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Geography 101: “Where” Matters

We all get stuck sometimes. We can be in a groove one day, and then suddenly find ourselves in a rut the next. It isn’t necessarily important to figure out what happened, but it is important to figure out what to do next. It isn’t what happens to us that matters, it’s what we do about it.

I am currently in the middle of nowhere, at our family cottage in New Brunswick. We got here a week ago, and we will be here for another week, and then we head back home and the kids start school, and everything returns to “normal”.

I don’t know what it is about this place, but everything just seems more calm and peaceful here. I came here by myself in January to get my book started, and I think that that was when I noticed how different everything feels here.

When I was doing the CTI Coaches training, I remember being sceptical when I first heard the term “geography”, and the concept that where you are, and even what position your body is in, can make such a big difference. But I can now say that I am a firm believer.

The best thing is that you do not have to drive 9 hours to my cottage to enjoy the benefits that Geography can give you. You could simply walk out the door and walk to the nearest park bench, or the local Starbucks. Or head to the airport and fly down south to sit on a beach, if you like.

The point is, where you are matters. It changes how you see things, how you think about things, how you feel, how you relate to others, and how you think about the future. When you bring along others you will learn things about them, and when you go alone, you will learn about yourself.

If your family is important to you, it makes sense to carefully consider where you get together. If you work in a family business, you probably have already experienced the fact that some people are better at separating “home” and “work” than others. When I started working fulltime for my Dad, I was still living at home, but within less than a year I couldn’t take it anymore and had to move out.

A family retreat is something that some business families try to incorporate into their schedules, as an opportunity to get everyone together, but in a different place, because they realize that “where” matters. The parents’ home is their place and their turf, even if you grew up there. The office is a place of work, and some of the stuff that needs to be discussed is not work related (even if it is some of the hardest work!).

Most families try to choose a resort location, and they try to make sure they have a variety of activities on the schedule, as well as lots of free unscheduled time, to allow people and smaller groups to interact as they please.

Whether your family is ready for this type of bonding activity or not is another question of course, but it will only happen when somebody decides that it is something worthwhile. And then it has to be followed up and repeated in the future in order to get some momentum.

Regardless of whether there are any family retreats in your future, I hope you will try out the geography theory that I am talking about. Notice how things look and feel different depending on where you are. And then when you get stuck, you will be able to try moving to a different space to change your perspective and get back on track.

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Patience: Important, mais le travail avant tout!

Plus tôt cette semaine, nous avons fait faire des travaux dans notre cour arrière par un paysagiste, avec qui nous faisons affaire depuis plus d’une dizaine d’années.

Après le départ des ouvriers, j’ai regardé les arbustes qu’ils venaient de planter, et pour un instant ou deux, j’étais un peu déçu par la petite taille de celles-ci.

Mais avec un peu de réflection, je me suis mis à sourire, en pensant que l’important soit fait: leur plantation. Pour le reste, il ne fallait que de la patience.

C’est important de faire preuve de patience dans plusieurs domaines, et aussi d’adopter une attitude positive, tout en développant notre capacité pour la gratification différée.

Mais la patience, l’attitude, et nos capacités d’attendre des récompenses ne sont pas suffisantes dans la plupart des cas.

Tout comme le paysagiste, qui avait fait le travail (et qui j’ai payé pour le faire), de planter ces nouvelles plantes, il est important de ne pas négliger qu’un certain effort est souvent nécessaire avant de pouvoir attendre patiemment.

Dans une famille en affaires, les parents qui font simplement attendre que leur enfant soit assez vieux pour venir travailler dans la compagnie, sans avoir pris le temps de l’éduquer et de lui préparer, seront sans doute déçus.

De l’autre côté de cette même médaille, le jeune qui s’attend à avoir un emploi, simplement parce qu’il fait partie de la famille, sans faire l’effort pour se faire éduquer et de se préparer pour ses fonctions, risque aussi la déception.

Quand viendra le temps de penser aux questions de succession de la compagnie, et/ou au transfert de l’entreprise à la futur génération, le travail de préparation devient encore plus important que la simple patience.

Si nous voulons une belle haie mature dans cinq ans, c’est aujourd’hui qu’il faut y penser. Ce n’est pas simplement en continuant dans les mêmes fonctions que nous allons éventuellement avoir développé les capacités de leadership et les structures de communications qu’il faudra.

Trop souvent la famille concentre ses efforts sur le côté de la “business” en croyant que toutes les questions du côté “famille” se règleront toutes seules. Ou, ils se disent qu’ils auront le temps d’y penser “plus tard”.

Si vous lisez ces lignes et vous reconnaissez des membres de votre famille, dites-vous que vous êtes loin d’être tout seul.

Mais dites-vous aussi que la patience ne règlera probablement pas la situation toute seule. Vous ne voyez peut-être pas les efforts que vous pouvez mettre immédiatement, mais laissez-moi vous donner quelques indices.

Pour moi le mot le plus important dans l’expression “entreprise familiale”, ce n’est pas “entreprise”, mais plutôt “familiale”. Quand on parle de famille, c’est parce que ce n’est pas simplement une personne, mais plusieurs.

“Ah oui,” je vous entend déjà, “mais chez nous, il y a vraiment seulement une personne qui prend toutes les décisions”.

Mais cette personne, (plus souvent qu’autrement c’est Papa), ne sera pas toujours là, et la famille a l’obligation de se préparer pour l’avenir. Oui, ça prend un effort, mais sans effort, la patience ne suffira pas.

Plusieurs personnes ça veut aussi dire plusieurs liens, et les liens peuvent devenir plus forts et plus serrés avec plus de communication. Parlez-vous des défis de la famille dans 5 ou 10 ans, dans divers scénarios.

Commencez à penser comment vous aller travailler ensemble quand Papa ne sera plus là. N’oubliez pas de parler avec Papa aussi! Il risque de ne pas vouloir en parler avec vous au début, mais s’il devient au courant de vos discussions entre vous, éventuellement il pourrait s’intéresser à vos pensées!

Attendre avec patience, même avec ses doigts croisés, ne donne pas souvent les résultats voulus. Mais avec un peu de travail, d’effort, de communication, de partage d’idées et de pensées, les chances que la patience soit récompensée sont beaucoup plus élevées.

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The Rules of Baseball and Family Business

My family and I just returned from my favourite US city, Chicago, where we had a whirlwind 72 hours that will henceforth be referred to as “Dad’s 50th Birthday trip”, even though my birthday came and went a few days prior to our departure.

We hit all the stops from Navy Pier to Lincoln Park Zoo, from the Architectural Tour on the Chicago River to the John Hancock Tower Observatory, and even hit Soldier Field for a Bears pre-season game on Friday night. And of course we sampled some deep dish Chicago pizza.

But the part that I will not soon forget was the Cubs game at Wrigley Field, which we took in from the Skybox on Sheffield, one of the many places that have sprung up in recent years located across the street from the venue where the Cubs play their home games.

I had always said “some day I want to catch a game from one of those places”, so this trip became “some day”. The game was not memorable for what happened on the field, though, with the Tampa Rays winning 4-0. It was memorable because of the conversations I had with my 13-year-old daughter.

I attend many sporting events, mostly with my son, and only occasionally with her. She had not seen live baseball, and asked me to explain it to her. “Cool”, I thought, “this should be fun”.

The first thing that struck me was that the terminology can be quite confusing to those unfamiliar with the nuances. To her words like “throw” and “pitch” were interchangeable, and anyone who caught a ball was a “catcher”, as opposed to a fielder.

Just like family business, I thought, where succession planning and leadership can become confusing to different people in different positions and with different levels of “inside knowledge”.

As I explained the stuff about 4 balls for a walk, three strikes and you’re out, etc, it also dawned on me that everyone has a limited capacity to absorb new information in one sitting. After a few innings, the explanations became less frequent.

The next time we see a ball game on TV, I know that I will be able to explain a bit more to her, as what I helped her learn on Saturday has sunk in and formed a baseline (no pun intended), and we have something to build on, incrementally.

