Earlier this year, I spoke to a family business that wanted help shifting their culture. Staff morale was mixed. Communication was inconsistent. Customer experience varied wildly depending on the department.

They had good values. But something wasn’t clicking.

When I asked how the leadership team was living those values day-to-day, they said: “Oh, we’re not looking at leadership right now. We’ve already decided the problem is further down.”

They wanted to “fix” the culture - without addressing the people who set the tone. It didn’t work. It never does.

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At the end of a workshop with a leadership team earlier this year, I asked: “Which of your values brings the most value to your customers?”

Silence.

They had four strong values, but when pressed on which of these drove customer decisions, created competitive advantage, or improved margins…they were stumped.

Not because the values were wrong. But because they weren’t ‘working’ for the business. Not commercially. Not culturally. And certainly not strategically.

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I know I have and it’s something I have to constantly stay aware of. And it’s something that many family business leaders struggle with. However, I was shocked the other day when having a great discussion with a very successful female family business leader who always appears to be super confident, purposeful and driven when she confessed to me that she still suffered from crippling Imposter Syndrome.

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Without exception, all the family business leaders I am talking to right now are grappling with the often-thorny issue of how to attract and retain Generation Z colleagues. This younger generation of workers are coming into the workplace with often very different ideas of how they want their work life to be and what they expect from us as employers. And sometimes it’s hard to know how best to react to that as their approach to life may be very different from ours. However, the good news is that many family businesses already have a great track record of evolving with the times and staying ahead of the curve. 

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Do you ever wonder about the real impact of organisational changes? We’d like to share with you the experience of a large family business that decided to shake things up, unaware of the cultural ripple effect that it was going to have. Here's the story of their transformation and how we worked with them to set things right.

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