Family Leadership Strategies

62 Who’s in charge . At the end of the day, the most senior leader in the family ‘owns’ the transition process. This means he or she makes the tough choices during the transition, as leaders they cannot abdicate that responsibility even as they seek to transfer stewardship to the next generation. If the shoe does not fit . If a successor is not interested or is not ready for the leadership role, under no circumstances should the matter be forced. Very few things have a higher probability of failure than compelling an unwilling or unqualified candidate to ‘do it for the family’. Similarly, nepotism is a recipe for failure in most families, if compelling family enterprise leaders are not present, the only answer is to seek experienced non-family executives to lead the enterprise. Leaders must lead . Successors need to bring forth a vision and execute it in order to inspire and win over the trust of the family and key stakeholders. Timid and halting behavior should be balanced against overly ambitious actions to find the ‘right’ balance. Nothing has to be for forever . Acknowledging and correcting mistakes implies that changes can be made to roles and plans, well after the succession handover. If performance or circumstances dictates changes to leadership roles, or their scope of responsibility, families must act to make such changes.