Beginning Your Family Meetings
Podcast Episode 11 is live!
We released Episode 11 of the podcast - Hosting Family Meetings (and Leaving the Company)!
Click below to listen; and please Follow the show to get new episodes:
Here is a preview:
“How do I get my uncle to talk about this stuff?”
In this episode, Andrea Carpenter from the Transition Strategists and I began talking about leaving a family company, and this led to discussing family meetings.
We pivoted our exit conversation because mine had its gradual roots in a specific Family ACTion Meeting (alignment, communication, trust) with my siblings, parents and our family business consultant. That prompted Andrea to ask me, if families have not had a family meeting yet, or for a while, how can they start?
I shared two fairly vanilla sounding questions (though they are not bland in substance!):
On a scale of 0-5, is your family working better together now than 12 months ago?
Would your other family employees and owners (and perhaps members) have the same score?
These questions help families see that the way they work in and own the company together is its own inner family business, a separate entity in the heart of their organization. The prompts are similar to asking a family executive, “Is your company better or worse than it was last year? Do your leaders agree?”
Different than KPI or revenue related matters, an inner family business focus opens the door to family employee and owner issues that may be simmering -
When are we going to start transitioning ownership, or are we?
Am I paid below market because I’m family?
Are we prioritizing growth or shareholder liquidity?
In the podcast, Andrea and I give a few ideas for how to kickstart a family meeting conversation. I hope you enjoy the podcast!
Till the next episode…
As you listen, click below and find a time for us to connect, I’m curious what comes up for you. And as my grandfather would have said, thank you so very, very much.
- Adam Hatcher, for Twenty One Clear
