Finding, Naming and Claming Your Mission: How Professional Assessment
Can Help
 By
Henry D. Landes
March 2003
Those of us who have grown up in a family business know that it
is a many-splendored thing, a rose of beauty and power and, yes,
sometimes pain.
How one experiences a family business is as varied as human nature
itself. It’s no exaggeration to say that many people—especially
young adults—have a love/hate relationship (and every emotion
in between) with the family business they grew up in. It can be
downright difficult to "find one’s footing" in such
a situation.
From the perspective of the senior generation or the parents, things
can be just as complicated. More than anything—even more than
a profitable business—most want what’s best for their
children. Yes, there’s usually healthy pride in the company
and a hope to have offspring carry forward the family tradition.
But not at the expense of their children’s deepest desires
and their mission in life.
How does all this get sorted out? Too often, it doesn’t.
Too often inertia and vaguely understood—but nonetheless powerful—expectations
carry the next generation along, like twigs on a stream.
Paul and Pat Frishkoff, in a Family Business magazine article titled
"Asking the right questions about your future", say, "When
facing emotional choices involving the family firm, dig deeply for
the true answers."
Questions often asked include:
- Should I join the family business?
- Should I remain in the business and, if so, in
- My present role or in a new one?
What’s important, say the Frishkoffs, is grappling with the
real issues underlying the questions at hand by asking such gut-level
questions of self-assessment as "Who am I?" … "What
do I want?" … "What do I really value in my work?"
… "Where do I feel most at home?" … "What
is my mission in life?"
In other words, start by being real with yourself. Sure these are
daunting, even haunting, questions, but as the Frishkoffs assert,
"Until you have accurately assessed your own abilities and
skills, you are rarely in a position to assess your value to the
family business or what would be a suitable role for you to play
in it."
To be sure, this is not a once-over-lightly process. It requires
thoughtful reflection over a period of time; counsel from family,
friends and work colleagues; and the "outside" objective
perspective of a professionally conducted assessment.
Drawing on our experience with many business families, we are in
the process of developing a Next-Generation Assessment Service,
which likely will include:
- A comprehensive, objective assessment of skills, aptitudes
and values.
- A clear statement of personal aspirations and goals.
- A high level of alignment with family goals, management strategy
and
ownership vision.
The Next-Generation Assessment Service is being designed to include
the expectations and perceptions of the senior leader(s), a Personal
and Career Inventory, and the administration of selected assessment
instruments with confidential feedback. Building on this foundation,
the next step is the development of a long-term (3 to 10 years)
Goals and Aspirations Statement. The final step is the formulation
of the first annual Development Plan, which may include a variety
of individual and group-based learning activities.
Interested? We would like to invite individuals at all levels and
stages of the family business to a luncheon meeting following the
March 20 Forum. The purpose: to help us shape the Next-Generation
Assessment Service.
To receive a copy of the Frishkoff article titled "Asking the
right questions about your future" (Family
Business
magazine, Spring 1993), please call us at (215) 723-8413.
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