Family Leadership Strategies

75 Understanding motivations Families who successfully navigate complex transitions understand the motivations of the key participants. What is often said during a transition conversationmaynot reflect thetrueunderlyingmotivationsof theparticipants. Occasionally, seniors or successors may themselves not be in touch with their true feelings about giving up or assuming leadership responsibilities. Creating a relationship, environment, and process that allow for the expression of true feelings, and articulating, hearing, and challenging those feelings will enhance the likelihood of success. For some, this may be a more natural process, but for most it requires a skilled facilitator 3 and many hours of candid conversation to expose underlying feelings gradually. While this may sound painful, it need not be, and in any event it is less painful than the disorientation and failure that may result when motivations are misunderstood or ignored. In spite of best efforts, not every family member actually wants to lead or even be involved in family endeavors. This is particularly true for multi- generational enterprises where the pressure to emulate the success of past family members can be quite intense. A recent Citi Private Bank global survey showed that half of respondents who were in line to run the family enterprise, actually did not want to be part of the family business 4 . This is a striking but not entirely surprising response. Arguably, such resistance to joining the family enterprise is an age-old phenomenon, the only difference being today’s young adults feel a greater freedom to pursue their own interests. Regardless, a best practice among families who successfully navigate these waters is to embrace open communication, make no assumptions, be flexible and encourage a range of options while making the family’s needs clear and, in the end, accept that decisions are not made for the whole of life. Often family members will enter or exit the business after having pursued other vocations or passions. Similarly, a senior may profess a willingness to transition from his or her leadership role but find numerous reasons to resist, delay, or sabotage the process due to unresolved conflicts over his or her future, role in the family, or fear of turning over responsibility to someone less experienced. Six best practices for succession