Who is the boss now - 2005

Rather than being frustrated with the way your father or son communicates, change your style of language and communicate more like them.

That was the message from Lyn Sykes, one of Australia’s leading Family Business Communication experts at this year’s "Who’s the Boss Now?" seminar. The seminar was held by the BCG with support from the Birchip Business & Learning Centre on 20 April 2005.

Sykes was one of the three panel members who returned to Birchip to follow up a discussion regarding the challenges imposed by working in a family business. Facilitating the discussion was Libby Price, host of the Victorian ABC Country Hour. Also returning to the panel was a young farmer from WA, Charlie Boyle. Boyle farms with his father and brother following a recent split in the business from his uncle and cousins, who now farm independently. When Boyle’s older brother returned to the farm, the two decided that the two families needed to go their own ways, it was then only months before the family business was split down the middle. While the process itself may have been short, it was certainly not easy.

"A lot of personal traits have come out and true colours been exposed." Boyle said, although he would not have had it any other way when it comes to the short amount of time it took to finalise the split.

"We decided to do it quickly, because once you begin the process of splitting up, everyone starts thinking about the next life, what it’s going to be like after we split up. Everyone starts working in opposite directions."

Sykes’s advice is to have a plan in place before there is a fight. The human triggers are often predictable, with two brothers going into business together likely to marry, likely to have children, likely to have sons return home, and those sons then likely to marry. Many of the families that Sykes works with now are making it part of the family plan that anyone who comes into the business is asked to enter into a binding financial agreement that is reviewed every five years.

Sykes suggests developing a communication strategy, the same as you would a cropping strategy. The three crucial elements of that strategy include:

• having regular meetings (as in most businesses) Example agenda 
• developing a decision-making strategy that everyone agrees with, and
• acknowledging that conflict is normal and working out while you’re not in conflict what you are going to do when it happens.

Working out what sort of person you are and what sort of personalities you’re working with can also help. A simple questionnaire was used to determine personality types. By knowing the personality type and the language that someone you’re communicating with is likely to use, you can tailor your own language to be more like theirs for more effective communication.

Working with families in business can be rewarding and challenging. With some of the simple lessons learnt, we can minimise the challenges to work together towards a sustainable and harmonious family business.

Read a full transcript of the seminar