How Do Jack or Jill Fit in Your Family Business? Part One of a Three-Part Series

Part 1: How Do Individuals Fit into the World, the Society, and the Family Enterprise?

The field of social psychology is driven by one fundamental question: "How does each individual fit into the world, society, team, or family enterprise?" The same question is also the focus of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychology.  Your answer  to this question depends on the assumptions you make about your individuals, your teams, and behavior.

When developing the Assess Next Gen TM 360-leadership assessment, my co-founder Kent Rhodes, Ed.D., and I used four assumptions for individuals to help find the answer to the BIG question mentioned a moment ago. 

Our four assumptions for individual behavior are:

1. You have agency/ choice
2. You have the capacity to flourish
3. Your individual awareness drives your behaviors and career(s)
4. Practicing leadership requires both knowing/awareness and showing/actions

We’ll talk more about each of these assumptions and how you can assess your own behaviors relating to them in this series. 

We started with behavioral items based on these assumptions, then we collected data from 400+ raters who participated in Assess Next Gen™ 360-leadership assessments.  And we discovered something crucial to answering our BIG question.

Naturally, these results may change when we have a larger sample population.  But as of this date we know the most important behavior for individuals to practice in a family enterprise. 

Jack or Jill-- and you-- should express thoughts and feelings on important topics.

This behavior is crucial for Next Gen/Rising leaders in a family enterprise.  

Hmmm… Are you expressing your thoughts and feelings?  Is your quiet sibling doing so?  Is that non-family senior executive doing so?   

Our experience is that every successful family enterprise must encourage people to express their thoughts and feelings.

Yet, too many people shut down others. So, how do you encourage people to speak up?

There are many different ways you can evaluate your own behavior, and that of those around you, when it comes to expressing your thoughts and feelings. In this series we will share how you and your team can change this behavior.  

For a comprehensive process to help develop your own leadership skills, or those of your next generation, visit www.assessnextgen.com

Stay tuned for part two of this series where we will give you specific exercises you can do to start changing your behavior related to each of the four assumptions.