The Challenge
George’s high productivity got stopped dead in its tracks.
His mother was demanding meeting after time-consuming
meeting over the details of how to renovate their new
facility. George was making a major expansion in his
family-owned business. He was adding a new home care
division. The expansion was consuming much of his time.
Now mother was telling George what bids to take and what
contractors to use. And of course, all those meetings ate
up his precious time.
George needed additional funds to make the new change.
Mother was one of the big investors. Now mother had taken
her position as a major investor as permission for her to
tell George what to do.
George was in a quandary. Mother was undermining his
authority as CEO, interfering with his decisions and
wasting large amounts of his valuable time. Furthermore,
he wanted a high quality facility, not a cheap one that his
frugal mother was bent on providing. What was he to do?
He couldn’t fire his own mother – could he?
It was a tough decision!
Finding A Solution
Confused and anxious, he discussed this challenge with his
coach. During this discussion, it became clear to George
that George had allowed his mother to overstep the
boundaries of an investor. Most investors do not have
oversight to the running of a business. Their role is
passive.
George realized he allowed this to happen when he accepted
his mother’s offer of help. Mother had offered to help
George renovate the new facility. This “help” turned out
to be like a lifeguard hitting a drowning victim in the
head with the life preserver he was throwing to the victim.
This could not go on. He could not afford the time and he
wanted a high-quality facility – not the low-quality his
budget minded mother wanted.
The first thing he had to do was to confirm that it made
good business sense to fire her. Secondly, he had to know
in his heart that he had the right to do this. He
conferred with his brothers and sisters who supported his
decision. This would be harder than it was the time he
fired his nephew four years ago.
He was naturally nervous about confronting his mother.
Although he was now a grown man, he had a long childhood
history obeying his mother. He certainly did not want to
hurt his mother’s feelings or cause dissension in the
family.
It would be a delicate conversation. Rather than demanding
or pleading with her, he decided he would ask for her help
in solving this problem.
George role-played with his coach the intended
conversation. Using principles of assertion, George
practiced with his coach until he felt comfortable.
It worked like a charm. His mother turned the reins back
over to him without a tear or a reprimand. George was in
charge of his company once more.
Other Dilemmas
Running a family business has many advantages. Your
relatives are usually much more dedicated and loyal then an
outsider would be. However, there are dilemmas, like the
one I just described. A brother may just not have the
necessary skills required.
A sister may think she has a free ride in the family
business, hurting the business by drawing a high salary for
inferior work.
Just like any business, to succeed in this competitive
environment, you need to have high quality, competent and
motivated workers. They have to be in a job that matches
their skills. Sometimes your relative has to be
disciplined or even fired. This is especially hard to do
to a family member. It is extremely difficult to be
objective about family members. The cool objective eyes of
an outside consultant or coach can be a huge help.
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Stan Mann, C.P.C. supports business owners, top executives
and commission salespeople to substantially grow their
business and have a balanced life. He is a Certified
Professional Coach. For additional articles and resources
please visit http://www.stanmann.com
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