Find fulfillment and success in your family business with the help of a coach
A family business can be richly rewarding. It is an opportunity to continue a legacy and integrate your values and heritage into your work.
But for many people, a family business makes them feel stuck. Instead of an opportunity, it feels like a burden.
There is a good reason for this—every member of the family has a stake in a family business. Business decisions are intertwined with family relationships and dynamics, and there is an emotional and sentimental investment that goes beyond an ordinary business.
If you feel stuck in your family business or feel that the company simply doesn't align with your life goals and values, don't give up. An executive coach can get you back on track.
Every challenge can be a gift; a family business is no exception. It is possible to have a family business that runs without drama, aligns with your values, supports your personal and professional goals and adds fulfillment to your life. Here is how business coaching services can help.
A professional coach brings a fresh perspective
Every manager or entrepreneur struggles to see their own business clearly. When you've poured your heart and soul into something, it is incredibly challenging to see it objectively. This is even more true when you are invested in a family business. The business itself is tangled up with the family legacy, the dreams of multiple generations and the opinions of many family members.
A coach brings an outside perspective. It's not that they don't consider your emotional attachment to the business or the importance of a family legacy. But they can see your company more clearly than you or anyone in your family can. This puts them in a unique position to arbitrate between family disagreements or offer solutions that nobody has yet thought of.
With the assistance of a professional executive coach, you can resolve your company's current disputes and set your business up for ongoing success. Coaches frequently help family businesses to:
Digital distractions are not going away. The leaders who rise above the competition will be the ones who learn to take control of their focus and, therefore, their time and energy.
When you move from operator to owner, the business starts to breathe. Your team stops waiting and starts leading. The company’s results become less dependent on your mood, energy, and availability. You get time back, and you regain the ability to think.
Provide a strategic way for invested parties to share opinions and feedback
Create a transition or succession plan for the future
Develop a business strategy that aligns with family and company values
Build strong teams that use family members' strengths
Make decisions (even those that feel very personal) with a level head and clear perspective
Coaches can align roles with natural gifts
When it comes to a family business, not everyone chooses their role. Sometimes a job needs to be done, and it falls to a certain family member by default. But that doesn't guarantee that their work aligns with their true gift or business identity.
We all fit into one of the following three categories: artist, manager/leader and entrepreneur.
Artists
The gift of an artist isn't limited to literal artistry. It's anyone with a phenomenal skill or talent. Artists are the creators and visionaries. They are skilled producers. They are software developers, engineers, fashion designers, coders or inventors. They get joy from creating a product or offering a service that surprises and delights customers.
Managers
Managers have the gift of leadership. They love to make things more efficient and maximize the potential of the business and their employees. They thrive in creating systems, but they aren't as attached to the product as artists.
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs thrive in taking risks and innovating. They love the rollercoaster of taking a chance, falling and getting back up to try new things. They are the ones in your family who push for change, are ready to try a new idea and are willing to take risks to earn the reward.
It's not that an artist or creator can't do the work of a manager. They might actually be good at it, but it isn't where they thrive or derive energy from. An entrepreneur working as a manager might feel like they are pushing a boulder uphill, and they'll burn out eventually. So what feels like frustration or disdain for the family business might actually just be a misalignment of roles.
A coach will help you divide responsibilities to maximize everyone's skill set and individual gifts. No one gift is better than another, but a business functions best when all the gifts are used efficiently.
Someone who has been working as a manager for years might not even realize that their true gift is that of an artist; that they are highly skilled and that their real joy is in building and creating an incredible product. Likewise, many business owners might exercise their entrepreneurial muscle, but that doesn't mean it is their core gift.
Recognizing and acknowledging your strengths and gifts will enable you to make better decisions and divide responsibilities better among the family business owners.
Coaching can help you achieve work-life integration
Everyone talks about wanting a work-life balance, but this isn't feasible, especially for family business owners. Your business is already intertwined with the rest of your life, and trying to separate it into distinct, balanced aspects will be counterproductive.
What you really want is work-life integration. You want work to feel fulfilling, meaningful and purpose-driven. You want the things you value most—like family, personal growth and contribution—to be an integral part of your job.
Instead of trying to separate work from the rest of your life, a professional coach will help you integrate work with your family and the things that matter most to you.
Your business might sponsor a local youth team if your family loves sports. If you are launching a new advertising campaign, you might involve your kids in brainstorming ideas or choosing the best design. There are 100 ways to involve your family in your business and incorporate your hobbies and values into your work. An experienced coach will help you find fulfillment through integration.
At its heart, business is a spiritual game. Not in an out-there, woo-woo kind of way, but in the sense that your work should connect you with the essence of what it means to be human—a desire to progress and make meaningful contributions to the world. If your family business is tearing your family apart, perhaps it’s time to shift focus to how you and your family are contributing to a higher purpose.
“When business and contribution are interwoven, we feel whole.”
When you connect a family business to a meaningful purpose, it makes a family whole. Petty disagreements dissolve when everyone is working to achieve something meaningful. A purpose-driven business will still experience conflict and disagreements, but it is easier to work through challenges when you know everyone has the same goal.
If your family business feels fractured, misaligned, stuck, or devoid of purpose, an executive coach may be the missing ingredient to help you achieve meaning, unity and massive success.