One step at a time is usually my favourite way to go about things, and when you are getting your family more involved in your business dealings, or getting them up to speed on how you are running your business and how and where the family fits into the picture, it is usually a good idea to go slowly and add more information with time.

The most important parallel that I felt was that spending time with the ones you love, helping them to learn and understand something that you know about and care about, is just about the most rewarding thing you can spend time on.

As a teenager, I played baseball, coached baseball, and umpired baseball. The Expos moving to Washington 10 years ago broke my heart, as I was a fan and had hoped to bring my kids to games. My son understands the game, and I have brought him to games at Fenway Park, Camden Yards, Philly, and DC, but I know that if we still had an MLB team here I would not have waited this long to explain the game to my daughter.

If you have a family business, don’t wait to explain things to the ones you love, start as soon as they show an interest. Go slowly, but then let them decide if and when they want to get involved further, and please don’t push them.

I know that my daughter learned quite a bit about baseball, but I am pretty sure she enjoyed the Katy Perry concert at the United Center on Thursday more than the Cubs game. And I was happy to be there with her too.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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The Rising Generation in Family Business

Jay Hughes is one of the gurus of family business whose thinking on business families and subjects like succession and wealth transfer has been followed for decades.

Yesterday, along with 200+ other attendees at the annual Rendez-Vous of the Purposeful Planning Institute, I had the pleasure of hearing him speak live for the first time, and he did not disappoint.

Hughes talked at length about a variety of subjects, his points of view being described as “spot on” by some, “controversial” by others, and “an evolution of his thinking from just a couple of years ago” when he also delivered a keynote at the PPI gathering.

But one thing with which nobody I spoke to could argue, was the terminology he was encouraging us to use with respect to the various generations in a family business. Practitioners have long used the letter G (for generation) and then the series of numbers to describe the different generations.

While useful for some purposes, the continued use of this system when discussing current and near future issues can lead to plenty of negative connotations, and the entire missing of the point of much of the exercise.

You see, it is all well and good to say that XYZ-company is currently being managed by G2, and the founder (G1) has recently passed away, and some members of the cousin consortium (G3) are currently beginning to join the operations while others are starting college.

But with this numbering system, if I am born into G2, I will always be a G2, and my kids will be G3 and my grandkids G4. The usefulness of this nomenclature is limited, as it describes people in a static fashion, within their family/company only.

If I have a family client being run by G3, with G4 up and coming through the ranks, that G4 will have more in common with another client where the founding G1 is running the show and G2 is preparing to take more control. The G4 and G2 labels lose their benefit very quickly.

So here comes the “Rising Generation” to the rescue. Hughes pointed out that when we refer to the rising generation, it helps keep everyone focussed on the fact that every person, and hence every family, and every business, has a life cycle.

Some founders need to be reminded that they will not live forever. If they aspire to have the business continue to future generations, there will be some work required to instill the changes in leadership from the current generation to the next, and then from that one to the following one.

They do not have numbers in common as we repeat the cycle, but what we clearly do have is a sequence of “rising generations” whose roles, challenges, and responsibilites resemble each other in sequence, scope, and detail.

Any vocabulary that helps emphasize the importance of involving the next generation is a plus.

I recall about a year ago, when first hearing the term “continuity planning” to replace the worn out and misconstrued “succession planning”, I felt compelled to write a blog about it.

Once again, I am compelled to show my support for new terminology, so let’s hear it for the “rising generation”.

And here is hoping that many families take this to heart and will also be able to soon say “let’s hear it for the rising generation” when speaking of how well their up-and-coming family members are succeeding in leadership roles in their family enterprises.

And here is to family business advisors use of the term to keep the rising generation at the top of the agenda in all of their work, for the good of the business, and the good of the family.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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I Got My New Puppy! (My book is out)

Metaphors and analogies can be very powerful ways to explain concepts to people and to make certain points that are difficult to get across in other ways. I have a tendency to try to come up with a parallel story whenever I am trying to wrap my head around something new, if only to help me understand how things are connected together.

