Hopefully, because they can both support and undermine the owner family.
This is not new knowledge. Yet many family businesses could benefit from focusing more on how owners relate to each other.
Development and operational strategies are important, but they don't do it alone. Organizational work also only goes so far, and the same goes for technical skills.
Emotions are a hugely important aspect of family business life.
Emotions can make or break a group of people, regardless of whether they're on top of their game.
Some of the challenges I helped solve as chairman of my family's business were strategic, technical and market-related. And they needed to be addressed, no doubt about it.
But there's no doubt that relationships and emotions were just as important - for better or worse.
I wasn't very good at putting emotions on the agenda when the family got together to talk about the business. They were kind of pushed aside because we had all the other (wonderfully impersonal!) issues to deal with.
If I could go back in time and offer myself advice, I would basically say:
"Hey, Eva, remember to treat the emotional challenges with the same dedication as all the other challenges. When was the last time you talked to each other about your family relationships?"
The purpose of talking about emotions in the family business is simple:
A family that is emotionally connected is much more likely to thrive and lead their business through a storm than a family where emotions have a destructive influence on collaboration.
So really, it's just common sense to focus on emotions.
