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 to announce a succession to the company, the board and key partners
The order in which people hear about a succession changes how they receive it. A practical sequence, who should speak, what to say, and the mistakes that create rumours.
How do you build a strong executive presence?
Executive presence is built, not discovered. What to work on, in what order, how to practise it against real meetings, and how to tell whether it is working.
How do you choose a coach for your successor?
What a parent or advisor should check before hiring a coach for a family business successor: the family dimension, confidentiality, the parent's role and timing against the handover.
How do you choose an executive presence coach?
An honest buyer's guide to executive presence coaching: what to look for, the questions to ask before hiring, the red flags, and what changes when the client is a family successor.
How to disagree with your parent without undermining them in front of the team
Successors need to be able to disagree with the founder, and the team needs to see a united leadership. How to do both: where to disagree, how to say it, and what to do when you still do not agree.
How do you practise executive presence?
Executive presence improves with short, regular drills tied to the meetings already in your diary. A practical weekly routine: recording yourself, one-minute answers, pauses, owner language and a short debrief.
How to prepare your son or daughter to take over the family business
Preparing a successor is not the same as planning a succession. What a parent can do in the years and months before the handover so the next leader is followed, not just appointed.
How to present to the board as a family successor
A board update from the next generation is judged on more than its content. A simple structure, the mistakes that cost successors authority, and how to prepare for the question you dread.
How to run a family meeting about succession
A practical agenda for the family meeting where the handover is discussed: who should attend, what has to be decided, ground rules, and how to end with an agreement everyone can sign.
How do you speak with executive presence?
Speaking with executive presence comes down to a few observable habits: structure, language, pace, intonation and silence. What each one sounds like, and how to practise it.
How do I stop over-preparing and start leading?
Preparation feels like responsibility. Past a point, it becomes a way of not deciding. How a family successor tells useful preparation from over-preparation, and moves from analysis to leading.
How do I take over my family business?
Taking over a family business means earning authority, not only receiving a title. How to decide, what to agree with your parent, and how to lead the board, the team and the family.
How to tell if your successor is ready to lead
Readiness is not about knowing the business. Seven signs a parent can actually observe that show whether the next generation will be followed, and what to do about the gaps.
Should a family business have an independent board before succession?
Advisory boards, fiduciary boards and independent directors each do something different. What each offers a family business before succession, the trade-offs, and why the timing often matters more than the form.
When does an interim CEO before the family successor make sense?
An interim or non-family CEO can bridge the gap between founder and successor, or quietly replace the successor's path. When the arrangement makes sense, its real costs, and how to set it up so the handover still happens.
How do I introduce a coach to my son or daughter?
How a parent can raise the idea of a coach with a successor so it is heard as an investment in them, not a verdict on them. The first conversation, letting them choose, and agreeing confidentiality first.
Is an MBA enough to prepare a successor?
An MBA gives a family successor business knowledge, a network and credibility on paper. What it does not give them is authority in their own company. What to expect from one, and what to add.
Is executive coaching worth it for a family business successor?
Executive coaching is worth it for a family business successor in some situations and a poor use of money in others. Honest criteria for telling the difference, and how to judge it afterwards.
Is it nepotism if I am actually qualified?
Being qualified does not stop people calling it nepotism. An honest look at why the label sticks, the part of it that is true, and what actually changes how a family successor is seen.
Is successor coaching confidential?
Successor coaching should be confidential in three directions: towards the parent, inside the company and towards the outside world. What each should mean, the limits an honest coach will state, and how to agree it in writing.
How do I keep long-serving executives through a succession?
Long-serving executives decide whether a succession holds. What a founder can do before and after the handover to keep them, and what to stop doing so they follow the successor.
Leadership assessments for successors: are they worth it?
What psychometric tests, 360-degree feedback and assessment centres can tell a family about a successor, where each falls short, and how to use an assessment without letting it decide for you.
How do I lead employees who are older than me?
Leading people with more years and more tenure than you is not about proving yourself. How a younger leader, especially a family successor, earns authority with experienced teams.
Leading people who knew you as a child
Many family business successors have to lead senior people who remember them as a teenager. Why that history follows them into every meeting, and how to replace it with a new picture.