My son and I started watching Game of Thrones; him for the second time and this is my initiation. After GOT’s disastrous season 8, my son asked if I wanted to watch that final season. That is where this Lesson Found begins. (more…)
Is your successor ready for leadership?
Greeks elected a new prime minister last week, Kyriakos Mitsotaki, who is also the son of a former prime minister. His ascent as leader of Greece offers a valuable Lesson Found for family businesses.
Mr. Mitsotaki’s election is the culmination of his path into the “family business”. (more…)
How to Survive Summer in Your Home Office
When I began my consulting practice, a major reason for choosing to work from home was being able to spend more time with my son who was 11 at the time. Then the school year ended and summer started. That experience is the source for this week’s Lesson Found.
Anticipating that summer, I thought my son would entertain himself while I worked. This “logical thought” was quickly challenged by reality the first week of summer vacation. (more…)
Is the investment of time sinking your decision making?
My 20-year old son, Jeremy, and I often discuss various business-related topics. Recently that topic was the “sunk cost fallacy”* which I explained is the mistake of using money and time already sunk into a project as the deciding factor to continue the project. A junior studying computer science, Jeremy immediately compared this to “coding” (aka writing computer code). This relationship between sunk costs and coding is this week’s Lesson Found. (more…)
Addressing Sibling Conflict in the Business
My mother and I recently traveled to visit my sister and her family. Except for the occasional meal out, we stayed in the house, simply being together as family. And we had a wonderful time! On the trip home, I considered the contrast and how stereotypical sibling conflicts burden some family businesses. The source of and ways to mitigate these conflicts are this week’s Lesson Found. (more…)
A founder’s legacy of integrity for his daughter & their business
This week’s Lesson Found comes from a friend, Debby Abel, who recently wrote a beautiful essay on her family’s business and the legacy of integrity her parents gave her. (more…)
Aligning Succession Plans with Business Plans
A participant at a recent family business workshop was surprised when I said business planning should be part of the succession planning process. This founder’s business had a succession plan but lacked a coordinated plan looking at the future of their business. This founder’s surprise is a Lesson Found for all family businesses. (more…)
Building a team to turn impossible into possible – and more!
The gravity pull of black holes is so intense it sucks in everything around it – even light. It would then seem impossible to capture a picture of any black hole. But a team of scientist did exactly that. Their efforts offer a Lesson Found in what it takes to create an extremely effective team. (more…)
The “Screech Method” for Resolving Partner Conflicts
Childhood friends Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan co-founded and built Method natural cleaning supplies into a $100 million brand. And, like many family and other partnerships, the path toward success was not always smooth. How the two navigated past conflict is a Lesson Found.
Featured on How I Built This with Guy Raz, the friends/partners discussed their path to success and described, as I refer to it, the “Screech Method” of conflict avoidance. (more…)
Does running your business feel like running a marathon?
Running a business and running a marathon have much in common including both the owner and the runner are in it for the duration. Thus, Des Linden’s “training regimen” leading up to winning the 2018 Boston Marathon offers a Lesson Found for owners.
After ten years of running in Olympic and other major marathons, Linden finished 4th in the 2017 Boston Marathon. Desiring to finally break through to the winning spot, Linden cut short her normal break and quickly returned to training with even greater intensity than before. The result (more…)