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Family-Owned Businesses and 9-11
As a nation, we are experiencing an unrelenting sense of shock, concern and anxiety. Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis has our nation felt so vulnerable. The events of the past three months have affected everyone, and like the weather we all feel it... it is there, a common angst that gnaws at us as we try to go about our normal routines.
As our own work has focused on helping family-owned businesses to navigate the relationship issues which often threaten to "destroy the family" or to "kill the golden goose", we have often been asked, and have asked ourselves, "what are the benefits of having a family-owned business?" World events of the past months have made the answer more apparent to us. Between the economic uncertainties, recent terrorist attacks, war in Afghanistan, and other stress inducing events, many of the members in the family owned businesses that we consult to have expressed a sense of uneasiness shadowing their everyday lives. In those families wherein relationships have typically been less healthy, heightened stress and challenged emotions are eliciting a somewhat polarized set of reactions. On the one end, individuals are making the decision to put differences aside and draw strength from the proximity of family members. For better or worse, they take less for granted. These families hear the political and the current economic climate and tragic events as preaching the need for pragmatism and fiscal conservatism. As in other times of crisis or need, they turn to family for a sense of support, safety and strength, closing ranks to re-strategize possible effective measures to contend with circumstances. They take less in the business for granted, not tolerating the usual level of bickering and avoidance to which they may have previously adjusted. Some who may have previously contemplated exiting the family business are reconsidering. Siblings previously at each others´ throats are sheathing their swords , collaborating and working better together. The founding generation, who are often the parents, have themselves reacted with greater tolerance, acceptance, and encouragement towards younger family members. At the other pole are the families for whom underlying schisms and conflicts are being exposed, revealing a chasm too wide to bridge. Not feeling the support they need in time of crisis, disappointment hardens resolve, providing the necessary fuel to override the guilt and anxiety that contemplating leaving or dissolving the family business provokes. The parent, responding to an internal feeling of tension, tightens controls and becomes more conservative and security oriented. The siblings, who under previous circumstances respected how far they could go in expressing anger and rage, lose sight of the limits and violate their unspoken but mutually recognized rules of engagement. Research on stress management shows that positive family relationships are associated with improved physical health, well-being and stress reduction. From our experience we know the enormous emotional, physical, and financial benefits that having a strong family base provides its members. When family members can recognize and appreciate their strengths, respect their differences, and re-affirm their sense of commitment to the family, there can be a tremendous turnaround at the workplace as they work with and rely on one another. There can also be a lessening of anxiety, which then positively effects family members not directly involved in the family-owned business. But none of this, nothing that is any good comes easy. All good things require work and attention. The rewards are worth the effort. As we tell our clients, it doesn´t have to be perfect, it just has to continue to get better.
Jerry I. Kleiman, Ph.D. can be reached via email or at http://www.optimalresolutions.com/. Jerry I. Kleiman, Ph.D., co-founder of Optimal Resolutions, Inc., is an Attending Psychologist at the North Shore University Hospital and has been in private practice since 1977. He is Executive Director Emeritus of the Long Island Institute of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and Founding Director of the Institute´s Family Therapy Training Program. Having a private practice in clinical psychology has allowed Dr. Kleiman the opportunity to work with clientele who are highly successful business people and to develop an expertise in the myriad of issues involved in family-owned businesses. << Back to Homepage |