Coaching

Family Business Coaching

A successful business and a family dynamic to match? You can have both.

One of the reasons I love working with family businesses is because they dispel two of the most persistent myths often heard: that business isn’t personal and that families shouldn’t work together. 90% of businesses in the U.S., from two-person operations to Fortune 500 companies, are family-owned or -controlled, so clearly, families make fantastic business owners.

However, family businesses are also complex. Relationships, communication, organizational hierarchies—these pieces of leadership are tough to manage in a regular company, but are twice as challenging when you report to your parents or an older (or younger!) sibling; or the cousins you spent summers with are also your coworkers. If boundaries aren’t put in place, it creates situations that are especially tough to navigate—where Thanksgiving dinner becomes an impromptu business meeting, and leadership discussions turn into emotionally-charged family discussions.

Finding the right balance is crucial to the success of family businesses both now and into the future—and that’s where I can help. With over 20 years of experience in psychology and coaching high-performance leaders, I work with family businesses to ensure they maintain their close-knit relationships and position their businesses to grow for generations to come.

Reasons to Work With a Family Business Coach

Here are just a few of the scenarios I’ve coached my clients through:

Planning Successions & Transitions

What may have started as the passion of one individual is now a name that’s been part of your family, your community, and even the world for decades—and succession planning ensures it will be part of that fabric for many more. Because I know that when you’re building a legacy, you’re not simply looking to make a big splash—you’re watching for the ripples that follow.

Strengthening Multi-Generational Teams

It’s not uncommon for family businesses to have several generations within the same leadership team—and within these generations are very different work motivations and communication preferences. I’ve helped multiple family generations come together more effectively by preparing the younger generation to step up and the older generation to hand over the reins with confidence.

Bringing in Non-Family Leadership

Family dynamics can be challenging on their own—but what if you’re looking to bring non-family leadership into the mix to help scale specific parts of the business or add additional expertise? Through group coaching, we work to make sure those not part of the family dynamic still feel like they’re a part of the team and are confidently able to perform their role—including bringing up issues to the family.

Improving Overall Communication

Even in the closest families, there can be fights and fallouts at the dinner table or holiday gathering that can lead to a communication breakdown in the office. When decisions are made by and with your loved ones, it’s tough to manage emotions personally and professionally. I make sure burnout and family feuds are kept at a minimum through positive psychology and a focus on communication that will permeate through your business and family roles.

Individual Leader & Leadership Team Coaching

I tailor all coaching to the needs of your family business and offer executive coaching in addition to group coaching packages for leadership teams.

My past and current family business clients have reported several fantastic results, including:

  • A smooth transition or succession from one generation to the next — even when previous attempts have failed

  • Being able to identify and leverage individual strengths to make the family business a positive environment for everyone

  • Increased revenue due to my high-performance team coaching

  • Improved relationships with spouses, family members, and coworkers

  • Improved business reputation

  • Creation of a company culture based on loyalty, accountability, and ownership,

  • Confidence that the business will succeed in the future with the next generation of leadership

  • Increased focus, productivity, and efficiency for individuals within the business

  • Improved leadership and management skills

  • Decreased stress and improved health, and a calmer, more positive, and peaceful outlook on work/life balance

  • A revitalized purpose to the family business mission, and a clear path toward leaving a more impactful legacy

Family Means Legacy

I work with family businesses for a deeply personal reason. I know the importance of family and carrying out a legacy—it’s something my father taught me from a young age.

On September 11, 2001, I lost my father in the World Trade Center.

My father was a second-generation electrician who helped to build the Twin Towers. (My grandfather, the first generation, did the electrical work on the Verrazano Bridge and my brother, the third generation, did the work on the new Yankee Stadium!) My siblings and I all credit our father with our strong work ethic. He taught me everything I know about hard work and family, but also about kindness, play, and laughter.

If I’m being honest, the pain of losing him was unbearable for a long time. And even though the loss of him was very heavy, at some point, I had to make a decision: I could let the pain swallow me up forever, or I could pick myself up and make him proud. I decided to honor him by transforming my pain into a passion—and my passion became my calling, and in a way, his legacy.

