Practical Nine-Step Guide to Max ProductivityWritten by Catherine Franz
Step 1: List all business activities that you complete (regularly or not). Examples: phone calls, meetings, paperwork, projects, sales, follow-up procedures, writing, learning/researching, web site design, delivering core services (substitute name), etc. Yes, this might seem time consuming. You will need to trust in this process and wait for benefits to appear.You can create list two ways: (1) focus and write all in a list, or (2) track your activities, even 5-minute items, for a few days. Don’t need to add to list what already exists, thus, time required to complete list will become less and less. Be specific clear and as brief as possible (less than 5 words). Use separate sheet to track activities. Step 2: Place a star in front of three items that you are brilliant at, that you can rate as having a #10 energy level (1 little energy, 10 passion).
| | Mom as CEO (Chief Emotional Officer) of the Family BusinessWritten by Don Schwerzler
In our role as succession managers,when we develop and implement a succession management strategy for management team of a family business, we also know that a critical requirement for next generation of family is to have a succession plan for CEO of "family" too. We refer to Mom as CEO of business family - "Chief Emotional Officer". Mom is often peacemaker in family. She usually has more leverage with dad than kids and can influence how and when dad makes his decisions. The actuarial statistics show that in most marriages, husband dies before wife. Our experience as succession managers for family businesses has taught us to know that when Dad dies, impact to family and business never seems so bad as when Mom dies. When Mom dies it seems like all problems within family and business get amplified. It is not uncommon for problems smoldering under surface to reach a flash point when Mom dies and sometimes these problems tear business family apart, irreparably. Those types of situations support our contention that Mom is glue that holds business family together. So if it makes sense to have a succession management strategy for business, it makes equal sense to have a succession management strategy for family. When we discuss role of "Mom" in business family, our primary consideration is how communication system works for family in business together. Mom is involved in both formal and informal communication systems. The business will have a formal communication system and an informal communication system that is often characterized as "grapevine". Likewise, family has a formal or obvious communication system and it also has an informal system, family "grape vine". As succession managers for family businesses we are not surprised to find that many family issues, conflicts and misunderstandings occur in realm of family's informal communication system. One of major problems is called "triangulation".
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