Have you considered the team that you have put together to run your business and enterprise?  Are you planning about the present only or building for the future of the family’s enterprise for the medium and long term?  Your succession plan as I have discussed takes time and a whole lot of planning.  Here are some thoughts to help you frame the team for your family enterprise.

A great coach assesses the team and is granted the decisions on who is to play, when and with which other team mates.  A high performance player may be good for the short term performance of the team  and can help to produce immediate wins for the team.  These wins with the high performance player taking much of the playing time and limelight, however, may be at the cost of the necessary time to develop the potential and game time of the other team members.  These are weighty decisions for a coach (= the leader of a family enterprise) to consider.  Balancing a team  is all about:

WILL – SKILL – TEAM.

Will – through the years, the most successful players have determination and what I like to call, grit.  This allows them to stick with a task, even if the task is difficult.  How much better to determine if a player has this ability unless they are given tasks which are challenging, sometimes beyond their capability.

Skill – many athletes in professional sports already have demonstrated their capabilities.  To take this skill to a new level, Think of Larry Bird who was a leader of the Boston Celtics for so many years who as a rookie was considered an average player.  A coach can better identify this skill with real playing time.  Translating this to your business is to give your planned future leaders the opportunity to take a leadership role, even if this is with baby steps, to see if that person demonstrates leadership traits.  Not everyone is suited to lead.

Team –a team is often successful because of the diversity of talent on it.  As a great coach taking the time to build the team members, for operating the family enterprise now and allowing them to become better leaders will help the team “gel” and make the team better for the long term.

Reflecting on any or all of these three (of many) facets of your team can help you build the right team for your family enterprises.  Sometimes coaches need to be coached to ensure that they

  1. See their own blind spots
  2. Ensure they are getting the best from themselves.

Learn, think, apply!