feedback? As well, too much feedback provided at a single time can be overwhelming to the recipient.
Feedback is an Art
Feedback can reinforce existing strengths, keep goal-directed behavior on course, clarify the effects of behavior, and increase recipients’ abilities to detect and remedy errors on their own.
Are Your Employees Fulfilled?
One of the most important things to focus on for Employee Satisfaction is good training and development.
Is Succession a Birthright?
Succession should never be a birthright, even in a family business.
Serving the Family Board
Serving on any board of directors is hard, but in a family-owned business, it’s even harder
Family-Owned Business Advantages
Families are more likely to stick together and do what is necessary to keep the business going during hard times. Having that bond is just one of the advantages of being a family-owned business.
Best Policy Practices
Here are some suggestions to help identify and embrace your company’s best practices policies which will ensure you are heading in the right direction.
Making Decisions Based on Facts.
While family members may not always have the same opinions, they often have similar upbringing and life experiences which may lead to a uniform view of the business. Businesses need to have external views of their company and their competition in order to thrive.
Planning for Succession
It is important for family businesses to plan ahead for business succession. Many family-owned businesses do not have a plan in place, and this can be a source of heated debate and intense family politics when the time arises to select new leadership.
Benjamins & Benefits
Keeping things in the family can be a good thing, but paying the owner’s child for doing little work, no work, or bad work can create poor morale among staff members who aren’t relatives.
Bridging the Generation Gap
When there are different generations within the family participating in the business, this can be a wonderful thing. But there can be problems, too.
Establishing a Culture
The informal culture found in many family businesses can result in a lax approach to training new employees, whether they are family members or not.
Best Practices
Your family will continue to get together at the dinner table and on holidays and events, therefore it is essential to keep business problems in the workplace.