360 Slam Dunk! – Preparing your successor for business succession

As a sports enthusiast, when I hear the term “360 slam dunk,” images of Michael Jordan soaring through the air high above the rim in a Chicago Bulls jersey flash through my mind, which I assume is the case for some of you as well. Unfortunately, this article is not about how to do a 360 dunk a la Michael Jordan but rather the benefit of utilizing a 360 Assessment as a successor preparation tool. The utilization of a 360 Assessment to help identify leadership gaps and coaching opportunities for prospective successors can be an invaluable tool. To read the end of this article, click here.

Where in the World Did You Get The Idea That People Never Change?

Sometimes our beliefs hold us back.  I am talking about what we consider to be “a fact”.  If I had more time and room, I could cite comment after comment that was proven to be inaccurate.  Perhaps one of my favorite misquotes is attributed to a former Director of the Patent Office, who supposedly said in 1899 “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”  There’s really no proof that Charles Duell ever said that, so I use it to prove my point and not to trash the former Director. To read the end of this article, and find more like it, click here.

How to Use Coaching to Develop Successor Leaders

Studies conducted by various authors and organizations indicate that it is becoming increasingly difficult to be a successful leader.  In fact, among the Fortune 500 CEOs over the last 20 years, 30% have lasted fewer than 3 years. According to the Harvard Business Review, an astonishing 40% of new CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job.   Statistics like those aren’t important.  Usually.  But suppose we’re talking about your successor.  Do you want your successor – and in a family owned business that means your daughter or son – to be one of those casualties or do you want them to become part of the 60% who succeed? To read the end of this article, click here.

The SOAKWU Epidemic: The Great Threat to Succession Success

Recently a client – Steve – expressed great concern about complacency.  “I think it’s creeping into the organization and the family; and I’m not sure I know what to do about it.  Our numbers still look good, but we seem to have lost the ‘fire in the belly’ that drove us for so many years.”  When I asked him to be more specific, he talked about “cruise control” management; “no one is as good as we are and we’ve paid our dues attitudes”; and entitlement episodes among immediate family members. To read the end of this article, and more like it, click here.

Successor Development - Trust the Trustworthy

As I go about the closely held business market working with clients and meeting prospects, Successor Preparation and Development and Exit Strategy are very active subjects. The states of mind I encounter in these business owners range from peace and excitement of their impending succession to turmoil and anxiety. Those at peace tend to have a diversity of interests beyond the business and are excited about what they will be doing when they transfer leadership and management responsibility. They are also excited about what their successors will do when they get their time at the plate as they’ve spent quality time and effort training and mentoring them. These owners are proud of their achievements with respect to making the business not dependent upon them. They neither profess perfection nor expect perfection recognizing that their successors will make mistakes and learn from them just as they once did. Most of these at peace owners believe that their successors need to hit only about as well as Hall of Famer, Ted Williams (.402), to take the business to even higher levels of success.   Click here to read the end to this blog.

Leadership Succession - Whom Do I Develop?

Not too long ago, I spoke to a fairly large gathering of people involved in Human Resources, Organizational Development, and Talent Management.  Some worked for privately held businesses, some worked for the publicly held sector, and some worked for the government sector.  Regardless of their affiliation, all had questions about what groups of people get the benefit of development dollars. When this topic inevitably came up, I shared a story that goes back more than fifteen years.  My client and I were finishing the definition of the scope of the development project under negotiation.  Tom made it clear that he wanted family members involved, and then he added, “I don’t have to do everyone do I?”  To that I replied, “Of course not, Tom.  You just tell me whom you want to leave ineffective and non-productive; and we’ll skip right over them.”  Tom decided to include everyone. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Successor Development and Talent Management: What Makes It So Hard?

Companies like to say that people are their greatest asset.  If that’s really true, why are so many organizations unprepared for facing the challenges associated with recruiting, selecting, and retaining the right people in the right seats?   According to one COO I interviewed recently, “Talent management puts you under strain because it stops you from doing what you are rewarded for.”  This COO’s sentiment, one that I find many executives agree with, is one of the major obstacles to developing talent, family or otherwise: people simply don’t believe that’s what they’re paid to do. Click here to read the end of this blog.

OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE

Take a close look at the run together letters above?  Now, without changing the sequence of the letters, break those twenty letters into a sentence. If you've had a particularly difficult day or few days, your sentence might read "Opportunity is nowhere."  That's most likely the case if you've gotten disappointing results after completing the "Where Are My People" (WAMP) analysis discussed in my previous blog post.  All of a sudden, you have no successor and things aren't looking real bright when it comes to the key managers and leaders within your organization either.  You might be thinking, "What have I done with that list of business brokers?  I know it's around here somewhere." Click here to read the end of this blog.

Did Your Successor Just Leave?

Sometimes a telephone ring sounds ominous.  When I answered a call from Cliff last Wednesday, that proved to be the case.  "You're not going to believe what just happened.  Jack came into my office and told me he is leaving in two weeks!  I can't believe it - he's the person I've been counting on to be my successor! Now what do I do?" "You start looking for another one," I replied.  "And this time, let us help you find someone who really wants to be number one of your organization and fits your culture.  Ambition may open the door.  It's commitment that keeps what's inside appealing." Click here to read the end of this article.

4 Keys for Picking the Successor that is Best For Your Business

There is another Dan Schneider walking around somewhere is the U.S.A.  I don't know where he lives, but I know a little bit about what he does.  Apparently his skill sets include acting, television productions, and related work that particularly attract the attention of early teens. I know this because someone who publishes celebrity phone numbers on the web has posted my office and cell phone numbers on that site.  So, when I get calls now asking if I am the "famous Dan Schneider", I simply say "Yes, I am the famous succession planner; the other guy is the movie star/television producer." Click here to read the end of this blog.

