Next Generation Development
The future of your family business depends on preparing the next generation for leadership—not by chance, but through intentional development.
The Next Generation Challenge
One of the most common mistakes family businesses make is assuming that growing up in the business prepares someone to lead it. While exposure provides valuable context, leadership capability requires deliberate development.
Next-generation family members face unique challenges:
- Proving themselves: They must demonstrate competence in an environment where skeptics may attribute any success to nepotism
- Finding their voice: Speaking up and leading while respecting the senior generation requires delicate balance
- Managing relationships: Working with parents, uncles, aunts, and siblings involves complex family dynamics
- Understanding the business: They need comprehensive knowledge beyond their specific role
- Developing leadership skills: Managing people, making tough decisions, and thinking strategically are learned capabilities
- Building credibility: Earning respect from long-tenured employees and external stakeholders takes time and demonstrated performance
- Balancing expectations: Family expectations, personal aspirations, and business needs don't always align
Without intentional support, these challenges can overwhelm capable next-generation members or lead to inadequate preparation for the leadership responsibilities they'll eventually assume.
Our Development Approach
We help families create comprehensive next-generation development programs tailored to individual needs:
Education and Knowledge Building
Next-generation leaders need both business fundamentals and family business-specific knowledge. We help families design education programs that include formal business education (MBA programs or executive education), industry-specific knowledge development, family business education (through programs like our Next Generation Learning Lab), financial literacy about the business, and understanding of ownership responsibilities.
Experience and Skill Development
Leadership capability is built through progressive responsibility. We help families create development paths that include working outside the family business first (to prove capability and gain perspective), rotating through different business functions, taking on projects with increasing scope and impact, developing people management skills, and gaining board experience (perhaps starting on nonprofit boards).
Mentoring and Coaching
Personal guidance accelerates development. We facilitate mentoring relationships with senior family leaders, outside executives who can provide objective perspective, industry leaders who can share specialized knowledge, and peer mentoring among next-generation family members across different businesses.
Peer Learning
Connection with other next-generation family business leaders is invaluable. Our Next Generation Learning Lab provides a cohort of peers facing similar challenges, creating a confidential space to discuss concerns, share experiences, and build lasting relationships. These peer connections often become one of the most valuable aspects of development programs.
Feedback and Assessment
Development requires honest feedback about strengths and areas for growth. We help families implement 360-degree feedback processes, regular performance reviews separate from family relationships, and developmental assessments that identify capabilities and gaps.
Next Generation Learning Lab
Our flagship program for rising family business leaders combines education, skill development, and peer learning in an intensive, cohort-based format.
Program Structure
The Learning Lab runs over six months with monthly full-day sessions. Each session combines expert instruction on critical family business topics, interactive workshops developing leadership skills, case study discussions of real family business challenges, and confidential peer discussions of participants' actual situations.
Curriculum Topics
The program covers essential family business leadership areas:
- Understanding family business dynamics and the three-circle model
- Developing your leadership voice and style
- Working effectively with the senior generation
- Building credibility and earning respect
- Understanding governance structures and your role in them
- Preparing for ownership responsibilities
- Strategic thinking and decision-making
- Managing and developing people
- Communicating effectively in high-stakes situations
- Navigating family dynamics in business contexts
- Planning your career development path
- Preparing for succession
Who Should Participate
The Learning Lab is designed for next-generation family members who are currently working in their family business or likely to join it in the future, typically in their 20s to 40s, serious about developing their leadership capability, and committed to the cohort learning experience.
Program Benefits
Participants report that the Learning Lab provides clarity about their role and future in the family business, confidence to step into leadership responsibilities, practical skills for navigating family business challenges, a peer network of trusted advisors facing similar situations, and renewed energy and commitment to the family business.
Key Principles for Next-Generation Success
Through decades of work with next-generation leaders, we've identified principles that characterize successful development:
- Earn your way in: Proving capability outside the family business first builds credibility and confidence
- Master your craft: Deep competence in your functional area (operations, finance, marketing, etc.) is foundational
- Understand the whole business: Rotate through different areas to understand how the business works holistically
- Build relationships: Invest in relationships with employees, customers, and other stakeholders beyond your family
- Communicate respectfully: You can disagree with senior generation while maintaining respect for their experience and contributions
- Be patient: Leadership transition takes years; pushing too hard creates resistance
- Invest in your development: Take responsibility for your own learning and growth rather than waiting for it to be provided
- Connect with peers: Other next-generation leaders understand your challenges in ways that parents and mentors cannot
- Define your own path: Just because you can join the family business doesn't mean you should—make conscious, authentic choices
- Honor the past, shape the future: Respect what the senior generation built while bringing fresh thinking to future challenges
The Senior Generation's Role
Next-generation development isn't just the responsibility of rising leaders—senior generation members play a critical role:
- Create a development plan: Be intentional about how you're preparing next-generation leaders
- Delegate meaningfully: Give real responsibility with appropriate authority
- Coach, don't control: Shift from doing to teaching, from managing to mentoring
- Allow failure: Learning requires making mistakes in contexts where consequences are manageable
- Provide honest feedback: Love and support don't mean avoiding honest assessment of performance
- Manage your own transition: Your ability to let go affects their ability to step up
- Invest in their education: Support formal programs, peer learning, and external experiences
- Be patient: Development takes time; expecting overnight transformation creates frustration
We often work with senior and next generations simultaneously, helping both navigate this critical transition period effectively.
Invest in Your Next Generation
The next generation of your family business deserves—and requires—intentional development. Whether through our Next Generation Learning Lab, customized coaching, or comprehensive family development programs, we help rising leaders prepare for the responsibilities they'll carry.
The most successful family business transitions happen when the next generation is thoroughly prepared and the senior generation is confident in their readiness. Start building that preparation today.