The only thing you can ever really control is yourself; How you behave and react to circumstances and make decisions based on the best information available and past experience to guide you is really the only thing you can control.
This article, Preventing Family Warfare, is a quick read and provides an example of how to assess and react to what is described as a dysfunctional family business structure. |
0 Comments
...and Creating an Action Plan
|
Once your farm ownership and management team have worked through a process of identifying their individual goals for the business, it is time to bring them all together into your overall business and succession plan for your farm business. If you don’t already have them, this is the PERFECT time to begin conducting strategic business and family meetings.
The meetings don’t have to be anything too formal, but they should include the current and future core management teams of your farm business. Everyone could take time to share their individual goals. It may be surprising to some people how many goals they have in common. Sometimes, it is helpful to have a neutral third party help conduct the first few sessions to help break the ice and create a less intimidating environment for younger or less experienced family or business members.
|
REVIEW: The last several posts have included information on developing and sharing long-term and short goals and how generational differences in goals and family, especially in-laws, can have an impact on your business. For a review or primer, check them out. |
A logical next step is to identify those goals that are in common and those that are significantly different. Some key questions could then be asked:
For Common Goals: |
"A goal without a plan is just a wish." |
- Are they all in the same time frame? (Is one person’s short-term goal another person’s long-term goal?)
- Do all members have the same priority for the common goals? How would each person rank them?
- Who will be the key person or persons involved in deciding upon and/or implementing each of the common goals?
For Unique Goals or those that are not the subject of common agreement among the family:
|
The old phrase “Blood is thicker than water” usually plays a role in a family business – and I bet yours is no different. A tendency exists to sometimes pay closer attention to the needs and wants of direct family members versus those that are unrelated or related only through marriage (i.e. in-laws) when it comes to thinking about succession planning. BIG MISTAKE!
|
"Cast a bigger net and engage the in-laws EARLY in the process.
It will pay mucho dividends”.
For example, a family member not involved in the business may have the goal of owning land outright if and when the time comes to inherit the land as opposed to keeping in the business for productive use. Let’s assume that they do not want to guarantee that the farm will have continued access to that land. Their goals could be harmful to the overall success of your succession plan, especially if one of the central goals is to keep the farm business viable in the future which may require access to this land.
On the flip-side, an off-farm sibling might have no desire to own a piece of the farm and only wants to have certain family heirlooms as part of any inheritance as a memory of their upbringing. If they’re not involved in the discussion at some level, the long-term plans of the business and the goals of the succession plan might assume otherwise – to a great disappointment to the off-farm sibling.
So -- it is very important to involve these individuals in the discussions, but certainly without any guarantees that their every wish be fulfilled. Good luck!
Categories
All
Agriculture
Benchmarking
Best Practices
Business Planning
Challenges
Communication
Conflict Resolution
Core Values
Delegation
Dysfunction
Education
Family Business
Family Farms
Family Meetings
FarmFutures.com
Farm Management
Farm Pictures
Financial Management
Generation Gap
Goals
Harvesting
Humor
Improvements
Interviews
Jim Casler
Job Descriptions
Leadership
Lessons
Long Term Planning
Management Systems
Management Transition
Michigan
Mission
Newsletter
North Coast Ag
Operating Philosophies
Operations Manual
Outside Business
Personal Accountability
Pictures
Podcasts
Policy Creation
Press
Project
Project Planning
Quotes
Responsibility
Roles
Standard Operating Procedures
Strategic Planning
Strategy
Succession Planning
Teamwork
Testimonials
Thanksgiving
Thought Of The Day
Transition Planning
Traverse City
Video
Vineyards
Vision
Wine
Winery Benchmark Programs
Archives
June 2020
August 2016
July 2016
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014