By Tom Hubler (Part 2 of 2)
The structure of the matter (second in a series)
Key Takeaways
- The B.O.S.S. concept formalizes how we generate what’s right for the Business, for Others, for our Self and for Stakeholders.
- The approach helps develop collaboration, team skills and common success.
- Regular family meetings keep issues from growing into problems.
- A family code of conduct helps prepare and formalize key ground rules to keep everyone on track as individuals, as a family and as a business.
Here I introduce other specific methods to bring structure to family-business issues and to prevent conflict.
Who’s the B.O.S.S.?
The B.O.S.S. concept is a way to remember what the family wants to generate for the...
Business
Others (and what they want)
Self (what you want for yourself)
Stakeholder (including others who share in the business)
…To manage issues and prevent problems, the family carefully considers what must be done to take care of the “B” (Business). Most family businesses recognize this intuitively. It’s just common sense.
What may be less intuitive is recognizing that in order to prevent issues from becoming problems, you must identify what the “O” (Others) wants. … Every family member must understand that they have a commitment to each other’s success. … In this way, kything prayers and the “O” in B.O.S.S. mean the same thing.
| Cover via Amazon |
- “An optimal family system is complex in that it encourages the unique individual development of its members while uniting them in a web of effective ties.”
- “A group of people is kept together by two kinds of energy—material energy provided by food, warmth, physical care and money, and the psychic energy of people investing attention in each other’s goals.”
- “When people pay attention to each other or to the same activity together, the chances of finding flow, binding the family, increase.”
- “Only when there is harmony between the goals of the participants, when everyone is investing psychic energy into a joint goal, does being together become enjoyable.”
 |
| The Good Work Team: William Damon, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Howard Gardner (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The first “S” (Self) in B.O.S.S. represents what you want for yourself. With the family as a team, individuals think about what they want for themselves in concert with what others want for themselves and aligned with what they all want for each other. This puts power into the common family vision because family members reinforce the common good. Each trusts that by contributing during their turn, they are appreciated and the trust is returned when others respond as their turns come.
The second “S” stands for the stakeholders. These stakeholders may be nonfamily employees, other family members not engaged in the business, vendors, suppliers and customers. B.O.S.S. thinking helps create win-win rather than win-lose decisions. It helps promote the common good to help the family and their business become vision driven rather than problem focused.
Develop collaborative team skills
An excellent way to prevent conflict is to strengthen family communications using Collaborative Team Skills. This highly successful program created by Sherod Miller helps families successfully manage their differences.
The program helps people learn how to express feelings and wants. When these deep needs go unexpressed, communication breaks down…. I consider listening skills to be the most important way to promote understanding within the family.
Proper listening requires knowing how to respond to different communication styles, map an issue and actively problem solve. Conflict often arises because people don’t listen carefully, or they respond poorly. ...
Hold regular family meetings
In his book Family Business (3rd Edition), Ernesto Poza promotes family meetings. He states that when family businesses have regular family meetings, they become more successful. …
Successful family-owned businesses typically hold three types of meetings:
- Shareholder and owner meetings that include only those members
- Meetings designed for employees and family-member stakeholders
- Family-only meetings that bring together the entire family, including spouses and those not active in the business
Here are a few of the many ways to build emotional equity in the family:
- Establish and celebrate family rituals and traditions
- Regularly spend informal time with each other outside of the business
- Involve adult children and grandchildren in family-oriented services and philanthropic projects
 |
| Code of Conduct (Photo credit: jronaldlee) |
Too many family-owned businesses regularly play the game of business without having or regularly reviewing their own sets of ground rules. Or they assume the rules are unchanged and fail to keep them current.
I use this outline with my clients to guide them to their own family participation plans or codes of conduct:
- Eligibility
- Entry
- Summer employment
- Intern programs
- Nonfamily executives
- Full-time employees
- Career planning
- Application process
- Coaching
- Poor performance and termination
- Conduct and protocol
- Compensation
About the Author
Tom Hubler (tomh@thehublergroup.com) is president of Hubler for Business Families (hublerfamilybusiness.com) and an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment