Have an Issue with your Business?
By Lisa Carey

Have an issue with your business?   Need help dealing with a problem employee?  There is no end to the resources available to help a business owner, and very few savvy entrepreneurs’ would even think twice about asking for advice.  Make that “problem employee” an issue with one of your children and what we do is drastically different.   A recent statistic reported that over 30% of the businesses in the US are owned by women.   Many of these business owners also are mothers.  Some make this work with nannies and housekeepers but the majority of us do it on a wing and a prayer.  Personally I am not an advocate of developing a “Family Plan” and running it by your board of advisors (parents and in-laws) before having children, however there are many things that we routinely do as business owners that we should think about doing with our families.

When I was growing up I heard a lot about quality time vs. quantity time.    I was in the Navy when our daughter was born until the time she turned 11, so I am not the person that will say that if you work then your child will have problems.  What I do think however is that we should put the same thought into how we want our children to grow up as we do with our businesses.  In business we instinctively know that it is important for top management to have the same vision of where the company is going.  How many parents do you know that routinely make the time to discuss with their partner to see if their parenting skills and values are the same.  Consistency is incredibly important in raising a family – regardless of the age of the children.

A lot of people may not think that values are important in business, but they are critical to the success of your company.  In the family however, I think the most important thing parents can do for their children is to impart good values.  Many of us however do not know what our values are. I have 2 exercises that I will send to anyone for free if you e-mail me.   Once the family has figured out what values are important to them , then it is time for a discussion on how to impart those to the children.  After that it just requires remembering to sit down every month or two and see how things are going and if any area needs a little more attention. 

Boundaries are another area where it is common that we hold our employee’s more accountable than our families.  For example, if you have an employee that routinely comes in late most business owners would not hesitate to hold them accountable for their actions.  But if that is your 14 year old or maybe even your spouse or partner who routinely comes to dinner 10-15 minutes after it is ready and you call them, then we rarely handle it in the same manner. However when we don’t mention things right away, then we are encouraging the exact behavior that we don’t want.  The easiest thing to do is to talk to the person and explain the problem.  My guess would be that they are doing something that they just can not drop when dinner is ready.  This can be easily solved by calling them 5 minutes before it is ready – so that when they finish up – dinner really is ready.  We sometimes make issues like this into a contest of wills – when having a conversation can solve the issue.

So the next time you have an issue with your family ask yourself, how would I handle this if it was a business issue?  Could I have planned ahead?  Just remember what is important to you!

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