Family Leadership Strategies

50 Inception The polar opposite of alignment, inception is simply the starting point. In this scenario, all parties are not yet on the same page, either because the essential dialogue has not occurred, or there may be meaningful differences of opinion. For example, a senior may be on board with a transition but is uncertain of the timing or who will assume leadership roles. Equally, successor candidates may be uncertain of their family’s expectations or desires with respect to their role. It is also possible to regress from one of the other quadrants back to inception. This may be due to any number of factors such as the successor’s readiness to lead, the senior’s willingness to relinquish authority, timing, or even events beyond the family’s control — for example, sudden illness or death. Inception state strategies Most often, successors and seniors find in each other a mixture of support and resistance to the change. A good starting point is to identify where each party sit on a scale from resistance to support. Ideally, seniors — whether in a family or enterprise leadership role — initiate the leadership transition conversation as early as possible. Often, a board of directors will drive the process. An optimal time frame for seniors to create a leadership transition plan is about eight to ten years prior to the handover. This allows for the development of family candidates, or a shift in strategy to internal non-family or external non-family candidates. However, if time does not allow for an eight to ten-year ramp-up in the transition process, at a minimum, a three-year plan is desirable and advisable. Age, infirmity, illness, and death may alter established plans, but generally executive leadership transition handovers happen when a leader is in his or her sixties, and a successor in his or her late thirties to forties. Governance and family leadership transitions often require less lead time and take place based upon need and candidate readiness.