I wanted to use my education and abilities to create a ripple effect of positive leadership, and this is why I’m so passionate about working with family businesses. Keeping families together while they grow their businesses is a way for me to honor my own family.

Want to streamline communication and improve relationships so that your family business can reach the next level of growth?

Let’s talk about your goals and how I can help you achieve them.

Coaching for Family Business Executives

Balancing leadership development with family dynamics and values

One of my favorite quotes is, “You can’t read a label from inside the bottle.” Often, we’re not able to identify or solve our challenges because we’re simply too close to them. And when I work with high-performing family business leaders, this is often the analogy I use.

With family businesses, it’s almost as if there are two labels you’re unable to read. The first, of course, is your identity as a business leader, independent of any family dynamic. When family business leaders come to me, they want to do the same things that leaders of non-family businesses want to achieve: increase their effectiveness, improve their communication skills, and continue to develop that “big picture” thinking that leads to success in their roles.

The second is that of your relationship to those in the business—and particularly, on your leadership team. You have a shared history, and all the emotions and challenges that come with that history. And through the lens of this history, it’s your responsibility to ensure the business is successful, identify opportunities for your next-generation leaders, help family members in the business keep up with the rapid pace of growth and change, and think through future transition strategies.

I help you get clarity on both of those labels. It requires a different way of thinking about your leadership—and your family relationships. The truth is, it’s impossible to separate these two things from one another, but it is possible to blend the two. And that’s what working with a coach can provide.

How Executive Coaching Can Help Your Family Business

Leadership is a long game, and making a lasting impact means being able to balance your ambition, innovation, and many responsibilities in a way that avoids burnout and maximizes your ability to perform at a high level. One-on-one executive coaching provides the clarity and strategy you need to achieve these performance goals.

There’s a ripple effect of executive coaching—it helps you function at your very best for both yourself and your family relationships. Changes and transitions—like a transition of ownership, succession planning, or bringing in a non-family member to run a portion of the business—can be tricky to navigate, and working with a coach can help you develop the emotional intelligence, agility, and decisiveness that will ensure the business runs smoothly for years to come.

Wondering if working with an executive coach is the right move for you? Here are just a few of the reasons you might consider working with me:

  • You want to communicate better and improve your relationship with your family—both in and out of work. When you work with your family, the lines between professional and personal can get blurry quickly. You’re aware that you need to draw lines between the two—for your own well-being as well as your family’s, but don’t know where to begin.

  • You want to identify—and leverage— your Zone of Genius so you’re able to spend more of your working time in your “sweet spot.” Knowing both what you're best at—and what’s most meaningful to you—will lead to more engaging and fulfilling work. It will also allow other members of your family the opportunity to shine as they get clear on what their professional superpowers are as well.

  • You’re looking for Increased clarity, confidence, and courage to implement and fulfill your vision. Perhaps it’s a huge change at your family’s business—or it’s something you’re working on for the next phase of your career, whatever that may be. Whatever it is, we’ll map out the steps to get there.

  • You have a goal of a promotion or increased income, or for owners, increased customers and clients. Perhaps you’re being asked to take on a new role within your family’s business, or you’re looking to be considered for a new opportunity, and you know what got you to where you are won’t get you to where you want to be.

  • You want more meaning and purpose in work and life, or a clear path to leaving an impactful legacy. You want to do good in the world, and want to make sure you have a plan for making it happen.

  • You’re looking for improved leadership and management skills. Many clients I work with are already operating at a high level—they just want to do even better for themselves and the people they lead. We can work holistically, or hone in on one specific skill.

My role is to provide you with the support and accountability you need, walking alongside you as you gain self-awareness and become a stronger version of yourself—as an individual, as a leader, and as a family member.

You may not be able to see the label from inside the bottle—but I’ll be there to help you read it.

