Founders of every organization face difficult choices multiple times a day. Still, there is nothing as challenging as having to figure out how to balance the need to grow and make it successful with the need to retain control and ownership of the company.
Remaining in their current role is comfortable and habitual at this point in their career; they’ve been doing it for the majority of their lives. They ask themselves, “Why should I change my role and move into some unknown activity that will certainly not be comfortable or habitual?”
And yet, trusted advisors are always asking them to prepare for the time when they will no longer be able to do what they are doing now.
Intellectually, the founder knows they have a point. But that founder will not change and adopt any new role. They know what they have, and they are very good at what they do. Why change?
Change is, at best, uncomfortable, and at worst, a disaster for the founder and their family. And yet, without preparation for change, the family faces almost certain conflicts which they are probably ill-equipped to manage. Founders know, at an unconscious level, the risks they are creating by putting themselves first before their families. They rationalize by saying that the next generation isn’t ready to take over, and they think they are still needed and still relevant. Can there be some path the founder can travel that will feel purposeful and fulfilling and help prepare the next generation?
The answer can be yes. When a founder is asked at the beginning of their career why they jumped into the unknown to create this company, one of their answers is to provide for their families. At that point, the founder believes that providing means financial rewards, and it turns out that the founder is correct. They were successful beyond their wildest dreams. Now, at a much later time in their career, that financial success has silenced their original desire to provide for their family. Can providing for their family have a different meaning?
Yes, it can. It can mean providing the tools necessary for the family to start down the path toward flourishing across multiple generations. Founders usually get asked by trusted advisors who will run things if they aren’t here tomorrow. It’s an uncomfortable question, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be because the founder died. It can mean that they need to start planning for succession. But this also can mean that the founder is no longer relevant and may be thought of by others as becoming incompetent.
Now the founder is faced with a choice between staying in the role or starting to help the family flourish across multiple generations.
When the goal becomes starting to help the family flourish generationally, a founder has started to make themselves far more relevant than simply doing what they have done their entire careers. They are now involved in a mission much greater than themselves that creates purpose and meaning. They are now part of the future in a far more significant way.
How to start down this path is a subject for the future.
Recommended Reading
- When Family-Business Owners Don’t Want to Retire
- Succession Planning For Family Business: Who Will Lead When You Retire?
- Retirement Planning For The Family Business Owner
- Smart Ways to Transfer the Family Business
Further Reading at Family Wealth Library
- Building Bench Strength In Your Family Business
- Most Owners Are Ill-Prepared for a Business Transition
- Six Learnings from Long-Lasting Global Family Businesses
- Fears That Make Founders Avoid Succession Planning
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