Business and Family Communication - How to Disagree, Agreeably

Disagreement is guaranteed to happen in life. How we deal with it is what we get to decide. One of my partners, Dan Schneider, explains below the four primary communication styles and how we can identify those to help us disagree agreeably.   Disagreeing agreeably with others is an art form.  For some of us, it’s intuitive and comes quite naturally.  For others, it’s a learned behavior driven by unpleasant experiences at home with family or at work with business associates.  And, then there’s that group that just never seems to learn how to disagree without proving themselves disagreeable.  They just get nasty and treat every conversation as an interrogation. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Want to Get Management More Involved In Developing Ideas? Try the Incubator Approach

When it comes to creativity, most of us have won the genetic lottery.  Trouble is, most of us get trapped in a “good enough” comfort zone, even when “good enough” isn’t.  It’s not that we don’t have the tools to grapple with business, family, and succession problems and challenges; it’s that we have chosen to use someone else’s best practices.  That can be a fatal flaw when it comes to succession planning. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Debate vs Brainstorming - Which One Actually Generates the Results You Want

Some people like to think out loud.  In fact, they must talk in order to think.  They love brainstorming; it’s how they create their map of reality.  The problem is that they think everyone else has to engage in the same technique in order to have an abundance of good ideas.  As a result, they subject whatever group they happen to be playing with – family, business, community – to the same process of “out loud” and “out of the box” thinking. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Family Business: How Do I Play with My Predecessor's Team?

At some point in time, the ownership and leadership batons are going to be passed to the next generation.  When that happens, there's going to be some level of trauma for everyone involved, including the new owner/leader.  When the company becomes "yours", it comes with a team of leaders and advisors that you may or may not like and whom you may or may not trust.  If you are the successor, how do you make the best of this situation? Click here to read the end of this blog.

Living in Dad's Shadow

“My father is so good at everything he does.  Everything he touches seems to turn into gold.  He is revered by his employees and respected in the community. I am not sure I will ever be as good as my father!” These were recent sentiments shared with me by the child of a successful business owner. Have you ever wondered what it would be like being a son or daughter in a successful family-owned business? On one hand, the perception is that it is such a blessing since business success affords the opportunity to enjoy some of the finer things in life. On the other hand, being the son or daughter in a family business can be quite challenging because the microscope is always upon you and at times it appears surpassing Dad’s or Mom’s accomplishments is insurmountable. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Keys for Resolving Conflict in the Family Business

Recently one of my partners and I were facilitating a meeting between a father and his daughter to work through some mismatched expectations between them in the family business. We had already had several prep meetings laying the ground-work for aligning their expectations, which were all positive and headed in the right direction. They were both excited that we were going to be able to help them get some things out on the table as they typically would avoid one another and leave issues unresolved. Click here to read the end of this blog.

Entitlement - How to Eliminate the Threat to Business Success

What is going on with the boss’ kids? Will the boss fire me if I tell him the truth? How much can I take before I blow and get fired?  Those are common questions asked by the unfortunate employees who are stuck dealing with family business terrorists: enabled kids who think and act by different standards than everyone else who has had to earn their way in the business. The damage associated with enabled family member employees is brutal, and almost always substantially reduces the probability of successful succession. Enablement blocks successor preparation. As we all encounter, experience, and recognize the high price of family member entitlement, the question is: how can this cultural disease be prevented or cured? To read the end of this article, click here.

Entitled Family Member Employees – Who is to Blame?

So how is it that entitled brats can make their way into otherwise healthy family businesses devouring efficiency, productivity and teamwork? What is it that blinds a hard working, highly experienced, bright business owner to the ridiculous, sophomoric behavior of their children or in-laws who have become profound impediments to the successful continuation of the business through the next generation of owners and managers? Apparently, there are no black and white answers to these questions. Otherwise, I would not be witnessing this pandemic of family business chaos. Otherwise, there would be active dialogue and “How To” books on this subject from family therapist colleagues. Otherwise, I would be encountering “conscious incompetent” business owners who would be saying “We know what we are doing wrong, we know how to fix it, but we just cannot make it happen”.  To the contrary, what I am seeing are “unconscious incompetent” business owners who are excited to have their kids in their business and just don’t have a clue that their business is on the road to crisis, decline, and a significantly reduced probability of “Succession Success”. To read the end of this article, click here.

How to Deal With Entitled Family Member Employees

As a family business succession planner I am intrigued with the ten interdependent factors of the Succession Matrix℠: Owner Motivation and Perspective; Successor Identification and Development; Key Manager Motivation and Retention; Strategic Planning; Business Structuring; Management Synergy and Teamwork; Business Performance; Financial Planning; Family Harmony and Family Governance. According to the International Succession Planning Association® (ISPA®), each of these factors independently and interdependently impacts the successful continuation of a closely held family business through the next generation of owners and managers. Each of these factors can be an asset or a liability to the achievement of business succession planning goals. To read the end of this blog, click here.

8 Must Haves In an Executive Coach

Performance coaching produces results that many organizations find wanting in the traditional performance management and appraisal culture.  The major difference is that coaching occurs in real time; and performance appraisal is retrospective and occurs – usually – well after the fact.  The practical impact is that coaching is appreciated and performance appraisal is resented. Theoretically, every manager/leader should also be a coach to direct reports.  Maybe, someday, that will happen.  Imagine the impact on the organization from a personal and professional development standpoint if managers understood how to be an effective coach. To read the end of this article and more like it, click here.