Notes on authority and the handover.
On what it takes for the next generation to lead the board, the senior team and the family.
How is a Second Chair™ engagement agreed and paid?
The practical steps from first conversation to signed agreement: who can sign, when the invoice is issued, how it is paid, and what is settled in writing before the weekly sessions begin.
Read the note
What does the Second Chair™ NDA cover?
What the mutual NDA behind every Second Chair™ engagement protects, how long it lasts, what the parent hears, and what it does not replace.
Who is Nikola Jovanović?
The founder of Second Chair™: his training in language and communication, thirteen years of coaching executives on how they come across, and why he now works with the successors of family businesses.
How does 360-degree feedback work for a family successor?
360-degree feedback can show a successor how they really come across, but candour is harder when the subject is the owner's child. How it works, where it breaks down in a family business, and the alternatives.
Why do I feel I have no real authority despite my title?
A new title tells people you lead. Where decisions actually go tells them whether you do. Why successors end up with the title but not the authority, and what you can do about it yourself.
Should my successor have a mentor from outside the family?
An outside mentor gives a family successor a place to think aloud that the founder and the family cannot. How to find the right person, what to ask of them, and the pitfalls to avoid.
Answering the board's hardest question in under a minute
Boards remember how a successor handles the question everyone was waiting for. A three-part answer structure, what to do when you do not know, and how to rehearse it.
How do I ask my parent to actually hand over control?
When the title has changed but the decisions have not, the successor has to ask. How to prepare the conversation, what to ask for, and how to make the handover concrete without sounding ungrateful.
What a bank's next-generation program covers, and what it does not
Many private banks and wealth managers offer programs for the children of their clients. What these programs typically include, what they are good at, and the gap that remains for a successor who has to lead.
How do I set boundaries between family and business?
When your parent is also your colleague, work follows you to dinner and family follows you to work. Practical boundaries a family successor can agree for meetings, titles, meals, holidays and decisions.
How do I build my own leadership team in a family company?
Building your own team rarely means replacing your parent's. How a family successor assesses the team they inherit, fills the gaps, brings in outsiders and makes a group of people into a team that follows their decisions.
How do I build my successor's credibility with the board?
A founder cannot hand a successor the board's confidence, but can make it far easier to earn. What to do before, during and between board meetings, and what to stop doing.
Can a coach help a founder let go?
What a coach working with the founder can realistically do to help them step back from the family business, what it cannot do, and which other kinds of help may matter more.
Can the company pay for successor coaching?
Whether the family business or the family should pay for the successor's coaching: the governance questions to settle first, who to involve, and why the tax treatment is a question for your accountant.
How do I change something my parent built without offending them?
Changing a process, product or habit your parent created can feel like criticising them. How a family successor makes the case, involves the founder, and changes things without turning it into a verdict on the past.
How do I choose between two children for the top role?
Choosing which of two children will lead the family business is a decision about the company's needs, made through a process both can accept. Criteria, evidence, outside voices and timing.
Coaching the successor vs coaching the founder: which comes first?
Should a family business start by coaching the successor or the founder? How to tell where the handover is really stuck, when both need help, and why one coach rarely serves both well.
What are the most common mistakes founders make in succession?
The mistakes founders make in a family business succession are rarely about the will or the structure. Ten common ones, and what to do instead of each.
What happens to my company's value if I am the only one customers trust?
When key customers trust only the founder, part of what the company is worth rests on one person. Why that matters to the family, and how to transfer customer relationships in stages.
Why does my successor seem confident at home and nervous at work?
A successor who argues well at the kitchen table and hesitates in the office has not lost their ability on the drive in. The role, the audience and the stakes all change. What shifts, and what a parent may be doing without noticing.
Does public speaking training help a successor lead?
Public speaking training helps a successor with delivery and nerves. It rarely prepares them for board questions, small rooms or the family watching. What it does well, what it misses, and how to use it.
How do I know if my company depends too much on me?
A practical self-check for founders: decisions, relationships, knowledge, people and signatures. Twenty plain questions that show how much of the company still runs through you, and where to start.
How do I earn respect as the owner's son or daughter?
Most people assume the owner's child got the job because of the surname. How a family successor answers that assumption with evidence: the same rules, visible accountability and decisions that hold.
Executive coaching vs mentoring for a family successor: which do they need?
A mentor shares experience and judgement. A coach builds specific skills through practice and feedback. What each gives a family successor, where each falls short, and how to combine them.
Executive presence for the next generation: what it actually is
Executive presence is often described as something you either have or do not. For family successors it is more specific, more observable and more learnable than that.