Developing Next Generation Leadership Talent In Family Businesses

This illustrative book considers the interface of business structures, contexts, and leadership building blocks to explore the contingent nature of leadership development in transgenerational entrepreneurship. Longitudinal case studies of 27 family firms in nine different countries provide a rich, global selection of leadership development insights by examining the roles of values, professionalization, leadership style and other contingent factors. The diversity of cases and chapters provides a rich foundation for insight into the pathways currently in use to develop the next generation leaders, illuminating the strategies and pathways of successful transgenerational family enterprises. By examining the available literature and one or more case studies, each chapter draws pragmatic conclusions, with findings that suggest the importance of focusing on leadership as a shared capability, transmission of values to maintain an entrepreneurial culture, the fit between professionalization and values to increase transgenerational potential, the need to address the structure of the business and the focus on parenting to develop next generations. This path-breaking book will inform family business researchers as they explore the ways in use to develop the next generation. Each chapter starts with a mini-case study focused on a dilemma related to leader development, making this book an excellent resource for educators in undergraduate, graduate, or executive programs.

According to management and psychology courses, as well as legions of consultants in organizational psychology, shared vision in dyads, teams and organizations can fill us with hope and inspire new possibilities, or delude us into following false prophets. However, few research studies have empirically examined the impact of shared vision on key organizational outcomes such as leadership effectiveness, employee engagement, organizational citizenship, coaching and organizational change. As a result, the field of organizational psychology has not yet established a causal pattern of whether, if, and how shared vision helps dyads, teams and organizations function more effectively. The lack of empirical work around shared vision is surprising given its long-standing history in the literature. Bennis and Nanus (1982) showed that distinctive leaders managed attention through vision. The practitioner literature has long proclaimed that vision is a key to change, while Conger and Kanungo (1998) discussed its link to charismatic leadership. Around the same time, positive psychology appeared in the forms of Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider, Sorensen, Whitney, & Yaeger, 2000) and Positive Organizational Scholarship (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003). In this context, a shared vision or dream became a legitimate antecedent to sustainable change. But again, empirical measurement has been elusive. More recently, shared vision has been the focus of a number of dissertations and quantitative studies building on Intentional Change Theory (ICT) (Boyatzis, 2008) at dyad, team and organization levels of social systems. These studies are beginning to lay the foundations for a systematic body of empirical knowledge about the role of shared vision in an organizational context. For example, we now know that shared vision can activate neural networks that arouse endocrine systems and allow a person to consider the possibilities of a better future (Jack, Boyatzis, Leckie, Passarelli & Khawaja, 2013). Additionally, Boyatzis & Akrivou (2006) have discussed the role of a shared vision as the result of a well-developed set of factors that produce a desired image of the future. Outside of the organizational context, positive visioning has been known to help guide future behavior in sports psychology (Loehr & Schwartz, 2003), medical treatment (Roffe, Schmidt, & Ernst, 2005), musical performance (Meister, Krings, Foltys, Boroojerdi, Muller, Topper, & Thron, 2004), and academic performance (Curry, Snyder, Cook, Ruby, & Rehm, 1997). This Research Topic for Frontiers in Psychology is a collection of 14 original papers examining the role of vision and shared vision on a wide variety of desired dependent variables from leadership effectiveness and executive performance to organizational engagement, citizenship and corporate social responsibility, and how to develop it through coaching.

Employers who refuse to adapt to the expectations of younger generations are losing out on top talent, as they leave for positions at companies with more modern practices. Learn what companies need to do to fit into the new normal in the workplace. Generation Y sees the world differently than any other generation in modern memory. And nowhere is this more evident than in the workplace. The astronomical shifts that this generation has seen in the economy, technology, and the world have changed what they want from life and work--which is not a 9-5 existence for forty-plus years, leading to a typical retirement at sixty-five. What older generations call a poor work ethic from a spoiled generation, Gen Y sees as a different way of doing things. Companies that don’t get on board risk losing the diverse, young talent that is critical for them to be able to compete. Companies that take the time to listen realize that what Gen Y is asking for isn’t that crazy; in fact, it’s better in many ways. A demand for work-life balance isn’t a cry for fewer work hours--it’s a cry to be able to work from outside the office beyond a rigid 9-5 schedule (which can lead, ironically, to Gen Y employees working even more hours than you expected). Leaving a job after a couple years isn’t an inability to commit--it’s a need to learn more, expand their experience, and develop their career at a faster pace, something that is helpful to companies that hire those individuals, including your own. Elevating nontraditional benefits over financial benefits is a step toward creating an emotional connection to the company where employees spend the majority of their time and invest significant mental and emotional efforts. The need to work for a company with a purpose is a reflection of the power that social media has had on the social consciousness. This book will explore what’s behind these shifts in the character of the emerging workforce. It shows that, as Gen Y assumes managerial positions, the nature of leadership and business will change over the next few decades in irrevocable and profound ways.