So this week’s blog is nothing new for me, but it may seem like a stretch to some. I came up with this one during a recent meeting with my business coach, Melissa, when she asked me how I felt now that my book is finally out.

Like any good coach, she asks great questions and listens without judgment to what I say, and when I get on a roll, she stays out of the way and lets me run with it.

I told her I felt like I just brought home a new puppy. What I meant was that I was thrilled that the day finally arrived, and this new addition was going to make my life so much more fun and interesting. But it also meant that everything was now different, and the work was only beginning.

About this time last year, I decided that I wanted to get a puppy in time for my 50th birthday, which is now only a week away. I spent the next couple of months trying to figure out what breed made sense for me. The parallel story is that I decided to write a book, and I knew it was going to be about family business, but I had not figured out the theme or the point of view yet.

A few months later, I had settled on the breed, and figured out the title, SHIFT your Family Business (Stop working IN your family business, Start working ON your business family). So at this point I had chosen both the breed and the breeder.

In January, I headed for the cottage for a little over a week, and returned with the outline, the first two chapters written, and all of the content for the rest of the book on a couple of hundred index cards. The doggy momma (tempted to use the B-word) was now pregnant, and I had a due date.

The pregnancy went well but felt long at times. There were some review steps with the publisher that I really did not understand, and I finally okayed the final print version about 6 weeks ago. The puppy was born, but I needed to wait until it was weaned from its mother before I could bring it home.

Two weeks ago, while on vacation in Europe, I got an email that told me that the puppy/book was now available. I immediately ordered the Kindle version, just to make sure that it actually worked and looked like I thought it should. (It did).

I then ordered a few copies, just to make sure that they would be delivered and that the book actually existed. They arrived a couple of days after we got back. Wow, cool, I got to hold my book in my own hands, what a feeling.

People congratulated me on the accomplishment, which was also cool.

But now the work truly begins. This puppy needs to be trained, it needs to get into the big dog shows, it needs to make a lot of new friends, it needs to have people like it and say nice things about it and it needs a lot of people to tell other people about it.

The fun and the work are just beginning. I just hope it doesn’t pee on the carpet too often.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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How the Family Governs the Family Business (Part 2 of 2)

We left off last week’s blog talking about some of the family members who are not employed in the family business, but whose lives are nonetheless affected by the business, as part of the general theme about how the family governs a family business.

Today we will use the airplane analogy to talk about how they can influence the business, as well as the responsibilities that come along with the benefits. We mentioned a few of the different generic players who might be involved:

– Alan/Alice (G2 child who is not employed),
– Betty/Ben (G2 in-law), and
– Chris (G3 potential future employee).

The day-to-day business is run by the employees, and the employees are usually managed by the senior executive(s) of the company. If there is a board of directors, the board appoints these executives.

Somewhere in that framework, there will be some sort of strategic plan that guides the company from month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter, and year-to-year. So what about the family? Let’s go to the airplane analogy.

The company is the airplane. It would seem crazy to simply allow Alan/Alice to decide that they wanted to fly the plane one day, by simple virtue of the fact that they are the child of the founder.

Similarly, if Betty/Ben were to insist that their family wanted to use the plane for a month for a long-dreamed-about trip around the world, this idea would be rejected.

And if Chris is thinking “It sure would be cool if I could borrow Grandpa’s plane to bring my buddies to Cancun for spring break”, this is probably not something that should be seriously considered.

But airplanes can be used in many different businesses. FedEx uses them to deliver packages, Doctors Without Borders uses them to fly to underserved countries to provide much needed medical services, and organized crime uses planes to move illegal drugs around from country to country.

What business is the family in? What business does the family want to be in? What business is the family good at? What business can the family be proud to be in? All of these questions are family questions.

When Grandpa started the company, these were not questions that were pondered. If, however, the family business is going to last more than a generation or two, these questions become crucial.

