Family Leadership Strategies

70 Families should cast the net wide, set high expectations, and encourage all to aspire to the wide range of leadership roles, and then observe and provide feedback on a periodic basis. Ultimately, one or more strong candidates will emerge in each of the essential roles: governance, informal, enterprise, or family leader. Therefore, families must create a process to identify, periodically evaluate, and narrow down candidates over time in a manner that encourages all but filters down to the most promising. Often, families evaluate candidates on the following: • Interest and motivation: Is the motivation to lead present, sincere, and compelling? • Education: Has the necessary educational foundation been established? • Emotional development: Is there well-balanced emotional intelligence and temperament? • Experience: Has there been a diversity of successful experiences in and out of the family business? • Judgment: Is there consistent quality in making important decisions? As the transition moves from preparation to action, families who successfully navigate leadership transitions typically display the following five key characteristics: Acknowledgment and communication Successful families recognize the need to proactively manage the development of future family leaders. Although it might be assumed that successful and affluent families would automatically do so, that is not often the case. Why? Mortality, deeply held feelings of control, pride, interpersonal dynamics, lack of readiness among heirs, and self-perceptions make this a difficult topic for many to discuss. Although it is rare for family principals to disavow the importance of leadership succession, they may put little effort and few resources into creating a robust process. This results in initiatives that are begun far too late in the leadership succession cycle, or even not at all. Effective family transition practices begin with a sincere dialogue among key family members on the importance of leadership succession. This