Proactiveness within a family business

Hi, I'm Dr. Tali and today we are talking about being proactive for people who are working in a family business. I feel like when you work in a family business, your stress is on a different level because you have family dynamics as well as all entrepreneurial dynamics, right? However, one of the first things about being proactive and having a proactive mindset is making the most of situations. So firstly, I would like to tell you that your position is a gift now. You need to use your access and see how you can make that a tool for you, right? So the first tip I would say in public speaking we say know your audience, right? You adjust what you're saying and how you're dealing with people depending on like your audience. Now, when you work in a family business, you have access to everyone your family. You have access to the staff, access to the customers, to the suppliers, to all the different people and the different dynamics which can be more stressful. But you also get to see people and know who is what and how they act in different ways. In most companies, only HR people really get to deal with everyone. And in that way they only deal with it in like when there's an HR issue. So you have an advantage, and that's what my point is. So see it as an advantage. You get to be in all the meetings, you get to read all the reports. In family businesses, they tend to trust family members with knowledge and access and information more than regular staff, no matter what your job is, right? So because you're in all these different situations, you have more stress. So let's turn that stress around and use it as an advantage. So know who you're dealing with and start to see how you can use that strategically. Because you know these two people don't get along or these two are having a relationship, or this one fought with that one last week, or these two have different opinions on this issue. You can anticipate that and you can see how to use it strategically, how to divide them in meetings or not put people on different projects or you know, who works well together, or you know, this person is the team leader, but they're very weak. So I have to make sure that their junior person is very strong. Or this person is a team leader. They are the ones who run this shop, but they don't have any idea about accounting. And you need to have that level of knowledge to be at that position. But because they are friends with your cousin who is in charge of that department, they got promoted. So you can't just be upset about the situations. But you can use that information and say, you know what, let me get the right training to that person, or let me get the right people, the right resources, or let's divert the attention from here to here so you can use your position in a strategic way. It leads me to tell you anticipate the needs of the company, right? Because you have access to all this information, you can anticipate what's going to happen, you know who is going to respond in what way. The reason it's so hard to work with family is because you have these relationships that have existed for so long. But it's also an advantage in a normal business or a corporate environment. No matter how long someone has worked in the company, they don't know each other from day one, right? But your family is your day one. You've been fighting with each other since you were born, so you know how to anticipate each other. And even if you weren't working in the family business, you would be hearing stories about the business. So by the time you started, you have context on everyone, right? All the team, the suppliers, which are the best branches, which are the best businesses or the best ideas. You know what's going on. So use that as an advantage and anticipate the needs. Let me give you an example. My mom is someone who is very like finance oriented. She can read spreadsheets, she likes to ask questions, she goes through every little detail. So now if I see a manager walking into a meeting with her and I know that this person has no finance background and doesn't know how to answer this question, my job is to give that guy a heads up and tell him, you better come ready to defend your budget because Madame Caro is going to ask you a million questions. So now why do I do this? Because I know from experience if I don't and he shows up for the meeting and she asks him many questions. Firstly, this project is in jeopardy because if you can't defend your budget, it's about to be cancelled. Nextly, if she somehow gives you another chance and tells you, come back next week with the budget and now you're ready to talk about it, well, you've delayed the whole project. Everyone has now been wasting a week waiting for you to be ready with that. I realized this a few years ago, the beginning of my time in my family business. I was working so much in operations, so I was very results oriented. I was all about hitting the target, whatever it takes to get the results we need. Does it mean changing these people around does it mean looking for this budget? Does it mean changing the scope of the project? What are we doing? But I was in firefighting mode all the time. You're always just reacting, reacting, reacting. This problem, that problem, this issue, this customer, this supplier, this staff member, this thing, that thing. So you never have time to like sit and take a step back and see where is this all going? What are the consequences of these decisions? If we make this short term decision, how is this going to affect us in the long term? And in the last few years I realized that if I take a step back, I can better support everyone else who is doing the day to day operations, which is really firefighting, I think, in all companies. And how can I better effectively help them to do their jobs? How do I anticipate the needs of each project, each department, each company, each individual? Of course I'm not a machine. I can't do that for everything. But because I have access to different companies, to different people, to different departments, I get to sit in a board meeting and listen to the committees make a decision. But I also get to sit in weekly meetings about different brands or about different projects or about housekeeping. So I know the challenges on the team and I know the goals of the board. So how can I use this information to anticipate the needs of both? Because you want to keep all parties as happy as you can or as positive as smooth. Keep things moving forward to help the