In order for the family to be involved in the answers to these questions, there needs to be some form of governance structure. How are decisions made? Who gets to have a say? How do we communicate? These are all really important questions that are part of transitioning from Grandpa’s start-up to the legacy, multi-generation company.

This is hard work, and when you think about it, not every company will have what it takes, and not every family will have what it takes, to make it happen.

While Alan/Alice, Betty/Ben, and Chris will rightly feel like part of the family and therefore part of the business, the benefits of ownership, if they are to enjoy them, come along with responsibilities as well.

The most common form of governance for the family is a sort of “Family Council”, which will represent the family’s interests regarding such questions as “what do we want to use our airplane for?” After all, it might have their name on it.

But for their say to be taken seriously, they must work together, in a formal way, to have their voice heard. And while initially Grandpa may have a hard time accepting that others want a say, the family’s best hope of being taken seriously is to work together, within a structure, as the family’s voice.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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How the Family Governs the Family Business (Part 1 of 2)

One of the most challenging aspects in dealing with business families, is getting everyone in the family to understand their role with respect to the family business. Some of the most successful families are the ones who have taken the time to properly explain the areas of overlap between the business and the family.

Members of the family who are employed by the company have most of their roles defined for them, as do all other employees. There are other roles that go beyond those of non-family employees as well, and these are some of the tricky areas.

In addition, there are usually many other members of the family who are not employees, but whose lives are very much interwined with the success of the business. These people often feel like outsiders, and sometimes feel torn by their feelings toward the business, due to certain ambiguities inherent in their situation.

Let me put a couple of generic examples in play here to help illustrate these points. Let’s take a second-generation company where the founder has a number of children, some of whom are employed in the business, and others who are not. Also, some of these G2 members are married and are starting families of their own.

(I will use the more typical male founder in my example, but this typical family is gender-neutral for our purposes).

Founder/Dad/Grandpa did not have to worry about these questions when he started out, and probably does not relish dealing with any questions that “dilute” his total control over the governing of his “baby” by anyone other than himself. With time, he will often come to realize that he must relinquish control of some aspects of the business, often to his children and other trusted employees. This, in and of itself, is already a huge step that many are unable to easily accomplish.

Now let us take it a step further, to where I really want to go with this example. If the family business is to REALLY succeed into future generations, the circle of people who are affected by it will continue to grow outward. Let us think just about 3 generic members of this family for illustrative reasons.

– Alan/Alice (G2 child who is not employed),
– Betty/Ben (G2 in-law), and
– Chris (G3 potential future employee).

All of these people’s lives are very much affected by the business. In the community, these people are viewed as part of the family and are considered by most outsiders are “part of the family” in every way. They are seen to be owners of the wealth of the business (even if they are not, or are only tangentially so).

Their public behavior in the community can also affect the reputation of the family and therefore the business as well, and not always in a positive fashion.

Their expectations of how they can, will, and should benefit from the business, now and in the future, are certainly something that they spend some time wondering about, and for good reason.

It can be very difficult to get founder Dad/Grandpa to ever even think about these issues without stirring up some negative feelings about these questions, feelings about how these people should just be grateful for what they will eventually get.

But the sooner these questions are addressed, the better. Next week, we will look at the analogy of the airplane as the family business. We will look at how the family gets to be involved in what the airplane will be used for, and also in who gets to actually fly the airplane, and under what circumstances.

We will also look at some of the benefits of ownership, which also come along with their own responsibilities.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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The Value of a Trusted Family Business Advisor

When I am asked in social situations what I do for a living, I reply with “I am a family business advisor”. The most common response to this is a quizzical look, as if to say “Is that a thing?”

And I must confess that for me, a few short years ago, it was not a “thing” in any sense of the word. As I get more involved with organisations of like-minded people, however, I am more convinced than ever in both the need for advisors like us, and the demand that we are creating for our services.

A recent story in the Globe & Mail, Ten reasons why family businesses fail, brought the subject back to the front burner for me. The story mentions, as reason #2, “Lack of trusted advisers.” It goes on to laud IFEA, the Institute of Family Enterprise Advisors, which I naturally endorse as well, being both a member and a graduate of their education program.

