Respecting Your Colleagues in a Family Business

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If you’ve been reading our recent series of articles on running a family business, you’ll hopefully by now have a better idea about some of the challenges you might face and, importantly, some tips for how you might go about tackling them.

It sounds obvious, but it really boils down to making sure you treat your family colleagues the same way you would treat any other employee, or as you would want to be treated by a boss – with fairness and respect.

Family businesses typically start very informally, often with only two or three family members working together on a new venture. With everything starting a new business entails, things like writing employment policies, management structures, job roles and goal strategies are probably way down on the ‘to-do’ list – if they even feature at all!

But while that might not be an issue in the beginning, it could cause problems as your business grows and takes on more family, and even non-family, employees over the course of time. It could also be preventing your business from reaching its true potential.

Causes of conflict in a family business

There are many reasons why conflicts can arise when your colleagues are also family members and the issues can be more difficult to resolve when emotional factors are at play.

While every family business is different, there are some strategies you can try and adopt to avoid some of the potential problems.

Business and succession planning: Taking time to understand the desires and motivations of all family members involved can help remove potential sources of conflict. Family members in the business may have very different reasons for joining the fold and different ideas of what they want to get out of it. One may be hoping to retire soon, another may want a lifestyle business alongside other commitments, while another may be hoping to take over the reins one day. By discussing and documenting these as part of future planning, you could be warding off potential problems later on.

Don’t take advantage: Be careful not to take advantage of your family members. Of course, when you are starting out and trying to get a business off the ground, there might be times when you do have to give up a wage or work extra long hours and so on. But once business becomes more established, it’s important not to expect someone to do more than any other employee simply because they are related.

Don’t abuse the relationships: By the same token, try and avoid bringing any personal issues into the business or into any decision-making affecting a family member. This basically comes down to the issue of respecting that person as an employee and a valued member of your company; rewarding and discipling as you would for anyone else.

Family versus non-family employees: As your business grows, be careful not to treat non-family employees differently to family members. This can work both ways and family members can find themselves either advantaged or disadvantaged, which is not good for morale on all sides. Having market relevant job descriptions, personal development reviews and performance-related targets can help avoid this.

Separating the business and the personal: It’s sometimes much easier said than done, but leaving personal family stuff at home is family business basics. The sooner you can get into the habit of keeping the two separate, the better it will be for everyone. This will sometimes mean making business decisions rather than family decisions. For example, if a family member asks for an advance, or to use the company vehicle or other resources for personal use. You can read more on this in our previous article on how to be a family outside the business.

Getting a second opinion: Some families might seek the help of external consultants such as ActionCoach, or even a committee of non-family directors, who can help give an objective, but expert, outside view. This can be really useful for picking up potential problems, resolving conflicts and ensuring the business stays on track and moving in the right direction.

If you would like any additional coaching for your family business, please contact Juliette Ryley ActionCoach to find out more.