Wealth of Wisdom

CHAPTER 57Leading Successful Family Meetings

Katherine Grady and Wendy Ulaszek

As your family business (or family office) moves into its second and third generations, leaders are likely to have new questions about the boundary between the enterprise and the family: What should we tell family and owners about the business? Is our business strategy or investment strategy aligned with the family's vision and values? Will family dynamics keep us from passing the company or the wealth to the next generation?

Advisors typically suggest answering these questions by holding regular family meetings and forming a family council to help separate family and ownership matters from the operating company's ongoing business.¹ Family meetings provide governance forums for family owners to define common values and a family mission and vision for the future.

But many owners will remember failed attempts to engage the family, such as jealousies around leadership succession or arguments related to financial distributions. So it is no surprise family leaders may hesitate to organize family meetings. They may be unsure of whom to include, what topics to cover, how to include people in decision-making, and how to handle inevitable emotional “elephants” in the room, along with how to find the time to organize and run meetings.

Part of the challenge is that while family business leaders may excel in launching and growing one or more businesses, those are not the same skills required to lead in the ownership ...