Here at the practice, we have lots of sessions where we ask challenging questions of ourselves and our members. One of the key Check-ins we had in January looked at what we all learned from the previous year and I have been asked on several occasions to publish the discussion.
This would take ages to do so, and frankly my experience is that most people would not stay the course, so for the next few weeks I will list one of the nine keys that came from the discussions and my take on them.
This week: Don’t have nine task masters!
I have made no secret of the fact that I am glad we have left the European Union – hold on, don’t switch off!!!
This is not a Brexiter rant, far from it. I don’t doubt there are some bumpy patches to be encountered in the coming months, however it is worth explaining why I felt this was necessary.
Back in the nineties I had the opportunity to head a business which was funded by nine independent businesses. Without going into the whole and very challenging story, each one very much had their own independent view and when the chips were down I couldn’t even get them to agree to take a bathroom break, let alone anything else – honestly!
I found to my cost that nine task masters are simply impossible. In the case of the European Union, it has twenty-eight plus all the incumbent politicians, civil servants, and hangers on all with a vested interest – I certainly wouldn’t want the job to try and get anyone to agree anything in that situation!
When it comes to our own family businesses hopefully it is a lot simpler, although I have to say consensus across multi-generations within a family business can still be very difficult! Particularly so if the business has been led by an autocratic older generation unwilling to bend to the next generations ideas…
There are two alternatives:
Either have one person lead for others to follow or agree a set of rules where consensus is encouraged to flourish.
Both can work if there is a will… And it is a heck of a lot better than nine task masters of that you can be sure!
If you need a hand on this subject, you know where we are.
Until the next time…
