Hope for Your Family Company
Twenty One Clear's January Newsletter
Hey there, and welcome to the January newsletter. I want to share three things with you this month, all related to your inner family business:
Hope for your family company
A thought on the decisions you make and how you make them
Laughter
1 - Hope for Your Family Company
Melissa Mitchell-Blitch, author of In the Company of Family, and I recorded a couple podcast episodes together this week.
We ended our time with a quick word of encouragement for family companies; I hope you enjoy it, and look for the next podcast dropping soon!
2 - The Decisions You Make and How You Make Them
When you have a family company, your decisions and how you make them have broad consequences.
Last year, a mutual friend introduced me to a first-generation founder. He took a step out in his early 30s, leaving a successful career to start a business. In the decades after, the company not only survived but scaled to over 100 employees. When he and I met, he shared this company history and then we discussed the three second-generation family members now working there.
“Well, you’re not still in your 30s,” I joked with him; he had recently reached Social Security age. “What do you and your wife plan to do with the company?”
“Adam,” he replied, “we can do what we want.”
His response may surprise you, but the sentiment is quite normal. He and his wife took a big risk, worked hard, and it paid off.
“You’re correct,” I said. “You all have earned the right to do what you want.” He agreed.
“However,” I continued, “you also chose to work with your family. That created a family business inside your company; the way you all work in and own the company together. So, what you decide to do, and maybe as importantly how you make those decisions, can determine how often you see them in the future.”
A friend of mine, a third-generation CEO, once said about a tough situation, “You know, there are over 50 solutions a family company could find for this issue.” I agreed with him. What mattered more was how they went about deciding.
I hope that you have a family meeting on the calendar in Q1 or Q2 this year - time set aside to improve how you work in and own the company together. While unilateral dictates can feel more efficient, a hallmark of healthy family companies is a commitment amongst the family owners and employees to work together on building alignment, communication and trust.
3- Laughter
When someone tells me about a family business show, they tend to be serious, like Succession on HBO.
Arrested Development, by contrast, follows the Bluth family company in a way that is both surreal and all too relatable. You can find episodes on Netflix, Prime Video, etc.
Family company work is hard enough, and laughing is good for us. Try a few episodes, and I hope lines like this resonate with you too:
“Is this a business decision, or is it personal? 'Cause if it's business, I'll go away happily. But if it's personal, I'll go away, but I won't be happy.” YouTube link
Till next month
As my grandfather would have said, thank you so very, very much for reading.
Adam, for 21 Clear
