Family, Legacy, and EOS in Business | Debra Chantry-Taylor | Ep 203

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:00

Life is just too bloody short. Everybody should be really happy. So whether you’re running a family business or you’re just enjoying some time with your loved ones, remember your family is your greatest legacy.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:19

Thanks for joining us on the Better Business, better life podcast on Christmas Eve 2024 by the time you listen to this, I will already be in Germany, because I am on the way to go and see what remains of my family to have a family Christmas. So for those of you don’t know me, I’m your host, Debra Chantry Taylor, and I’m passionate about helping entrepreneurs lead their ideal lives by creating better businesses, because life is just too bloody short.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:49

I’m a certified EOS implementer, an FBA accredited family business advisor and a business owner myself with several business interests, I work with established business owners and their leadership teams to help them live their ideal entrepreneurial life using EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. But I also enjoy sharing everything I know to help everyone creative. So it is Christmas, and Christmas is a time when, you know, families come together and we share food and laughter, perhaps bit of chaos too.

But for me, the last 5-6-7, years, how long it’s been now there hasn’t been a family Christmas because unfortunately, my family all passed or my immediate family all passed away. And so we went from having, you know, a very traditional family Christmas every year to a slightly different type of Christmas. But this year, I am on my way. I will be already there by the time this comes out. But I’m on my way to Germany, where my uncle and auntie live, and we’re going to be having a family Christmas with my uncle and auntie just outside of Frankfurt in a place called Orenburg. And then Steve and I are going to be traveling around Europe, catching up with all of my pen friends when I was 13 years old. So I’ve got pen friends in France and Germany, East Germany, Switzerland, and also in Denmark. And so we’re going to be traveling around and catching up with them. So I’m really looking forward to having quite a different Christmas this year.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  02:07

It’ll be cold, it will be hopefully snowy, and we’ll be catching up with a whole bunch of people we haven’t seen for a long, long, long time. Christmas, like I said, when my family were alive, was always very, very stuck in tradition, because my mum was German, and the Germans, they love Christmas. And so she always had very particular way of doing things. We always had a Christmas tree. We always had a proper roast Christmas turkey with potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and always Christmas pudding and mince pies.

And then, of course, we’d start the morning off as we could be home adults with a glass of champagne in the morning opening up our stockings, like I even to just before mum passed away, the last Christmas we had, we still had stockings as adults, so that was a very much a tradition in terms of having these Christmas stockings. First thing we did in the morning was to open the Christmas stockings. So I’m looking forward to having something a little bit similar, and visiting things like the Christmas markets in Germany is going to be a lot of fun, but Christmas does really remind us of the deep connections we have with our families, the love, the support and the shared memories if they’re no longer with you. But when it comes to family businesses, which is my specialty, those connections can sometimes become well, complicated.

So I thought I’d use this podcast.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:18

Let’s talk a little bit about the realities of family business. I’m very passionate about family having time for your family, having time to pursue other passions, but I’m also really passionate about family business. And so just want to talk a little bit about what family business means, and maybe how you can get through Christmas and into the new year and hopefully improve and strengthen those family relationships.

So as you can imagine, family businesses are very unique, because the people you love the most are also the ones you work every day. And what this means is you can have some certain dynamics that don’t necessarily exist in other businesses. So you’ve got the things like blurring boundaries, where family dynamic mixing of business decisions, which means that you know the son and daughter who have always been fighting in outside of work, can bring that tension into work, or the favourite of the dad is seen as the favourite in the business. I mean, there’s a whole lot of stuff that can actually happen in family businesses, a little bit different to those rural businesses. There’s also the unspoken rules, right?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  04:16

What’s acceptable at the dining table doesn’t always fly in the boardroom, and so the way that we talk to each other when we’re in a family situation, we’re sitting around our dining table having a barbecue, is not the way we can actually talk to each other when we are working together in the family business. And then you’ve got the generational differences, you know?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  04:34

You’ve got different visions, different goals, different leadership styles, not always, but sometimes the founders have got a certain way of doing things. And when the younger generation comes in, they struggle to let go and to let them, sort of the younger generation, actually take over. And sometimes the younger generation, you know, wants to change everything, without having a little bit of respect for the traditions and where the family business has come from, or where and how it got to where it is.

