Jeff Faulkner

How to Leave a Legacy – Cast a Vision
June 20, 2008

In my previous two posts, How to Leave a Legacy - Planning and How to Leave a Legacy - Continuous Learning, I suggested that leaving a legacy to and through your family and business requires planning for the development of the next generation as well as your continuous development. It also requires you to cast a vision for the fulfillment of the development of the next generation. You have almost always had a vision of where the business was going. As a business leader, your ability to see the big picture is the most important attribute you possess.

Allow me to encourage you to also be the visionary for your family. Many business owners have wasted or never cultivated their vision for their family in an effort to build a successful business – and they wonder how their families got lost in the process, and they are often left without a valid succession plan. The greatest thing a leader can do for the ones he/she is leading is to cast a vision for their development. You are responsible for their lives, and lacking vision can be destructive. This begins with your family members and extends to your managers and employees.

Develop a vision for your children. Hold them to a higher standard as you hold yourself to a higher standard. Be careful not to damage your children in this process. It’s not about making them into perfect children – it’s about investing in the process of them growing into decent adults. Because you are the role model for the next generation, you must hold yourself to a high standard and continue learning and growing in the areas you need to. I’ve worked with too many fathers who expect perfection out of their children but neglect to provide a positive role model for them by dealing with their own imperfections. Often times, they have not been vulnerable enough to allow their children to see their weaknesses – they have only shown strength. Therefore, their children haven’t seen a real picture of their fathers and have a poor role model.

The next generation of leadership will need high standards because it will motivate them to strive toward goals and dreams and the ultimate fulfillment of your vision for a family business legacy. The tendency is for the next generation to have lived a neglected life. Consequently, parental guilt leads to relaxed standards and rich blessings. Your children need you to deal with the guilt appropriately, by accepting your role as their parent.

Your children need to have a vision of what it means to be an excellent leader for the family business. As your children mature, your role will change from being the authority figure to being a coach, mentor and advisor. Your ability to fulfill this role will depend upon having a solid relationship with them that has been cultivated over time. It is on these relationships that your family business legacy hangs.

Posted by Jeff Faulkner on June 20, 2008 | Comments (0)