  • "Dr. Donna is helping us find a beneficial outcome to some long-simmering personnel challenges. We have very good, hardworking, dedicated employees and our strong preference is to keep the team intact, but we also know some behavioral changes are needed. To address these difficult issues, we felt that we needed some outside, professional help. Donna started her executive coaching with our team by emphasizing the positive traits that make them valuable in their current positions. After establishing a level of personal trust (and confidence that the company has the employee’s best interest at heart), Donna was able to work with the individuals to modify how they interact on a daily basis. Donna helps people become more self-aware and gives practical, actionable suggestions that can be put immediately into practice. This is a work in progress, but within only a few months we feel like we are already a better functioning team and establishing a more positive culture."

    —Aaron Nosek

  • “As a high-functioning commercial C-suite executive, I was looking for a skilled professional not just in coaching, but additionally from an industrial psychology perspective to help me navigate and really understand the choppy waters of job search today with all that is happening in the economy, the pandemic, consolidation of many C-Suite roles, and more. I’m better as a person for having worked with Dr. Donna. I HIGHLY recommend anyone looking to ‘up their game’ to consider adding her to your professional team!”

    — Scott Rosenzweig

Interested in Working Together?

Are you a visionary leader of a family business who is looking to improve your leadership skills and find a sense of purpose—for yourself, the team you lead, and family you love? Take the first step in the coaching process by booking a exploratory call with me.

Team Leadership Coaching for Family Businesses

Uniting around a shared vision to ensure your family’s legacy

In a family business, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

This saying, though well-worn, is why I’m just as passionate about coaching individual leaders within a family business as I am about coaching entire executive teams: when a leader changes, the whole system—which includes the people that they lead and the family members that are a part of the system—must change and adapt.

This is where team coaching can make a difference. Team coaching can help leadership teams build deeper trust, engage in healthy conflict, find organizational clarity, hold each other accountable and take responsibility for goals and actions.

And, in a family business, there’s more at stake—it also means working together to improve communication between multi-generational teams, ensuring non-family members being brought into the leadership structure have a sense of psychological safety and empowerment, and making room for the ongoing exploration of identity and life outside the family business.

How Does Team Leadership Coaching Work?

I design team coaching for family businesses based on the needs and goals of the leadership team. However, I will say there are a few pieces all coaching engagements have in common:

  • I see coaching as a developmental process. Teams commit to working together on a regular basis, and we work through a series of group sessions, trainings, workshops, and other experiences that focus on learning and accountability. It’s an active engagement process—no lectures here.

  • I’m dedicated to your team’s change. Because we’re focusing on the team as its own system instead of a particular member of the team, my goal is to make sure the group is actually seeing a change—and that you’re committed to working on those actions together. As in life as in business, families are strongest when they’re all working toward the same vision.

  • I’m focused on making the uncomfortable comfortable. Hard conversations are a critical part of business—and they’re a large part of family dynamics as well. No matter how long you’ve worked with your sisters, or parents, or other family members, the difficult conversations and tough decisions don’t get any easier—in fact, they might get harder when history and emotion comes into play. Organizations bring me in when they know they have to push leadership conversations along.

Is Team Leadership Coaching Right For You?

You might consider leadership coaching if your businesses’ executive team is:

  • Looking to align on a big decision that will affect the trajectory of the family business, such as a leadership change, a change management initiative, an upcoming merger or acquisition

  • Consistently experiencing conflict or breakdowns in communication, or communication is becoming siloed

  • Struggling with “getting unstuck” when it comes to strategic vision or taking the next steps toward your organization’s growth while simultaneously navigating the emotionally-charged elements of being part of a family dynamic

  • Having trouble engaging in healthy conflict and debate, or doesn’t engage in debate at all

  • Is bringing a new member of the family into the leadership team, or is hiring a non-family members to be part of the leadership team who needs to build trust and align quickly

  • Looking for coaching they can use to help their own leadership skills and hold their own teams accountable

Want to Learn More About Team Leadership Coaching?

Let’s have a short call so I can learn more about what you’re looking for and how I can help.