So I guess you know, to put it into some context, it can feel like running the business is just another Christmas dinner full of opinions of someone trying to be in charge all the time. But there are also really great positives to family business as well. Let’s not forget, family businesses are where some of the strongest foundations lie, because they’ve got trusts, they’ve got shared values, they’ve got a deep sense of legacy. And they, you know, the family business I tend to work with. They, they really want to be involved in growing more than just their business. They want to be involved in growing the community, helping the community, making sure they’re setting themselves up for a lifetime of family.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  05:37

You know, have family being able to have assets, being able to have a good business, being able to have income. So there really are quite, quite different in terms of the way that they approach things. It’s not about the short term wins, but it’s more about how do we build something that has a real legacy? And that’s why 70 to 90% of businesses globally are actually family owned. They’re resilient, they’re adaptable, they’re personal, and they generally are looking for that long term future.

So where can it go wrong in family business, but like the Christmas dinner, right? It’s those arguments, it’s those frictions, it’s those frustrations that kind of come out. And I often see this happening in the around the boardroom table, when we’re having family discussions about the business. So we have to try and come up with a way to actually separate the emotional from the practical. And that’s what I love about the EOS tools, is it gives you a real framework to actually separate that emotional stuff from the practical stuff in the business.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  06:33

So I use two tools. The first is the family business, three circle family business model from Harvard, where it talks about, you’ve got three distinct circles. You’ve got the actual family business. You’ve got the family itself, and then you’ve got the ownership, and that’s the ownership of the business, of the assets, of the of all the things that the family actually owns. And by getting very, very clear about where each person sits in that sort of three circle model, you can really separate at the family business from the other parts of those circles.

Once you’ve done that, you can start to use the EOS tools, which can really help to take all the emotion at the family business and make sure we’re making decisions based on what’s really for the greater good of the business. So we’ve got the vision, traction, organiser, great tool, two page plan that talks about, you know, our core values, who we are, how we operate, how we live and breathe and bleed around here, we’ve got the core focus, which is really very much around Why do we exist? What can we do better than anybody else in the world? And if you can really get the family business leaders to buy into that and to have some say in how that’s put together, and get the right words and really nail it. It just gives you such clarity that you can then share.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  07:46

And you know, as a family business, it’s really important that we’ve got the right people in the right seats, but they also understand how they fit into that bigger picture. So we’ve got the core values, got the core focus, the 10 year target. That’s our Northern Star, our guiding light, our compass. It’s what actually keeps us all rowing in the same direction. And again, like we’re getting a laser sharp, crystal clear understanding of what that long term looks like. Means. Again, everybody’s all behind that and doing the right things.

And then, of course, we’ve got the three-year picture, which brings the 10-year target down to the ground. We’ve got our marketing strategy, which is that, you know, who do we actually serve? Who is our absolute ideal client? What do we bring to them? Why would they come and work with us, as opposed to somebody else? So you’ve got the marketing strategy, the three year picture. Then you’ve got your one-year plan, which is at three to seven goals, the things you really must get done in the next year to bring that 10 year target down to the three year picture, down to the one year plan.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  08:40

And then, finally, we’ve got the 90-day rocks, which is a bite sized chunk pieces of work that are, I always said that they’re not necessarily urgent, but they’re really important. They’re what moves the needle. It’s, how do we actually keep the business moving forward? How do we improve? And I always say rocks should be based around things that do move the needle in the business, such as they might increase revenue, or they decrease costs, or they are looking for efficiencies. They’re producing efficiencies. So everybody has to work on business as usual, because that’s the way that the business actually works. But the rocks and it keeps the doors open, keeps the money coming in, keep people paid, but it’s the rocks that really move the needle.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  09:15

