Last month, we discussed the importance of passing on your values to the next generation(s) to help sustain the business and keep it flourishing for years to come. To be able to work from the same values, you must also have a shared vision.
Looking Back and Looking Forward
A couple of weeks ago, I was commiserating with a friend who felt like everything he had done in his past was wrong, and there wasn’t a way forward. He was focused on all the things that had gone wrong—a nasty divorce, a child he hadn’t heard from in years, selling his business too soon—he kept coming up with all the negatives.
After listening to him for a bit, I gently suggested he think about the future. I told him the past is the past and what’s done is done, but it can’t be changed. What he can control, though, is the present and the future.
As I reflected on that conversation, I realized many families do this very thing in their businesses—and with one another. They debate the past, who made mistakes, and who was responsible for what instead of focusing on what they can change—how they behave and make decisions today to affect their collective futures.
Creating a Shared Vision
It’s tricky to get the family to look forward and focus on a shared vision. Every human looks at things through their own lens, but then you add in generational differences, which can become quite overwhelming.
My friend Steve Legler, the founder of Family Legacy Guide, describes it in this way:
“The family needs to do some work to try to establish a common future towards which they are all looking. This is important work that I think many families should undertake because the results will usually be useful in making sure that everyone understands where they are trying to go together, so all of their efforts can be aimed in the same direction.”
As any family sets out towards a future together, the simple passage of time changes the vision—and how they view it. As we all know, things never go as they were planned, nor do they move in a straight line.
For those very reasons, it’s important to sit down now and develop a vision together now—and revisit it every year to see where you are, what you have left to do, and how things might be tweaked to improve for the following year.
The vision may not be accomplished during your lifetime, but you can leave the business knowing that the shared family vision will be achieved someday, which allows you to leave behind a legacy.
Take the time to work with your family now so that a shared vision and values outlive you.
Recommended Reading
- Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool For Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future
- The Leadership Space: 3 Principles to Elevate Your Team, Your Success, and Your Satisfaction
- Pivot for Success: Hone Your Vision, Shift Your Energy, Make Your Move
Further Reading at Family Wealth Library
- How to Maintain a Shared Vision in a Family Enterprise
- Family Planning for Succession: A Necessary Step For the Desired Outcome
- 8 Insights From Long-Lasting Global Business Families
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