By Ron Kustek, Business Instructor Cabrillo College
When it’s going good, it can be great…
Your conversations are light yet meaningful, as well as open and honest, both at work and at home, because with a family business there is no real ‘leaving it at the office’. You start each day with excitement and anticipation of how good things can be today, even if it’s gloomy outside, it’s always sunny inside the business (because you’re making money, and that often makes people happy). You end each day talking about the day’s challenges, often with some laughs and some head shaking in disbelief over something that happened. In happy family businesses, even in difficult times, each family member pulls together, instead of pulling each other — and the company, apart.
When it’s going bad, it can be awful…
There is nothing worse than not being able to escape. When you work in a family business where family members are not getting along, there are no secrets, no hiding how each person feels, no family bond that forgives when we as individuals just start to not like the other person — family or not.
What To Do
Hiring people is the most important decision you will make (and keep making) and should always be for the person with the best skill set, regardless of whether they are related to you or not. Whenever we compromise our principles, it often festers and creates difficulties somewhere down the road.
So, what to do? First and foremost is the realization that there is a responsibility to ‘the business’ regardless of who owns it, or who works for it. It is recommended to always try to take the approach that ‘it’s not personal’. Whether you’re a manager for a Silicon Valley firm or for your own company, the guiding principle is being impartial, non-emotional but factual. Identify what is going well, and especially why — so that you can reinforce and draw on those skills for the person to apply to what isn’t going well. It’s always easier to offer solutions instead of just criticizing, so the added constructive input on the skills that are making them successful in other areas, can be applied to helping them be successful for improving their shortcomings.
However, sometimes people just change, and they may not share the same goals they once did, or the same interest or passion for the company and its customers. You may find yourself with the decision that it’s easier to replace a worker than it is to replace a family member, who may just need to leave the business, in order to save the business.
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Ron Kustek is a business instructor at Cabrillo College teaching Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Advertising, Small Business and General Business Management.