Success and engagement in family businesses

Good communication is essential for any business. In a family business, personal relationships come into play alongside business ones. The complexity of this interplay calls even more for conscious communication. How do you ensure that different generations work together so the business gets the impulses it needs to keep growing and hold its own in an ever-changing market? How do you align communication between family members who know each other well and those who only know each other because they share ownership of the same company? How do you look after the needs of those involved, such as autonomy, being heard, belonging, security? And how do you translate frictions and conflicts into good and lasting agreements?

The Connecting Communication approach offers inspiration to make communication work optimally, helping to ensure the family business remains successful across generations.

1. Nurture connection

By meeting regularly in a relaxed atmosphere, family members get to know each other as people with their own interests and their own way of being in the world. The enjoyment people have during these gatherings translates into warmth and mutual understanding. This creates a climate of connection that carries over when family members meet to discuss business matters.

2. Use emotional intelligence

Feelings provide meaningful information about people’s needs. Pleasant feelings signal that needs are being met. Unpleasant feelings make people aware that certain needs are lacking. The strength of Connecting Communication lies in communicating from needs. This brings a certain vulnerability, which combined with self-confidence often leads to engagement and connection.

By combining awareness of feelings and needs with business and economic thinking, people stand more firmly in their strength. This creates a climate where they can truly meet each other. It is this meeting that gets them thinking together and moving beyond ‘mine’ and ‘yours’. Care for oneself and care for each other flow into one another.

3. Say what needs to be said

Connecting Communication inspires people to deliver every message in a clear and respectful way. A key principle is to transform every judgement, reproach or cynicism into clear messages where people speak from their needs and values. By expressing expectations as invitations rather than demands, people are often willing to search for agreements that everyone can support.

4. Check interpretations

Interpretations and assumptions arise from observations. Often these thoughts take on a life of their own. To prevent this, it is useful to check interpretations. Does the other person really hold the opinion that…? Or is it true that someone is planning something? It is important to leave all judgement aside and to let the other hear from which observations you drew your conclusion. For example: “I noticed you weren’t at the shareholders’ meeting. Have you lost interest in thinking along, or have you just been very busy?” By asking this without judgement, clarity about the other person’s perspective usually comes quickly.

5. Listen before you speak

Truly listening with genuine interest usually feels good. By listening, space opens up. Space to say something yourself and, above all, mutual understanding. Connecting Communication inspires people to listen for underlying needs and feelings. People usually speak because they want to be heard and because they want to take care of their needs. Through active and non-judgemental listening, a contact usually develops in which people begin to trust each other. They see that the other person is a human being just like themselves, someone with feelings, needs and desires. Through listening, people feel accepted and become willing to adopt a more open stance.

For those who want to learn more: you will certainly find a suitable training in our open programme.