The Strange Dance (artigo estrangeiro)

By Dana Telford
If you are like most family business owners, the perplexing clash of work, family, wealth and strategy in your day to day can make you feel like a tipsy flamingo dancer on a floating dock.

One of my clients, as he fretted over the challenges and opportunities associated with his family business, called it a “strange dance.” The description intrigued me, and rang true at more than one level, so I asked him to be more specific.
He said that the clash of entrepreneurship, money, family relationships, operations and succession in his family business creates such a varying flow of emotions that it makes him "feel clumsy and unsure, like dancing on a cruise ship".
Based on my work with over 90 business families, I believe the awkwardness comes from the head on clash of two economic philosophies.
 We are socialists at home, capitalists at work.
At home we allocate resources based on the needs of individual family members. Those who need the most (or appear to), get the most. Those who produce the most don’t often get more benefits. In fact, producers are often asked to generate more results, without receiving more rewards.
At work, we do just the opposite. We know that if we are to reap more rewards, we must create more value. If we want a bigger office, we must earn it.  More money?  Add more to the bottom line and then plead your case. Those who don’t perform can expect to be reprimanded, demoted or possibly fired.  Such is capitalism.

For the same reasons that the Yankees and the Red Sox don’t get together for a picnic with their families, socialism and capitalism aren’t good buddies. They are direct competitors in the beauty pageant of economic philosophies. Attempting to make them work together under the same roof is a recipe for disaster.
Why then do business owners allow their children to graduate from college and show up at the family business expecting family socialism to rein supreme?  My guess is that they suffer from misguided intentions, a bit of fear, and a pinch of poor communication.  Typical parental problems.
Remember, parents aren't handed instruction manuals when the blessed infant arrives.  We love our kids, and tend to treat them like extensions of royal bloodlines.  When they grow up and come to work with us, we don't really know how to change the mindset (that we've embedded for them) that all economic rivers flow to the bottom of the family tree.
This habit comes at a steep price.  One client told me that her father sent her to college with a checkbook and told her that there would always be money in the account and that she need not "worry about the details of balancing it." Yikes. She's paid a significant price since then to straighten out the difference between family socialism and business capitalism.
As parents, we also might fear the confrontation that will accompany the conversation about princes and princesses who must now earn their keep and prove their mettle on the battlefields of commerce.  Can you hear the shouts of "but daddy, that's not FAIR!"?  

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Here are a few tips to help you avoid getting tripped up in your family business

• Teach your family the difference between socialism and capitalis.
• Teach everyone in the family the basics of economics – assign entry-level articles or books to read and schedule time to discuss them together.
• Make the fable of the Golden Goose a family favorite.  Help children understand that in order to keep the golden eggs a comin', the Goose must be protected and nourished.
• Give your kids the opportunity to earn extra money by doing difficult chores around the house.
• Develop an employment policy that makes it impossible for slackers to be given a full-time position at the family fir.
• Create an annual family business meeting during which all family members learn about the challenges, opportunities and best practices of family businesse.
• Develop a set of guiding principles together that set expectations for how family members will behave and treat each othe.
• Put together a written succession plan, with milestones and time-line.

By making the effort now to set the expectation, you will avoid headaches and heartaches down the road. As a result, you will feel sure-footed as you navigate the steps of the “strange dance” and confident as you approach the time when the younger guns will inevitably cut in and whirl your business into the next generation.
Dana Telford is a trusted advisor to family business owners around the world. You can reach him at dana@danatelford.com or his website: www.danatelford.com where you can read his blogs and learn more about the best and worst family business practices he sees.

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