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UFB Newsletter Issue #037 Corporate Governance April 21, 2005 |
ISSN 15465640 A free monthly e-zine with articles and tips from Family Business Experts who understand family values and business systems.
April 22, 2005 Issue #037 Family Business Experts https://www.family-business-experts.com http://www.familybusinessexperts.com
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In This Issue... 1. Our Managing Director Announces - 2. Business first family...Family first business American Express CEO Ken Chenault on Leadership 3. Legacy through Leadership LP13. Using Tough and Realistic Standards 4. Around the Family Business Experts web sites
1. Our Managing Director Announces - There's the classic tale of the son who, upon college graduation, is handed a portion of the family's business. Dad says, "I'd like you to start out in the warehouse. You know, learn the business from the ground up." The son replies, "That's awfully messy work." "Perhaps you'd like to work in sales," Dad continues. The son responds that he really doesn't enjoy traveling, and cold calls are hard to make. Dad then asks his son if he would like a position in the accounting department. The son replies that numbers simply aren't his strong suit. "How about something in information systems?" Dad forges on, and the son replies that he really isn't into computers. "So," Dad persists, "what is it you'd like?" And the son answers, "I guess I'd like you to buy me out." Our Change Management web site section and newsletter have a lot of material about leadership because we think it is so important to family business success. So we want to share with you what a top CEO recently said about leadership. Check out his insight in the Business First Family section. We have another new section started on the web site... Corporate Governance. Many family business leaders think that corporate governance is just for public companies. Not so! Corporate governance, the need for an independent Board - Directors or Advisors, and the proper selection and use of auditors is critical for private family businesses as well as public. Check out our new section to see why! Last issue we announced the start of our new Family Business Profiles feature for the newsletter and web site. Work is progressing and the first profile should be up soon. For those owners or advisors who want to be profiled, we now have the initial questionnaire form on the web site at Family Business Profile Questionnaire. Our readers will find inspiration from your success story, and you might even find good new business contacts! We continue with the Leadership Practices series, since these practices are the foundation for the processes that must be in place in order to achieve success. Reminder: We've developed a couple of quick diagnostic assessments to help you. They are both fr*ee [at least for a while] and we try to deliver 48 hour turnaround of our analysis. Try them! The Holonomic Top Down Assessment asks you about a combination of the 12 Main Enabling Processes that an effective organization has to have operating in order to achieve the 6 Desired Organizational Characteristics of effective organizations. Where your assessment indicates one or more of these are not working in your organization, we'll feed back suggestions as to the underlying Leadership Practices that might not be working. Diagnosing from the other direction - Bottom-Up - we ask you to identify which of 29 Leadership Practices aren't present or working. From that, we point you to Enabling Processes and thus Desired Characteristics that probably aren't functioning.
Whether to contribute, challenge (or hopefully even praise) our newsletter, I encourage you to contact me directly Don, or our editor David. Enjoy, and here's wishing you, your family, your clients... much success! Don Schwerzler, Managing Director 2. Business first family...Family first business:
American Express CEO Ken Chenault on LeadershipOur Change Management web site section and newsletter have a lot of material about leadership because we think it is so important to family business success. So we want to share with you what a top CEO recently said about leadership. Mr. Ken Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express, in a WHARTON newsletter article discusses the necessity of adaptability in organizations and their need for leadership. Mr. Chenault lists six character traits required by a skilled leader. These are integrity, courage, being a team player, execution skills, developing people, and being proactive. Only the first two (integrity and courage) are mostly individual characteristics of a leader. While integrity and courage are imperative, leaders must be judged by their ability to enlist and involve the support of others. The last four traits: team play, execution skills, developing people, and making change happen, are more than personal traits of a leader. They involve the cooperation and support of others. Leadership is more than just personal traits, it involves the processes of initiating, enabling, implementing, and sustaining change in the management of a group or an organization. Of course, initiating change requires integrity and courage. Nothing would get implemented if it were not for people willing to be team players. Given the conditions of rapid changes in markets, technologies, regulations, and environments, organizations are presented with many opportunities to adapt and prevail. It takes more than a great person to be a great leader because no one, alone, has the capacity to do it all. It takes the willing cooperating of others in an organization to effect the leadership practices needed. It is neither necessary nor sufficient for the leader to successfully do everything. It takes the others to make things happen. The challenge is to ensure the distribution of leadership processes (initiating, enabling, implementing, and sustaining change) throughout an organization. While not everyone has the talent to be a great leader, everyone can contribute to improving the leadership practices. One may not be able to initiate major change but one could help implement it. Another could help sustain change. Others, by example and support can help enable change. Besides, many large changes are just a series of small changes. Everyone can contribute to at least some of these changes and at least part of the leadership processes. In fact, the more people are involved, the greater the organization’s capacity of leadership and the more adaptable it becomes. Click here to read the entire WHARTON newsletter article
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3. Legacy through Leadership There are 29 Leadership Practices [LP] that are really the foundation upon which 12 holonomic or enabling processes[HP] are built, and which, in turn, produce 6 desired organizational characteristics [DOC]. We'll look at each in this section. LP13. Using Tough and Realistic StandardsUsing tough and realistic standards l is the basis for individual rewards. The standards are based on the strategic direction and reinforce unit activities and the work performed by individuals. They ensure development at the employee level by supporting the growth of an employee's skills as the organization continues to evolve. Take our fr*ee assessment on the 29 Leadership Practices...
4. Around the Family Business Experts web sites Search the entire content site
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