The question reflects a surprise I sometimes encounter in people who advise family businesses without knowing much about their specific characteristics.
Actually, I can understand their surprise.
Because if you are used to working in environments where, in principle, anyone can sever ties with anyone else at a moment's notice, it can be difficult to understand what all the 'drama' is about.
So why should purely financial challenges suddenly be about the relationship between uncle and nephew or mother and daughter?
And why should a nice legal issue be complicated by discussions about the dynamics between people who happen to share DNA?
If you don't know any better, you might get the impression that family businesses are simply less professional. That they fool around and are more concerned with their emotions than with the business, because they have inherited their company and don't necessarily have the skills to run it.
But the fact is that people everywhere are deeply preoccupied with emotions all day long.
The difference is that owner families are forced to deal with major family problems at work – so that they don't become bigger problems at work AND at home.
Where most people can go to work on Monday and leave sibling rivalry and feelings of inferiority at home or tuck them away in a little knot in their stomach, owner families have to address their feelings because the root cause (apparently always) is standing by the coffee machine.
And if that is the premise, would it be professional NOT to deal with family problems as an integral part of the business challenges?
My answer is a resounding NO, but what's yours?
