Family Business Mentoring And All That 'Jazz'

Next-generation members of prosperous family businesses must learn to walk in the footsteps of a virtuoso. The legendary feats and talents of the founding generation tower over them each business day - building a multimillion-dollar business from scratch, surviving the Great Depression, growing the company while avoiding crippling debt.

Mentors to family business successors must recognise that a founding father or mother is a tough act to follow. They must prepare their protégés to assume their responsibilities as heirs to a legend - and to bear the burdens associated with that role.

Advice for mentors

1. Family business mentors should teach the first lesson first: However great a genius the founder was, he or she should always be perceived as an inspiration, not a model to be aped. Future business conditions are likely to vary dramatically from those that existed when the company was founded.
   
   Mentors must help family business successors to become comfortable with the founder's legacy. Although the next-generation leaders are the founder's successors, they are not the founder's clones.
   
   Mentors should teach protégés to view the company through the lens of the current business environment - to see it for what it is, not for what it was.
   
   
2. While family business mentors must teach management and leadership skills to their protégés, the job doesn't stop there. They must also teach successors to exercise those skills in the context of - and in a manner consistent with - the company's values, which are rooted in the history of the founding family.
   
   It may be wise to try new business practices, but it's usually unwise to tamper with the values of a successful company. The whole family - not just the successor - must understand that the preservation of its values is more important than the preservation of its business.
   
   
3. One of the most difficult tasks for any mentor is to convey the message that the family has strengths - relationship capital - that may not be fully evident, even to the family.
   
   Family members must recognise that they have two concurrent goals: family harmony and competitive strength. Only by leveraging the strength of the family's relationships and personal courage will they be able to achieve both goals.
   
   
4. Mentors who have survived many business cycles should readily share their stories of the attendant ups and downs. Such anecdotes are often the most effective way of preparing a younger person for the likelihood that market conditions will call for the business to change direction - to abandon a longtime market, stop making the company's flagship product or lay off some longtime employees (even those who are family members, if necessary).
   
   A young manager who has never endured a storm at sea (or in the family) has a lot to learn from those who have survived such turbulence.
   
   
5. Wise mentors prepare young family business owners to accept the notion that one day the business might have to be sold to preserve family relationships. A mentor might encourage the entire family to discuss which conditions would motivate them to consider selling the company (even if the business is currently thriving and a sale in the immediate future is not a wise idea).
   
   If a sale ever were to be seriously considered, family members would have to assess whether such a move represents the best decision for the family as a whole. It's much easier to do this in the abstract than in the face of imminent crisis.
   
   Mentors must encourage protégés to develop skills and experience that will ensure their success outside the family firm in the event that it is sold or their position ceases to exist.
   
   
6. In any given successor generation, there are likely to be members who are uninterested in managing the business and those whose skills and talents are not currently needed in the family firm. But even if they are not a good fit for the business, it's important for these next-generation members to feel connected to their heritage.
   
   A mentor can help them to find other leadership opportunities - for example, in managing the family's investments, real estate holdings or philanthropic endeavors. Such ventures offer opportunities for family members to work together and contribute to their legacy, even if they don't hold positions in the family firm.
   
   
7. Family business mentors observe protégés and their relatives as they undergo a wide range of emotional experiences. Even in a business setting, non-family mentors can all too easily become ensnared in the family's issues. Joining a support group or consulting with an adviser can help the mentor to maintain perspective.
   
   
8. Family business mentoring should include a formal educational component as well as informal lessons communicated through storytelling. Founders who are able to redirect their passion from leading to teaching are an invaluable adjunct to mentors recruited from outside the family.
   
   Parents who are able to set aside feelings of intergenerational competitiveness and focus on transmitting business lessons to their offspring will find the experience to be rewarding.

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