A career track will also help them manage their expectations, understand when and how they are advancing and what they need to do next. Children of the founders often feel crushed by the expectations placed on them. They feel as if they need to immediately be as knowledgeable and as productive as their mom or dad, which can discourage them. The career track helps them manage their own expectations about themselves.
Don’t Manage Your Own Family
Ideally, a family member working in a business is as far removed in the org chart as possible from the owner parent. If a child should work in the business, he or she should be managed by another partner and should receive feedback and career guidance from other partners in the firm. The parent should be entirely removed from any compensation or advancement decisions, if that is possible, and in general should entrust the careers of children to associates.
This also means accepting and not interfering with the decisions of those partners. If they believe the young person is not ready for promotion or a pay increase, the worst possible scenario is for the parents to interfere to get the kids advanced. Such a step would destroy any credibility the owners have and any sense of fairness.
This approach will also help the kids, who can work with more confidence and not worry about whether clients and team members see their success stemming from the parents. If the children work in their parents’ shadow, they’ll feel it many years after the parents have left the business.
Never Anoint Kids As Partners On Day One
The greatest fear other partners and staff have is that a child will be “anointed” partner or CEO as birthright. Unfortunately, founders frequently and merrily pour gasoline on that fire by telling everyone this is exactly the idea they have in mind.
Yet the children might have no talent for a leadership role, and what’s more might have no interest. Maybe they are good advisors but poor leaders or team players. In fact, no one should ever be anointed a partner or a CEO in the first place. It’s a right that must be earned. People preparing for the role need to show they can pass every test other employees can and be just as good, if not better.
This is a good time to pull out your ownership agreement (or shareholder or operating agreement) and reread it carefully:
• How does your firm approve new owners/partners? Can one partner or a small group force the others to accept a new partner who is also family? Many firms choose to prevent that by requiring a super-majority.