You're trying to help--but is it working? Helping others is a good thing. Often, as a leader, manager, doctor, teacher, or coach, it's central to your job. But even the most well-intentioned efforts to help others can be undermined by a simple truth: We almost always focus on trying to "fix" people, correcting problems or filling the gaps between where they are and where we think they should be. Unfortunately, this doesn't work well, if at all, to inspire sustained learning or positive change. There's a better way. In this powerful, practical book, emotional intelligence expert Richard Boyatzis and Weatherhead School of Management colleagues Melvin Smith and Ellen Van Oosten present a clear and hopeful message. The way to help someone learn and change, they say, cannot be focused primarily on fixing problems, but instead must connect to that person's positive vision of themselves or an inspiring dream or goal they've long held. This is what great coaches do--they know that people draw energy from their visions and dreams, and that same energy sustains their efforts to change, even through difficult times. In contrast, problem-centered approaches trigger physiological responses that make a person defensive and less open to new ideas. The authors use rich and moving real-life stories, as well as decades of original research, to show how this distinctively positive mode of coaching—what they call "coaching with compassion"--opens people up to thinking creatively and helps them to learn and grow in meaningful and sustainable ways. Filled with probing questions and exercises that encourage self-reflection, Helping People Change will forever alter the way all of us think about and practice what we do when we try to help.

Providing an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers, this book investigates positive psychology and relationships theory and research across a range of settings and life stages—intimate, work, educational, senior/retirement, and in the context of diversity. Nearly universally, relationships are a key source of what we all seek in life: happiness, fulfillment, and well-being. The experts who contributed to this novel volume apply the framework of positive psychology to the findings of relationships research across a variety of practical contexts. What actions create and sustain respectful, caring, joyous, stimulating, and loving relationships? How do people rich in friendship, intimacy, and interpersonal skills think and behave? How do they unconsciously cultivate positive relationships? This book brings together authoritative reviews, cutting-edge research, and thoughtful scholarship that serve to answer these questions and document the benefit of positive relationships in a variety of settings and across the human life span. Following a comprehensive introduction, the book addresses positive intimate relationships, positive relationships at work, positive relationships during different stages of life (in youth, in adolescence, and among older adults), and positive relationships intersecting with diversity. The chapters underscore the simple concept that relationships are central to what makes life worth living and are fundamental to well-being across all life domains as they play out at home, in school, at work, in retirement homes, and in the community at large.

Career development is often neglected in family firms, yet it is essential to the continuous process of building leadership capacity for the future. A well-planned and effective career-development process enables individuals meet the strategic challenges of the future. This guide enables family businesses to shed their "sink or swim" attitudes and foster the development of highly skilled leaders for succeeding generations of success.

From small start-ups to giant multinationals, from the Mom-and-Pop owned barber shop to Ford, family owned businesses continue to dominate the world economy. Regardless of size, running a successful family firm presents unique challenges, and many fail to survive the transition to the next generation. Here is a practical, comprehensive guide to ensuring success through effective strategic planning. The authors provide a wealth of tested, easy-to-follow tools and techniques for mastering strategic planning for family-owned firms. Filled with real world examples, case studies, checklists, and planning worksheets, the book shows how to deal with a host of emerging challenges--from new technologies and globalizing marketings--by integrating family values and dynamics into sound planning and management.

Discover What Makes Family Businesses Beat the Odds and Thrive over Generations Families are complicated; family businesses even more so. Like other companies, family-run enterprises must develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills. But they must also manage family dynamics that rarely mirror the best practices in the latest Harvard Business Review. Allan Cohen and Pramodita Sharma, scholars with deep professional and personal roots in family businesses, show how enterprising families can transmit the hunger for excellence across generations. Using examples of firms that flourished and those that failed, they describe the practices that characterize entrepreneurial individuals, families, and organizations and offer pragmatic advice that can be tailored to your unique situation.