And then finally, on the VTO, the last one is the issues list. So we’re keeping a track of all the things that the business is not focused on the next 90 days, but could be an issue, an opportunity going into the future. So that’s the first tool, I think, that you know, as a family business, you’ve got to get everybody on the same page. It’s really important to understand. But the tool that comes before that, that I think is probably the most practical in a family business is the accountability chart. Because the accountability chart is about looking structure, first, people second, so thinking about the business, and thinking what is the most important functions in the business, and if we think about the most important functions in the business, they need to be represented at the leadership team.

So we have that diversity of thought, that diversity of you know, problem solving, that we actually have every major function represented at the leadership team. And then within that we, once we’ve identified those main functions, we’re putting down, you know, 4-5- 6, bullet points of the things we’re going to hold that leadership team member accountable for. And once we spelled this all out, and we might have somewhere between, you know, four or seven people on that leadership team, including the Integra and the visionary, then we can start to go structure, first people second. Now, do we have the right people to actually fill those roles? And this is where, as a family business, we’re taking the emotions out.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:37

We’re taking the you know, it’s not because your auntie so and so you get a role, but actually we’ve got this role. Who is the best person for this role. And it’s been a light bulb moment for some businesses when we actually work through it as a family business, and we sort of say, this is the structure we need.

This is what this this role is going to be held accountable for. You’ll often find that you know the founder who thought they had to absolutely be the leader, because they’re the founder, they look at one of those boxes and say, Wow, that’s actually really what I love to do, and that’s what I’d love to focus on.

And so they have an opportunity to actually step away from the things they may have been doing in the past. And sometimes it gets the point where you look at it, you look at all the structure there and what’s on the accountability chart, and the family members actually don’t want any part of that at the leadership team. And that’s perfectly okay. You know, it’s better to have the right people in the right seats and put somebody else in there and free up the family members do what they really love. So you may not be on the leadership team anymore, and that’s great, because if you’re doing what you love and you’re really good at it, and you get it, you want to have capacity to do it, then you’re going to be so much happier. I think there is this expectation that, because you’re part of the family, you have to take on a certain role.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  11:47

But I remember one of my clients I worked with many years ago where the father assumed he needed to be the visionary, because that was, you know, he was the head of the household. He was the founder of the business. But we started talking to his sons who are also working in the business, we realised there was actually a more natural leader for that business, and it wasn’t necessarily the father.

And then what we did was we had a box that was not necessarily on the leadership team. It was next level down, but it was around research and development and doing some more really highly detailed stuff, and that’s actually what the Father wanted to do. So it gave them a chance to go great. I don’t have to be the founder. I can be this role that maybe not even on the leadership team. But what it does mean is every day, he’d be doing what he loves, day in day out. So they’re probably two of the biggest tools. I think the VTO and the accountability chart really help to take the emotion out of it, and then they get supported with things like, once you’ve got your seat and, you know, you’re in the right seat. And you know what? The core values on your living part?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  12:45

We’re going to have a score card that’s going to help you keep the track of what needs to be done in that role. And we’re going to have rocks for that particular part of the business as well. And then we’re going to run frequent meetings, you know? We’re going to have annual planning sessions, 90-day quarterly sessions, and then weekly level 10 meetings. So every single week, we’re actually tying back into that plan and making sure that we’re actually moving forward. So that’s why I think that the EOS model works really well for families. It’s interesting, there’s actually a whole part to EOS that is also for families who are not in family business.

So if you decide, you know that you want to get more harmony in your family, even if you’re not a family business, but just family at home, you can actually use we’ve got a family, VTO and the family VTO has similar kinds of questions, what are our core values around here? What are our goals and aspirations? What’s our bucket list? What are the things we really want to do together as a family, and again, just having the time to talk about these issues and to work through them and get everybody really crystal clear on what we’re wanting to do. It can help a family as much as it can help a family business.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  13:51

And the tool, the IDS tool, the issue solving track, you know, using that IDS tool, Steve always has a laugh at me whenever we have an issue at home, he’s like, shall we IDS that? And it’s just, again, a really lovely tool that takes the emotion away from trying to resolve a problem. So the issue solving track. It’s called IDS.

