Page 77 - Lighting Magazine December 2019

adamant that family comes first and start them on a ‘reset’ course of re-examining their priorities. Even the most jaded parent or child usually doesn’t want to destroy their family just to be right.”
Family-owned businesses are especially suscep- tible to generational breakdowns. It can be hard for older generations to let go of the control they’ve had, especially if their opinions are at odds with their descendants.
“The older generation can get offended when the new generation doesn’t follow the same practices,” Schmitt explains. “They often feel like others think they’ve been doing things wrong. In reality, it’s only natural that businesses have to make changes to survive.
“For example, we worked with a father and son who were at odds with each other. The father was very disappointed with the son and didn’t think he was doing the right things. When we looked at the facts and numbers, we saw the business was thriv- ing. In fact, it was doing better than ever, but the father’s ego was wounded. We spent a lot of time getting the two of them to talk and re-establish their family relationship. In the end, they were able to negotiate a compromise — they agreed to disagree about certain things, but were not going to let it hurt their business,” he recounts.
In some cases, compromise isn’t possible. “Some family members simply can no longer be involved in the business,” Schmitt comments. “That has to be explored if the family ultimately wants to retain ownership of the business. In situations when there is no way for family members to exist within the busi- ness, we recommend that they sell. It’s not optimal, but it usually can help save the family relationships.”
Successful family businesses are especially sus- ceptible to generational issues because the older generation has done such a great job building the business that their children don’t realize how hard they worked to achieve that success.
“The new generation really doesn’t understand the ins and outs of the business’ operations,” he ex- plains. “They have benefited from the success of the business and the country club lifestyle, but haven’t participated in the difficult activities required to maintain its growth.
“Parents think they’re doing the right thing by shielding their children from the sacrifices they had to make,” Schmitt states. “Unfortunately those grown children think they can walk into a leadership role without putting much time or effort in. This
Conquering conflict THE COST OF CONFLICT
U.S. employees spend 2.8 hours per week involved with conflict (defined as “any workplace disagreement that disrupts the flow of work”) — equaling approximately a full day of productivity each month.
That totals $359 billion of paid hours stuck in negativity rather than productivity
➥ 85 percent of employees deal with conflict on some level
➥ 29 percent of employees deal with it almost constantly
➥ 34 percent of conflict occurs among front-line employees
➥ 12 percent of employees say they frequently witness conflict among
the senior team
➥ 49 percent is a result of personality clashes and “warring egos”
➥ 34 percent is caused by stress in the workplace
➥ 33 percent is caused by heavy workloads
➥ 27 percent of employees have witnessed conflicts lead to personal
attacks
➥ 9 percent have seen workplace conflict cause a project to fail
➥ 70 percent of employees believe managing conflict is a critically
important leadership skill.
Beyond the cost of sagging productivity is the threat of lawsuits. U.S. companies face a nearly 12-percent chance of being hit with an employ- ment-related lawsuit. Last year, 76,418 workplace discrimination charges were filed, which resulted in more than $50 million in damages awarded in federal court alone — plus the hundreds of millions in damages granted by state and district courts. The average cost for a company’s legal defense and settlement is $125,000.
SOURCES: CPP INC.; EEOC, 2018 ; HISCOX, 2015; MILLENNIAL BRANDING/BEYOND.COM; THE ENGAGEMENT INSTITUTE; HARVARD; GALLUP; WORKPLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION; COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY; HAY GROUP
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