Delicate issues in family businesses
26 mars 2021
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👨🌾 West Flemish family businesses: the pitfall of 'deure doen'...
Mentor Jos Deslee in conversation with Michel Lammens (in West Flemish!) 👨🌾
The West Flemish recipe for success is known:
💪 Hard and passionate workers,
💪 Who above all toil and
💪 Do not complain ('deure doen')
A ticking time bomb?
Bringing up things that are not going well is difficult and too often considered a waste of time.
As a result, a great many frustrations are bottled up for years, often creating ticking time-bombs that can ultimately jeopardise the company's success.
When conversations become difficult, Mentor Jos advises to put on three pairs of glasses to look at the problem:
1. The family: what are our values?
2. The business: what is in the interest of long term success?
3. The ownership: what is important as a shareholder?
Struggles of a manager
Managers are
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- lack self-confidence
- don’t know how to go from being a colleague to being a boss
- need to loosen up on the command & control leadership style
- must let go of the (technical) expert status
- cannot give or accept constructive feedback
- feel pressure to perform as manager
- have difficulty building relationships
- want to be liked by everyone or want to be the ‘bad boss’
- play the hero
- …
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- stay too involved in operations
- have trouble prioritizing
- cannot delegate
- fear conflict situations
- disconnect from the team
- deal with flawed strategic thinking
- do not relate to higher management
- lack clear communication skills
- remain not self-aware
- avoid difficult conversations
- miss political antennas
- ...
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- need mental preparation as successor
- need to be able to lead big changes ahead
- need to learn to be emotionally resilient and in control
- need to learn to make big decisions fast without all the information
- must become persuasive presenters
- need to learn how to cultivate their own personal brand
- need to learn how to lead by example
- manage by trust, not by fear
- need to overly develop empathy
- ...
