Here’s some advice for all those boards out there seeking to shake things up by adding diversity to the board room. Diverse directors have different communication styles, cadences, and thought processes; and won’t be able to contribute a diversity of thought if they are expected to fit in. When adding diversity, don’t expect the new directors to be able to jump right into old dynamics and bring maximum value to the organization. Slow down the pace. Longer-tenured directors should ask others what they think and pause before speaking to leave room for the newer folks to speak up. Check in with ..read more

Since private company boards are not required to report board diversity metrics, The Lodis Forum, a peer group for female Board Chairs, recently completed a survey to gather data on board diversity in privately held companies. The survey data is from 249 companies representing 1695 directors. The pooled data showed that the surveyed boards had about a quarter of female directors and a quarter of women in board leadership roles. Segregating the data in various ways illuminates some stark differences between the gender of the senior leadership (CEO and Chairman) and how it impacts gender diversi ..read more

All family members should attend at least one of their family business board meetings. Observing a board meeting helps family members understand the fiduciary role that the board plays on behalf of the shareholders. Before any family member attends a board meeting, there are several key considerations: > Confidentiality: Clarify the importance of the confidential nature of the boardroom discussions and dynamics. > Agreement: The board should come to an agreement about family visitors and the Family Council should set a policy about board visitation including how many observers are allo ..read more

MEET EVE CLULOW Eve Clulow is currently the Chair of Kingsbury, Inc. Welcome to the Lodis Forum podcast! Conversation with women and board leadership. The Lodis Forum is a peer group for women who are board chairs and vice-chairs of product company boards. Our mission is to support board excellence, conduct research, and advocacy for women in board leadership roles. And create a peer network for our members. I’m Meghan Juday, your host on this podcast! The post Conversation with the Chairman of Kingsbury, Inc.: Eve Clulow appeared first on Meghan Juday ..read more

Would you like to have more influence, or would you like to see some of the less powerful members listen to a little more? According to an April 2014 PWC research paper, the senior generation tends to overestimate their talent and capabilities, while underestimating those of the successor generation. “This sort of impasse can slow down decision-making, and lead to the phenomenon of the ‘sticky baton’, where the older generation hands over management of the firm in theory, but in practice retains complete control over everything that really matters,” the paper concluded. Even when a family me ..read more

Think about this for a second: Only 3% of family businesses make it to the fourth generation. That means 97% do not. Meanwhile, 80% of the businesses in the United States are family-owned. Family businesses contribute 60% of the gross domestic product to the US economy. They employ 60% of the population. What’s this magic 3%? What are they doing that’s different? For a family to want their business to remain family-owned, they need to measure the return on their investment in three ways. If a family doesn’t have these three things, it makes it very difficult to have a compelling p ..read more

Someone asked me the other day what the “secret sauce” was in managing family conflict. I thought that was pretty funny because the definition of a difficult family member or family conflict implies that it can’t be easily remedied by any one solution. Alas, there is no secret sauce that I have found, but there are solutions to this tricky problem. It takes a multi-pronged approach. First, the family has to identify the old patterns of behavior that are creating the problem. In most families I have worked with, each conflict has the same dynamics. For example, one person makes a snarky or cha ..read more

Families who own family businesses are essentially a closed system. It’s not unusual for family members to share similar values, and grow up in the same cities or even in the same neighborhoods. They’ve been raised in the company culture and focused on the ways the business defines and strengthens the family. All of these shared experiences make it hard to come up with unique, original ideas. Even though everyone in the family contributes their own ideas, it will still be a fixed set of ideas because you’re a fixed set of people. You only have so much experience and expertise to draw on. That ..read more

Many people think communication differences are mostly generational. But even within generations, people have different preferences when it comes to communication. Different Communication Styles Most people fall somewhere in between the two extremes, introverted and extroverted. Extroverts tend to be super engaged. They want to participate in all the meetings and all the social events. They’re quick to speak up during in-person meetings, even in large groups. In the same generation, you may have other family members who are introverted or who have experienced too much family conflict to want ..read more

I was recently interviewed by a family for a consulting job. I was one of three consultants they were interviewing. At first, I was extremely nervous – the last job I had interviewed for was about 15 years ago–and then I realized what a great opportunity this was. There were several benefits I saw to this process: 1. The family could make sure that I was a good fit for them in terms of style and approach. 2. I could make sure that the challenges and opportunities that the family wanted to address were ones that I could help them resolve. Not every consultant has the tools, experience, and/or ..read more