I would beg to differ a bit on the wording “Lack of Trusted Advisers”, however. I believe that in most cases, the family business leaders have many advisors in whom they place their trust. So there is no lack of advisors, in my opinion.

Does that mean that there is a lack of trust, then? Yes and No. I trust my mother with many things, but I would not ask her for legal advice. I also trust my lawyer, but I would not ask him for his advice on how to make those potato pancakes that I remember from my childhood. The point being, you trust different people for different things.

So what about the trusted family business advisors, then? This brings us back once again to IFEA, and also FFI (The Family Firm Institute), as two of the leading associations that bring together family business and family wealth advisors.

Both IFEA and FFI offer education and certification programs to people who advise family businesses. They also offer these people a community to share what they have learned, as well as a network of scholars who have been advancing the young field of family business advising at an ever-increasing pace.

What I was referring to above when disputing the choice of words in “lack of trusted advisers” was more about the semantics of “not trusting their advisers on the most important matters”. I always like to point out that family businesses have plenty of advisers for their business concerns, but far fewer resources to help them with their family concerns.

Combine this with the statement that more family businesses fail because of “family reasons” than “business reasons”, and you start to understand why I believe that there is a huge potential to develop advisors who understand the overlap between family and business.

Once family business leaders understand that there are advisors like us out there, they trust us with matters in these key areas. What are some of those areas? Glad you asked.

I usually break them down into three major areas: Facilitation, Coaching, and Mediation.

Facilitation is about how a group works together, and making things easier (plus “facile” in French) by acting as a go-between and interpersonal communication expert.

Coaching, for me, is mostly about bringing individuals to their true potential, helping them over obstacles, bringing out their best selves.

Mediation is necessary when there is a conflict that seems unsolveable between parties, unless and until they get outside help, from a qualified mediator. Too many families wait until they reach this stage before bringing in outside help.

Every family business advisor that I know would prefer to come in sooner, before mediation is needed. But if that is when and where the need is felt, we will gladly provide that assistance as well.

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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Creating the Family Business Legacy You Want

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I believe that just about every family business founder wants the same thing. In the short term, there are many ways to achieve it, but in the long run, due to human nature, not only business people, but all people, want to be remembered fondly and to have their efforts appreciated.

No, I do not have any statistical evidence, and I have not done any surveys, but if we just take a quick look at the opposite situation, how many people do you know who want to be remembered as a scoundrel and being despised? Yes, there are some, but thankfully they are in the minority.

What this blog is about in general is family business, and today’s topic is legacy. I truly believe that every family business founder wants to create a lasting positive legacy. Of course one of the traits that many of these people also have is that they believe that they are going to live forever.

Getting these people to actually commit to doing some serious succession planning, or as it is now more commonly referred to, continuity planning, is a huge problem, but we will get to that again in a future post. Today I want to talk about a pre-requisite that I believe must be present, but which is not spoken about enough.

So what is this mystery element that “must” be present? I like to call it Family Harmony. Despite their best attempts to avoid it, every single one of us will die some day, and there will be others that we will leave behind. It is up to those people we leave behind to ensure the positive legacy of the family business, and/or the business family.

This example has been used in this space before, but it was in one of my occasional French blog posts, and since I get more English readers, it is time to translate it.

Even those of us who have never been camping will surely have driven by a campsite or seen a tent structure before. In my analogy, your legacy is the tent. We can see the tent, how big it is, its shape, its colour.

The tent also provides lots of utility, in economics parlance. Shelter from the elements, safety, a place to gather and be together, often as a family.

Imagine for a moment that you only packed the shell of the tent, and you forgot the structural elements at home in the garage. Without any support to hold the tent up, without any pegs to hold it down in place, I think that this camping trip will likely be called off, or else be deemed sub-optimal. “Did we pass any motels lately?”

In my analogy, the pegs that hold the tent in place, and the support pieces that hold the structure up in a useful form, are the family harmony that you need to support the legacy that you want.

