Consulting
Family Business Consulting
A successful business and a family to match? You can have both.
Family businesses are complex. Relationships, communication, organizational hierarchies—these pieces of leadership are tough to manage in a regular company, but are twice as challenging when you report to your parents or an older (or younger!) sibling; or the cousins you spent summers with are also your coworkers.
Finding the right balance is crucial to the success of family businesses both now and into the future—and that’s where I can help. With over 20 years of experience in psychology and coaching high-performance leaders, I work with family businesses to ensure they maintain their close-knit relationships and position their businesses to grow for generations to come.
Reasons to Work With a Family Business Consultant
Here are just a few of the scenarios I’ve coached my clients through:
Planning Successions & Transitions
What may have started as the passion of one individual is now a name that’s been part of your family, your community, and even the world for decades—and succession planning ensures it will be part of that fabric for many more.
Strengthening Multi-Generational Teams
I’ve helped multiple family generations come together more effectively by preparing the younger generation to step up and the older generation to hand over the reins with confidence.
Bringing in Non-Family Leadership
Through group coaching, we work to make sure those not part of the family dynamic still feel like they’re a part of the team and are confidently able to perform their role—including bringing up issues to the family.
Improving Overall Communication
When decisions are made by and with your loved ones, it’s tough to manage emotions personally and professionally. I make sure burnout and family feuds are kept at a minimum through positive psychology and a focus on communication that will permeate through your business and family roles.
Want to protect your legacy and your family from falling apart?
Let’s talk about your goals and how I can help you achieve them.
Individual Leader & Leadership Team Coaching
I tailor all coaching to the needs of your family business and offer executive coaching in addition to group coaching packages for leadership teams.
Clients have reported several fantastic results, including:
A smooth transition or succession from one generation to the next — even when previous attempts have failed
Being able to identify and leverage individual strengths to make business a positive environment for everyone
Increased revenue, improved reputation and better relationships with spouses, family members, and coworkers
Increased focus, productivity, and efficiency for individuals within the business
Coaching for Family Business Executives
Balancing leadership development with family dynamics and values
How Executive Coaching Can Help Your Family Business
Better communication and improve your relationship with your family—both in and out of work. When you work with your family, the lines between professional and personal can get blurry quickly. You’re aware that you need to draw lines between the two—for your own well-being as well as your family’s, but don’t know where to begin.
Identify—and leverage— your Zone of Genius so you’re able to spend more of your working time in your “sweet spot.” Knowing both what you're best at—and what’s most meaningful to you—will lead to more engaging and fulfilling work.
Achieve your goal of a promotion or increased income, or for owners, increased customers and clients. Perhaps you’re being asked to take on a new role within your family’s business, or you’re looking to be considered for a new opportunity, and you know what got you to where you are won’t get you to where you want to be.
Team Leadership Coaching for Family Businesses
Uniting around a shared vision to ensure your family’s legacy
You might consider leadership coaching if your businesses’ executive team is:
Looking to align on a big decision that will affect the trajectory of the family business, such as a leadership change, a change management initiative, an upcoming merger or acquisition
Consistently experiencing conflict or breakdowns in communication, or communication is becoming siloed
Struggling with “getting unstuck” when it comes to strategic vision or taking the next steps toward your organization’s growth while simultaneously navigating the emotionally-charged elements of being part of a family dynamic
Is bringing a new member of the family into the leadership team, or is hiring a non-family members to be part of the leadership team who needs to build trust and align quickly
How Does Team Leadership Coaching Work?
I design team coaching for family businesses based on the needs and goals of the leadership team. However, I will say there are a few pieces all coaching engagements have in common:
I see coaching as a developmental process. Teams commit to working together on a regular basis, and we work through a series of group sessions, trainings, workshops, and other experiences that focus on learning and accountability. It’s an active engagement process—no lectures here.
I’m dedicated to your team’s change. Because we’re focusing on the team as its own system instead of a particular member of the team, my goal is to make sure the group is actually seeing a change—and that you’re committed to working on those actions together. As in life as in business, families are strongest when they’re all working toward the same vision.
I’m focused on making the uncomfortable comfortable. Hard conversations are a critical part of business—and they’re a large part of family dynamics as well. No matter how long you’ve worked with your sisters, or parents, or other family members, the difficult conversations and tough decisions don’t get any easier—in fact, they might get harder when history and emotion comes into play. Organizations bring me in when they know they have to push leadership conversations along.