Looking at your business from different perspectives can lead you to innovative thought and possibly a stronger business.

You probably are aware of your three distinct roles in the business:

1. leader-employee,
2. family member, and
3. owner.

In your daily interactions with your stakeholders, do you acknowledge and recognize that your decisions and goals and objectives can come from different perspectives. Some decisions may even be in conflict at the same time. An example of a conflict could be you wish to bolster your management team by hiring outside management expertise in a specific area, say sales/marketing and you have a child currently working in the business who has expressed interest to take on a more responsible role within the business. Your child may not have the depth of experience to take on this role, yet. What do you do? Who do you hire for this role? Most importantly, what conversations can and should you have with your child about this position?

The challenge in the family business is that these different roles for you are always present and often can result in conflicts, interpersonal and within yourself.

A whole litany of books has been written about this subject of the 3 circles in family business. Some major areas of study include: prioritizing and goal setting, dealing with inherent conflicts, having conversations and ensuring that you “set the table” in discussions by providing context of the role from which the conversation is being determined.

I hope that this gives you a perspective to think of your ever changing role in the family business and how they can affect your interactions and responses.

Learn, think, apply!