LOYALTY VS EXPERIENCE

LOYALTY VS EXPERIENCE

Moss Jackson, PhD
Psychologist and Success Coach

Welcome back Fellow Navigators for another post on Navigating for success. My mission is to help all of you to live exceptional lives of success, accomplishment and happiness.

LOYALTY VS EXPERIENCE

I recently read an article in the N.Y. Times “Among President’s Advisors, Loyalty Precedes Experience,” and was reminded of my experience consulting in the world of family businesses. A colleague of mine, David Franzetta, and I recently wrote a book “Making a Success Out of Succession Planning,” based on our collective experience working with family businesses and partnerships.

FAMILY BUSINESS

I think the notion of a family business is an oxymoron! They tend to be highly charged emotional working environments filled with dreams, jealousies, sibling completion, parental guilt and confusion. One way to think about a family business is to ask the question, “Is this a business or a family?” The laws and principles of a business are not the same as the traditions that guide a family. Often blind loyalty wins over experience and competence. Often these two identities clash. When they do, people like me and my colleague Dave get called in to help figure out the mess and to guide the owners to get everyone back on track.

DERAILING

Derailment is more often the norm, rather than steady continuity. The statistics in family business continuity are discouraging. By the third generation almost 70% are out of business, sold or on a descent toward failure. A business failure is one thing but a family business failure often involves a failure in family identity and legacy. Sometimes so much emotional damage gets created in the business that the next two or three generations take on the contamination of an earlier generation.

A FATHER’S DILEMMA

I was once asked to consult with a family business that provided an exceptional product and service. My mission was to determine how to best guide the father to mentor his forty year old son to transition into the role of president and leader of the company. After spending time with the son, interviewing the managers, employees and customers, I realized I had to have a difficult conversation with the owner/father. The bottom line was that his son was incompetent, narcissistic, cruel, and suffered from a social disorder called Aspergers Syndrome. In short, he was a disaster and people despised him. The best course of action would be to fire him, send him to an Outward Bound experience to learn how to work with a team, or encourage him to join the armed services (not necessarily from the USA) or to provide him with a trust fund, much like you would do with a handicapped child who could not take care of himself. I was stuck having to tell the father that promoting his son to the position of president would destroy the company and put hundreds of people out of work.

OH NO!

The day was at hand! I set up a two hour feedback session with the dad to provide him with my results. Although I felt uncomfortable, I asked him if he wanted me to provide him with everything I learned through the interviews or if he would prefer for me to get to the bottom line. He requested the bottom line. I then leveled with him and told him his son was one of the least competent and least qualified applicants I ever interviewed for the position of President. The father listened well, paused for some time and said, “I thought so. Your evaluation is right in line with what I thought but had feared. Thank you for your forthrightness and feedback. I know what I have to now do as my company’s leader. The hard part will be for me to figure out how to be a good dad!”

The business meeting lasted about fifteen minutes. The remaining time was spent helping him come to terms with the task of helping his son deal with the fact that he would never be president, nor could he continue in the business in any capacity.

LOYALTY OR EXPERIENCE

According to The NY Times article, President Trump seems to be hiring key people based on loyalty, not necessarily experience or competence. I hope he does not get caught in the same dilemma as my client. I hope he can tell the difference between running a country and taking care of his “family.”

If you would like a copy of our book “How to Make a Success Out of Succession Planning”, contact me at mossalanjackson@gmail.com.

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