So the first step is to identify, and this means identifying what the real issue is. So not just what was said you usually you spell out the issue in a couple of sentences, but sometimes what is said versus what’s really happening, the root cause of it is actually quite different. So we have a statement that says this is the issue, and then we just keep asking the curious child questions. So why did that happen? And when did this start to happen, and what effect is it having, and who is it affecting, and why is that, and what does that mean, and why is that? And it’s like, until you’ve actually got to three or four or five, Whys that’s when you’ll get to the real deep seated issue, as opposed to what’s originally said. So identifying is the most important part, and it really gives you a chance to dig deep and go, what’s really going on, you know? Is it? You know? Because sometimes what we say. D, when we start to dig deeper, there’s a lot more emotion in behind it, so bringing that to the surface, then we can move on to step two.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  15:07

And so the IDs, the D stands for discuss. And again, you know, as humans and as family members, we often want to jump in with a solution really, really quickly. But the reality is, there’s always more than one solution. And so the discuss part of IDS is going, Hey, let’s have a look at all the possible solutions. Like nothing’s a silly idea at this point, we might as well discuss all the possible options to actually solve that. The really logical, obvious one, the one that’s so far left and removed that you haven’t even thought about the silly idea. Discuss them all as you discuss them as a team, you’ll start to sort of see you know what is possible, and it’s not always the first option that is the best option. So discuss all the possible options. Then as a team, we have to solve it. And if it’s a family team, or if it’s a family business leadership team, the solve comes down to now, we’ve heard all the possible options, and we know what the root cause is, what is the best possible solution for the greater good of the business, or the greater good of the family, or for the greater good of the family business?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  16:12 

And as a team, we decide, and then we have got the solve part, the IDS, which best being solved. Nothing is actually solved unless as an action point. So the solve part is coming up with a solution, but actually taking a forward step. And we always say an Action Point is a seven day action item. So what’s the one thing that we can do that can start to move that forward? So it may not solve the issue completely, but it gives us a little bite sized chunk to go away and do. So it might be, let’s go get some more research on that, or it might be, we should have a talk to somebody else about that, and then we’ll come back, and then next week, we’ll work through it again. Or it could be it actually solves it completely. Actually, it’s a really simple solve. This is what we can do. The Action Point is, and we set that up for being resolved in the next seven days.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  16:55 

So hopefully there’s a few little tips and tools that can help you. I think that some of these tools could also be used around the family dining room, table writing, if we’re getting too emotional, if aunties had too much wine, or there’s, you know, all this high level of emotion.

I always find Christmas fascinating because we expect we don’t see each other for quite some time. We all come together at Christmas. Everybody should be really happy. But it’s also a really stressful time, because it’s a time when, you know, we’re trying to organise the perfect meal, the perfect kind of get together, we’d try and have everybody like each other, love each other, and sometimes families know that they’ve got issues that just need to be sort of resolved.

So using some of these tools could actually become a great thing for families, as well as family businesses. So whether you’re running a family business or you’re just enjoying some time with your loved ones. Remember your family is your greatest legacy. Do cherish it. You know, I miss mine dearly. I’m very, very happy that I’m going to spend time with my uncle and auntie in Germany. I say I haven’t had a family Christmas for a long, long time. So, yeah, do cherish it. Do enjoy it.

Use some tools to take the emotion out of it.

Let’s just all have a very happy, very merry Christmas. Make me full of love, laughter and maybe even a little bit of rest. I shall look forward to seeing you in the new year, when I have got some really amazing guests coming on board, and we’ll be talking a bit more about how we can create that better life, creating a better business.

Merry Christmas everybody. See you in the new year.