Conflict Management
Deconstructing Conflict: A Personal Approach to Family Business Consulting
A Family Firm Institute interview with 2023 Interdisciplinary Award Winner Doug Baumoel, who transformed personal pain into a unique consulting methodology Continuity Family Business Consulting Founder Doug Baumoel isn't your typical family business consultant. Born into a family business that his father started in the basement of his home when he was 6 years old, he was initiated early into the world of family business dynamics. “We had a lot of conflict … we sought help from folks like family business consultants and other related professionals to help manage what was going wrong in [...]
Overcoming Family Business Conflict and Achieving Succession Success
How one family resolved their differences and empowered a new CEO The Challenge Stakeholders in a family-owned construction business were in conflict over management succession, which created crippling conflict between family members. The founder, owner, and president of this company, Peter, wanted his daughter, Christine, to eventually succeed him as CEO. Peter’s brother, Jack, who was second-in-command at the company, rejected the plan to prepare his niece to become CEO and walked off the job, feeling angry and unappreciated for the value he had brought to the business. While Jack didn’t envision himself taking over for his brother, the [...]
Venting With Purpose: How To Complain About Your Family
Tips for complaining about family members and how best to respond In any family business, complaining about fellow family members is bound to happen. Our natural tendency as human beings is to focus on negative events. This negative bias leads us to complain—a lot. Ten good things may have happened at the office that day, but the one bad thing will get most of our attention. So, we will come home to complain about that one thing (and the one person responsible) with our spouse, or we will text our sympathetic siblings and cousins about it. But complaining in a [...]
Beyond The Box Thinking for Family Business Compensation
When it comes to compensating family employees, a common best practice is to pay family members a salary that’s in line with what non-family members would earn for the same job, adjusted for size and location of the company. A compensation consultant will often suggest such a pay range and, while many family members may receive the higher end of that range, some will actually receive the lower end in an effort to guard against the appearance of nepotism. While a ‘best practice’ such as this can work for many families, we believe this is a simplistic approach that [...]
Airing Grievances: 10 Tips for Better Communication with Family Members
The purpose of effective communication is to transmit information from one person or group to another and to convey a specific message that elicits a desired reaction or result. Communications among family members have an additional purpose: To deepen our understanding of each other, find accommodation for differences that remain, build resiliency and bring family closer together. Family relationships are uniquely permanent, so communication must serve not only the content of the communication but the relationship itself. Problems arise, however, when we’re not clear in our communication, when emotions get the better of us, or when we misjudge the [...]
What Problems Does a Family Business Consultant Actually Solve?
What families call for help with when relationships and ownership are at risk Families rarely search for a family business consultant out of curiosity. They search when something feels off, when they feel stuck, or when decisions are harder than they should be. Conversations circle without resolution. Tension shows up in meetings, operations, or relationships. Often, family members sense that the problem is not just business and not just family, but something in between. Family business consultants specialize in that "in between" space. We work with enterprising families when family dynamics, ownership, leadership, and economics collide in ways that [...]
Turkey Talk: Discussing Family Business Issues at Holiday Get-Togethers
How to handle family business conflicts, decisions, and discussions around the holiday dinner table We’ve all seen the pictures—a happy family gathered around the dining table as dad carves the perfectly cooked turkey while the children play and share their toys in an impeccable home. These television and movie scenes depict families enjoying the holidays filled with laughter and joy. But for many of us, especially for some working in a family business, these images are as elusive as that winning lottery ticket. Not only are our families not paragons of perfection, but some of us have begun to dread [...]
What’s Considered ‘Fair’ in Family Business?
4 things to consider when seeking outcomes that are acceptable to all stakeholders The question of what is fair has perplexed many family business owners, and their search for fairness often results in conflict. Why? Because when it comes to the search for fairness—there is no single answer. The term ‘fairness’ can have different meanings. In business, fairness is based on merit—the more you produce, the more you should earn; when it comes to ownership, fairness is proportional—the more you own, the more benefit of control and distributions of profit you should have; and for families, fairness is often [...]
Managing Disputes and Avoiding Conflict in a Family Enterprise
Using COVID-19 vaccination disagreements to highlight dispute resolution approaches As COVID-19 vaccinations continue to roll out across the country, most companies are beginning to develop protocols for returning to work in person. While for many this is great news, this can be particularly challenging for family businesses with family members and non-family employees who have conflicting perspectives on the concept of vaccines. This blog will highlight methods family businesses can use to manage disputes regarding the vaccine and what to do if there’s an underlying conflict involved. Is this a dispute or a conflict? Vaccine hesitancy versus advocacy can [...]
Webinar Recording: Understanding and Managing Conflict in Family Enterprises
A video highlighting 5 foundational concepts about the unique conflict that occurs in families that work and own together. Learn more.
