When Business is All in the Family
March 4, 2009
The challenges of running a business are huge. They inspire us in ways that we didn’t know they could. Imagine, if you will, these challenges, and then add family to the stew!! Sometimes it is a wonderful stew and some times it is a witches brew.
When I asked a prospective client why she called me, she said, “It’s my employees” she said, “they act like children.”
Two of the employees, I discovered, were her chilvdren. They were key managers. They were acting like children because they were her children. The ones that weren’t her children were working for her children. They patterned themselves after their boss, her children. Later, I observed that not only did they act like her children in the workplace, but, indeed, she acted like their mother. Statements among the three of them were like, “I feel betrayed.” “That is just childish.” This is not exactly the kind of language you’d expect to hear between a boss and an employee. Boss employee language might be something like, “you did not give the support in this situation we had agreed upon,” or, “you did not perform this task correctly.” The language was personal rather than professional.
The approach that has the potential of solving the business problem while supporting the family involves attention to both the business and personal. It involves recognizing that while business and personal in the family should be different, that is not always the case.
Acknowledging this reality results in the potential for a more profitable business and a happier Family.
How this is done is as different as families and businesses are different, but it is what Business Coach Chuck does.
Family and Small Business: Effective Relationships
December 19, 2008
A happy family is 80% support and 20% accountability.
A successful business is 80% accountability and 20% support.
In other words, in a happy family, if a family member has a bad day, home is a place to retreat, renew, refresh and be loved regardless. In a successful business, if a member has a bad day, week, quarter or year – we want to know why and how is that going to be different next time. In a healthy family, a reasonable dose of accountability keeps us from enabling self-defeating behavior. In a successful business – there is enough support to let the individual know that they have a team behind them. It’s the proportion of one to the other that distinguishes the personal from the professional.
When these proportions get altered significantly, dysfunction erupts. If one feels like home is too demanding, then joy leaves one’s life while if the work place gets “too understanding” of failure then, well, failure results.
No wonder then that family businesses are often such treacherous places. Without clear distinctions between work and home, families and or their business can fall into disarray.
The same thing is often true of small businesses, where relationships within the business may begin more personal than business.
Working with families and small businesses to create healthier relationships for happier personal lives and more successful businesses is a very high priority with Coach Chuck.
Business Coach Chuck @ 973-670-7215
Getting Hardnosed about the Soft Side of Business
November 27, 2007
When involved in a business transition, the business owner typically focuses on:
· What’s the bottom line?
· Cut to the chase – what are the numbers?
Unless the transition that we are talking about is the sale of the business, for which the owner is going to get cash, the bottom line is only one snapshot in a dynamic moment in time. “The Bottom Line,” that which we tend to be hardnosed about, is the result of everything that is done and market conditions and all kinds of “The Soft Side” of business.
Business transitions are as simple as moving from one business season to the next and as complex as purchasing a business to merge with an ongoing business. A Business transition may be creating sales oriented staff from a group that is currently task oriented. A transition may be selling the business wherein the owner is going to get paid over time or buying a business where you are going to pay over time. A transition is any change in business. When there is a change there is a transition. The one thing we can rely upon is change. Therefore, transition is part of business. The more that transition is built into the business, the faster reaction time the business can have.
So, what does a transition business coach do? We get very clear about what the business owner wants to transition into. We get very clear about what the reality of the situation is presently. We get a handle on what is going to be required to make that transition. What is going to need to be different? Then we coach toward an assessment of the current staff, clients, market, vendors or who or whatever is relevant to that change. Included in this coaching process are the vision, mission and intention of the owner and key players.
The result will be a strengths and needs assessment along with a strategy and coaching toward implementation for the soft side of business transition. Additionally, the foundation will be in place for the recognition of ongoing transition so that change, in the future will be an ongoing intentional part of business rather than being treated as a problem.
Cutting to the chase, the point of all of this is, of course, a better bottom line!!
Coach Chuck973-670-7215
Do the Employees Appreciate Me?
April 17, 2007
If you have a family or small business and you find yourself asking this question to yourself of employees and partners then you are getting business and personal relations confused.
Example:
A business owner (whom we will call Mary) realized her manager (whom we will call John) really did not like to work Saturdays. Recently Mary hired a person to come in every other Saturday, thereby giving John the day off. Something came up in Mary’s personal life and she had to call John and ask him to work a double shift. John agreed to. Mary Further offered to work for him on the following Saturday (a day he would normally have had to work). He agreed to that too.
It came to Mary’s attention that John had a really lousy attitude that day and even told a customer that he didn’t feel like doing something because – “I’ve been here since seven this morning and I will be here till nine tonight.” Additionally, John was beginning to act like the owner. Mary had come to rely on John but she was getting very uncomfortable.
This is a situation doomed to blow up. It happens all the time. If the people involved are family members, it is even more explosive.
As for as John is concerned, he still has to work every other Saturday and he is annoyed about that. As for her working for him on Saturday in exchange for working for him … he feels that she is putting personal matters ahead of the business which he would not be allowed to do. In his mind, his power is growing. Perhaps he has even made people think he is the owner. The fact that Mary can call in and just say she’s not coming in (which is how he interprets what she did) and he can’t creates a resentment.
The underlying problem here is that John is not clear as to what his position is. Why? Probably because Mary was so overworked that when he began taking more and more over, she was happy to let him. Michael Gerber, of Emyth, describes this as abdicating responsibility as opposed to delegating responsibility.
Defining position expectations is key.
Coach Chuck
973-670-7215
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