Business Relationships: How to Survive and Prosper in a Family Owned Business | Dr. Sandy Gluckman

The Games Family Companies Play

by Dr. Sandy Gluckman, author, keynote speaker, and business consultant

ARTICLE SUMMARY

Whether you are a relative or an outsider trying to make your way in a family business, you need to understand that you are playing by a unique and complicated set of rules.  The complexity of relationships in family business can actually make working together more difficult and can undermine productivity if not handled properly.  Dr. Sandy Gluckman, author of Who's in the Driver's Seat explores how ego issues impact a family business and provides insight into how to work collectively to maintain healthy relationships by:

1. Understanding the unique challenges of a family business
2. Make use of ongoing coaching
3. Make decisions using an organizational development model

The business environment is abound with games that people play– boardroom games, political games, one-upmanship games, money games , entitlement games, greed games– to name only a few.

A ‘game’ is the kind of non-authentic interaction that occurs in a relationship when someone has a personal agenda and is attempting to influence an outcome to their advantage.   Just one simple example would be attempting to influence a decision so that it will benefit a personal goal without being upfront about this.  To achieve this we will do and say things that are self-serving as opposed to being collaborative and focused on making a mutually beneficial decision.  Truly collaborative people do not need to play games because they do not have a hidden personal agenda.  They simply act in collaborative ways, with open, honest communication, genuinely seek solutions that will benefit all parties, and have absolutely no need to put others down.

Games can be played with conscious awareness or completely unconsciously, where neither the person initiating the game nor the person on the receiving end is aware that a game is taking place.  Nevertheless these relationship games are always dysfunctional and they consume valuable time, energy and focus. And they are extremely costly – operationally and personally.

 
Whether we are family members or strangers thrown together in an organization, we all carry our own emotional baggage which affects our behavior and our relationships.  And we all have our own special aspirations, needs, and beliefs.   No matter how intellectually competent and academically or technically talented we are,  at the end of the day we are still emotional human beings driven by these needs, feelings and beliefs which influence the way we interpret and perceive the world around us;  we are still deeply impacted by our emotional baggage.  It is this baggage that causes us to play relationship games... (click here to read more)

ABOUT DR. GLUCKMAN

Dr. Sandy Gluckman has a PhD in Whole Brain Thinking and is the author of the book Who's in the Driver's Seat focusing on ego and spirit in the workplace.  Born and raised in South Africa during the apartheid era, she now resides in the United States and is a renowned keynote speaker and worldwide business consultant.  Dr. Gluckman is passionate about teaching companies her concept of Sprited Economics™- using employees as assets.  Her services as a business consultant include: teambuilding, leadership training, leadership trait building and other custom programs.  As a keynote speaker, Dr. Gluckman will provide a memorable and thought provoking presentation on how to manage your ego in a varitey of business and personal scenarios to allow your spirit, your authentic-self, to lead you to success.  For more information on Dr. Gluckman and her programs, please visit her website www.sandygluckman.com or call her at 972-758-1246.