Have you maximized your bottom line in your family’s business? Do power struggles limit your satisfaction in the work environment? Do divergent goals and values threaten the viability of long-term business or family survival? Do you hold serious concerns about the quality of life for your family members due to tensions, disagreements, disputes in the business?
Families that own and conduct business(es) together have special and unique challenges. Family members spend more time together, have to rely on each other more, and are exposed to more then most other families.
Siblings often know how to make each other laugh hard, share memories, and play hard together. There’s often a darkside to the relationshipas well, like lingering feelings of competition, the knowledge of when and how to push each others buttons and rivalries exacerbated by jockeying for positions in the business. Sitting in the business board room can offer siblings and families complex and life-long challenges.
Often times the family is growing at the same time the business is growing. Members of the family may get married, have children, and change in their priorities and lifestyles. Their values and priority may change. As members get married traditions in the family may get challenged, adjusted, changed or eliminated.
Families that build, operate and manage businesses together often report that quality of life often suffers without having the proper consulting or therapeutic interventions to help them sort through the myriad of challenges that you face. Like a marriage, the family and the business will thrive or not depending on the way in which the family works out conflict, disagreements, fights, or any of the tough stuff.
In most cases I evaluate the known problems and make an initial recommendation about how to proceed with addressing the issues. I will offer you some options which often entails some or all of the members of the family go through an interview process with me. I have the unique skill set then to offer the family a potential hybrid of family and business consulting.
A component will likely utilize a more traditional model where the family comes to my office and the focus becomes more about family relations with an eye on helping the business maximize its profits. Another component will likely a consulting model where you get the benefit of a business savvy professional that is highly trained and proficient at helping the family focus on specific business related functions while being mindful of the dynamic tensions in your family.
In this model the emphasis is my helping your family learn how to develop the skills to work through disagreements, conflicts. Family members are given a chance to get known by and understood, first by me and then by each other. Each member of the family and business team are pushed to sophisticate in their ability to be respectful, and relate through genuine caring.
Issues of competing agendas, privacy, boundaries are honored so that family satisfaction and business optimization are prioritized. In my 15 years of clinical and consulting experience, families that utilize my services on a regular or semi-regular basis report tremendous benefits in quality of life and business profitability and satisfaction.
Sometimes I will create a model, where I come to your place of business, and the emphasis is on helping address a specific set of business goals, or the business culture. A thorough assessment and evaluation of the impediments are outlined in written form, and aprescribed approach to address the problems is recommended. In this model some or all of the approach may take place exclusively at the business site, some may be done in the privacy of the family, and some may be done in the consulting room with me.
When you are ready to break through to a new level of understanding and loving communication, I am here for you. Please reach out to at (202) 355-9460 Or send me a message using the form below to schedule a time to meet me at my Bethesda office or at my Annapolis office.