company to move forward, Right? So use your access as a family member to your advantage. How can you anticipate the needs? It's how you look at scenario planning. You know that if this person makes the decision, this, this, then this will happen. If this person chooses this project, this, this and this will happen. You know what is going to happen because you've been around, you've been in the company, you know your family members, you know the goals, you know what motivates people, you know your team, your staff, your colleagues, you know what they're scared of, you know what makes them happy. I can walk into a meeting with anyone in my family and I know what part of the meeting they're going to remember the most, what they'll be happy about, what they'll be annoyed about. Because I know them, I know their personalities. So I know which teams make work better. I know that you can't put all the finance people with one marketing person. Nothing is going to get done. I know that you can't put all the marketing people with one ops person. Ops person is going to be frustrated. So you have to know the different dynamics of the different people, the different goals of the different projects or the different companies, and see how to use that information to anticipate what's going to happen. This person talks so much. You can never plan a meeting of 30 minutes when you're dealing with so and so. This person needs in person meetings. They're not good with zoom meetings. This one is always late. This one is good at finance things. This one is very creative. So you get to learn the people and you get to do things because you have this access that will make everyone's job smoother. Right? Which brings me to my final point. Make life easier. I wish someone had told me this years ago because you guys, life is hard. There's enough problems, there's enough challenges and obstacles and difficult people and things coming at you all the time. And I feel like we're not thinking about how to make things simpler. We're always trying to solve a problem, do this, achieve this result. We have this big dream. We have to keep working harder. Hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle. Yo. Hustling is tiring. The hustle never stops. Businesses don't take a break. And when you're an entrepreneur, it's not like 5 o' clock comes and you're like, okay, bye. Nah. These problems are with you. They're with you in the morning when you wake up. They're with you when you go to bed at night. They're with you at a birthday party on a Sunday. You're here thinking about your work problem. Some people who work in professional careers are like that, Bambi. They are very diligent, they are very proactive. But most don't have to be entrepreneurship, you don't have that luxury. Family entrepreneurship, you definitely don't have that luxury. So see how you can make your life easier, make everyone's life easier. This is something that has really helped me just to take that attitude, simplify things. Sometimes I'll be in a meeting and there's this great idea. But I know that executing this is just not reasonable. Of course it would be wonderful. But I don't have a hundred Chinese people who are going to come and build this thing for me. Let me be reasonable. How am I going to execute it? Who is going to be responsible for it? Am I going to really call this person in that department every Monday and ask for an update? No, let's make it manageable. See how to make things work. I feel like this is the same with how we're now learning to fight perfectionism. When you want something to be perfect, it's never good enough. You're always trying to get it ready, to get it better, to make it no more improve this detail. That thing. You never release it. You never put it out there. Better is like done is better than perfect. I think that's the expression. Done is better than perfect. You'd rather just get it done and give it out. It might be 60% great, but if it was 99% great, but you didn't put it out there in the world, guess what? It's zero. That is the result. And I feel like that's an attitude that people in family businesses need to take. Things don't need to be perfect. We don't all have to get along every day, but we need to get things done. I like to see things are making progress. I don't want to go to the board meeting at the next quarter and say we're still dying with that first problem from last quarter because we can't agree because we didn't get the budget, because da da, da, da, da. Excuse, excuse, excuse. Did it get done, yes or no? Okay, once it's done, okay, now you have something to say, something to show, okay, next time we'll improve. This was our first time with this event. This is our first time with this team. This is this department's first quarter. You know, give them a chance. But you have to have something to improve on. So make life easier. What can you simplify? What can you remove to make the project go forward? Who can you remove? Sometimes it's just one difficult person. You know what? I don't think you need it on this project. We'll call you at the stage where your input is necessary. You can do things strategically. Use your access as a family member in the business, strategically be proactive. You can see these things coming. You know what's going to happen. You know what decisions are going to get made before they get made. It's not like a corporate system where there's so many walls and hierarchies and you don't know what's going on. You have the access to move through. So use that. Attend different meetings, be in different circles, go to different places, go into the field, go visit finance, go stick to the marketing guys. You need to understand people's logic, what they are driven by, what's making the department work or what's making this branch better than the other branch. Go and see, experience it and use that information you to anticipate what's going to happen, to plan better, to make better decisions, to be strategic. You can be very proactive and it makes your life easier because when you see it coming, you can prepare for it. You know what to expect. It's easier to manage other people's expectations. So I feel like flipping that, flipping the access from being a stressful thing to being a positive thing. It's a mindset shift, but it can really make a difference in your effectiveness as well. If you found this video useful, be sure to subscribe on my social media channels so you can get more information. I believe in you. I want you to succeed, and I am here to support you.