Amid sweeping new tariffs from the Trump administration, business leaders are grappling with anxiety, uncertainty, and echoes of past crises like COVID-19. This post offers practical steps to navigate compounded stress, avoid reactive decision-making, and build resilience in an era of relentless disruption.
Entrepreneurs and family business owners often face inefficiencies and decision-making roadblocks that hinder growth. This post explores practical strategies to streamline operations, enhance leadership, and build a sustainable path to long-term success.
In the final chapter of our series, we explore how emotional intelligence (EI) transforms leadership in family businesses. Building on themes of identity and emotional roadblocks, this post offers practical exercises to enhance self-awareness and foster collaboration, leading to better outcomes for both the family and the business.
Unveil the emotional complexities that make or break leadership in family businesses—beyond what traditional frameworks can address. In Part Two of our series, we identify five unique roadblocks to effective leadership and offer practical exercises to enhance your leadership effectiveness immediately.
Discover why traditional frameworks fall short for family businesses and how emotional intelligence and identity can unlock leadership potential. In this first installment of our three-part series, explore the unique dynamics of family enterprises and gain practical insights to enhance leadership effectiveness.
Navigating CEO succession in family businesses requires balancing emotional dynamics and legacy considerations with the objective expertise and strategic focus an external CEO might bring, ensuring the best interests of both the family and the business are prioritized for long-term success.
Family businesses are known for caring for staff and their extended families. Relationships are essential. Health care options are an important component of this care - but costs are spiraling out of control. We discuss this challenge and seek to identify options.
Transforming the culture in family businesses requires unique approaches due to their deeply rooted traditions and complex dynamics. By leveraging their strengths, involving all generations, and introducing new rituals, family businesses can align values with goals, fostering an environment of psychological safety and emotional intelligence for improved engagement and productivity.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is key for family businesses. This post explores how self-awareness, empathy, and self-regulation can transform family ties into business assets, fostering a culture of professionalism. Learn strategies for embedding EI in your family enterprise, and pave the way for a harmonious, successful legacy.
Explore the fine line between rumination and reflection. Learn to recognize the signs of harmful overthinking and embrace constructive self-analysis. Grounded in psychological research, this post offers simple yet profound strategies for turning inward musings into positive change.
Discover ways to navigate conflict in family businesses through emotional intelligence and open communication, turning challenges into opportunities for innovation and strengthened relationships.
A mental health study found that entrepreneurs have a higher prevalence of depression, ADHD, addiction, and bipolar disorder than the general population, with anxiety being the only mental health disorder with similar prevalence. Successful business owners have developed coping behaviors, but transitions can increase complexity, confusion, and conflict. Business owners can respond to mental health challenges by building self-awareness, other-awareness, busting the success bias, and closing the skills gap by creating a team with the right skills.
Advisors often attribute failed business deals to the colloquial term "cold feet," which they consider an irrational phenomenon. However, this explanation puts the burden on owners, and the root cause of many failed deals is left unresolved. Orange Kiwi's Clear Water Insights offers a better way with the Owner Transition Profile.
This mini case study is designed to help you learn how pausing helps you prepare for and move through significant transition points in your family business.
Transgenerational trauma (TGT) plays a major role in shaping the dynamics of successful business leaders and family businesses. Read more about how it works in this blog.
Responsible leadership principles drive successful owners to intentionally consider how their business transition impacts family, key leadership, community, and customers. Here are three truths to consider.
When the fun and excitement of executing your succession plan turn into yarn balls of complexity, relational tension, and family conflict, even the strongest family business leaders get stretched. Gain 10 valuable insights to consider for your family business succession.
“Why won’t people just do it the way I want it?” The founding owner’s need to control the process and outcomes are part of what made the business successful; the downside is this behavior also causes great frustration among family and non-family leaders in the business. Holding onto control while empowering key leadership is critical during seasons of significant transition and change. Read this article to discover…
“Disastrous! No one in their right mind would form a family business board!” Ask anyone who has tried and failed, and this is their likely response. As a result, owners wonder if it’s possible for families to function well, and truly thrive within the structure of a family board. Continue reading this article to find out…
Well-developed socioemotional wealth (SEW) gives family businesses a decisive competitive advantage over non-family businesses. But what is SEW, and how do you develop it? This article considers socioemotional wealth and how to increase it in family businesses.