I realize that in this blog I have not proven this to be true, and those who do not want to believe it can do so if they choose. But please think about this, and share this example with others if you are a believer.

Too many business founders spend so much time making the proverbial pie bigger and bigger, without spending enough time thinking about how the pie will survive, how it will be grown or preserved after they are gone, and how those left behind can benefit from the pie for generations to come.

It does not happen by itself, and the harmony in the family is one of the biggest determinators of how well their legacy will survive.

Yes, it means that you need to discuss the fact that you will die one day. Get over it. Your legacy depends on it.

 

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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Looking for the “Real Will”

I came across a crazy news story last week, and since it is tangentially related to matters that I like to blog about, I thought it would be worth tackling. Here are both the headline and the subhead that made me click the link.

3 accused in desecration of Colebrook grave
Grave desecration related to inheritance, police say
In case you are interested in the whole backstory, here is a link:
http://tinyurl.com/RealWill
Here is my “Reader’s Digest” version of what happened. Local businessman dies. Ten years later (yes, 10 years) one of his daughters engages the help of some friends to go and dig up his grave, convinced (somehow) that he was buried with the “Real Will”.

There are a few elements to this story that I found surprising, the first of which is the location, in New Hampshire. For whatever reason I had figured that it would more likely have taken place in any number of other US states, none of which I will name here, I will let you use your imagination and choose your “favourite” state.

Another surpise was the time that elapsed between the burial and the desecration. We can assume that the daughter was not happy with the way the estate was settled, but why did she decide to wait ten years to act on it?

We will get away from this specific story and move on to more general comments in a moment but not before asking the obvious question: “Who the heck would bury someone with the “real will”, or any will, for that matter?”

Okay, end of rant. So what really went on here, and how could all this have been avoided?

Well for one thing, if the businessman had taken the time to inform his family members of the contents of his will, while he was still alive, I think it is pretty safe to assume this scene would have been avoided.

Maybe some people reading this think I am crazy for thinking that sharing the contents of your will with others is a good idea, and that would not surprise me.

A few weeks ago I was in Vancouver for the CAFÉ (Cdn Assoc. of Family Entrprises) Symposium. Tom Deans, author of the book “Willing Wisdom”, was one of the keynote speakers.

Deans talked about getting family members involved and writing a”collaborative will”. He admits that sometimes his message is not well received, and many people look at his proposition with great scepticism.

I am not one of those people, and I believe that he and I are singing from the same page. In my soon-to-be-released book, SHIFT your Family Business, you will be able to read my take on the subject of working together with your family on important issues like your legacy.

Collaboration and communication are two important aspects of business families that often do not get the recognition that they should.

The more people work together on something, and have a hand in how it is put together, the more likely they are to support it in the future. Whether it is a family business, other family assets or wealth, or simply a will that lays out someone’s wishes, it doesn’t much matter.

Get your loved ones involved, or at the very least let them know what is in your will, so that they won’t be surprised and disappointed later. If that means disappointing them now, and you want to avoid that, well then you have some things to work on, don’t you?

And for God sakes make sure that they don’t bury you with the “Real Will”.

But your kids are smarter than that, right?

Steve Legler “gets” business families.
 
He understands the issues that families face, as well as how each family member sees things from their own viewpoint.
 
He specializes in helping business families navigate the difficult areas where the family and the business overlap, by listening to each person’s concerns and ideas.  He then helps the family work together to bridge gaps by building common goals, based on their shared values and vision.
 
His background in family business, his experience running his own family office, along with his education and training in coaching, facilitation, and mediation, make him uniquely suited to the role of advising business families and families of wealth.
 
He is the author of Shift your Family Business (2014), he received his MBA from the Richard  Ivey School of Business (UWO, 1991), is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute, 2002), a Family Enterprise Advisor (IFEA 2014), and has received the ACFBA and CFWA accreditations (Family Firm Institute 2014-2015).
 
He prides himself on his ability to help families create the harmony they need to support the legacy they want. To learn how, start by signing up for his monthly newsletter and weekly blogs here.
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