You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase “new year, new me” coming out of the holiday season. In fact, you may have said it (or something along those lines) yourself while making a resolution going into 2019! But most of us have also experienced the issues ever-present when we focus only on ourselves during the crafting of resolutions, particularly if we work in small, tight-knit, or family-run businesses. Everybody comes to the table with new visions for how they want the family business to move forward, and how they want to move forward within that business, and sometimes these visions aren’t always immediately compatible. So for 2019, our challenge to all the family businesses out there is to—instead of (or in addition to) making individual resolutions—come together and craft what we call a Common Family Vision™.
“The Common Family Vision™ is the embodiment of the soul of the business family.”
-Thomas Hubler, The Soul of Family Business
The “soul” of a family or a family business can be elusive and tricky-to-grasp, but it is a crucially important concept that brings together shared family values, ideals, leadership qualities, goals, and history—past, present, and future. Between the daily stressors of work and relationships, differences between individual personalities, and plentiful distractions in the world around us, these traits may not readily reveal themselves, nor reveal themselves all at once. But a family that stays in tune with each other’s needs and desires, listens carefully, and spots soul-defining moments when they appear should be able to work together to craft a short statement that captures the soul of the family and how they want to run their business, and this statement is the Common Family Vision™. This may not be an easy process: a family needs to spend time to creating their vision, expect dedication and intention from all members involved, and understand that this is a shared vision—no single member will get everything they want, but all members should be able to sincerely agree with all that is included.
When this vision is crafted into a cohesive statement, it allows for all family members to move forward with their individual resolutions and goals under a shared point of reference, with all members trusting each other to plot their own paths forward in a way that honors and supports the Common Family Vision™. When these individual paths lead to conflict, disagreement, or misunderstand, the Common Family Vision™ provides a shared, already agreed-upon goal to help move towards win-win solutions with methods such as the B.O.S.S. system for conflict management (addressed in much greater detail both here as well as in The Soul of Family Business). In essence, the Common Family Vision™ lends a sense of intimate and unique purpose that helps families not only thrive in their businesses, but helps family businesses define the soul qualities that so often set them apart from their competition.
When this vision is crafted into a cohesive statement, it allows for all family members to move forward with their individual resolutions and goals under a shared point of reference, with all members trusting each other to plot their own paths forward in a way that honors and supports the Common Family Vision™. When these individual paths lead to conflict, disagreement, or misunderstand, the Common Family Vision™ provides a shared, already agreed-upon goal to help move towards win-win solutions with methods such as the B.O.S.S. system for conflict management (addressed in much greater detail both here as well as in The Soul of Family Business). In essence, the Common Family Vision™ lends a sense of intimate and unique purpose that helps families not only thrive in their businesses, but helps family businesses define the soul qualities that so often set them apart from their competition.
The Common Family Vision™ and The Soul of Family Business
Without hyperbole, crafting a Common Family Vision™ is one of the most important steps a business family can take to foster healthy family relationships and long-lasting business success. This is why it is one of the earliest concepts covered in Tom Hubler’s new book, The Soul of Family Business: A practical guide to family business success and a loving family. From there, Hubler takes the concept of the Common Family Vision™ and weaves it into advice and education that spans everything from conflict management to expressing gratitude, from finding forgiveness to fostering multi-generational business success. Throughout, Hubler also includes personal anecdotes, real-world case studies, frameworks for a healthy business, and more. To find all this, including examples and instructions for crafting your Common Family Vision™, pick up The Soul of Family Business, available in hardcover form on Amazon.com, directly through Itasca Books, or at a bookstore near you. And of course, you can always contact Hubler for Business Families today to set up a free orientation meeting with Thomas Hubler, the expert on family business planning.
If you have already read The Soul of Family Business, we hope you loved it and would consider posting a review on our Amazon page.
If you have already read The Soul of Family Business, we hope you loved it and would consider posting a review on our Amazon page.
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