When you own a business and you want to have your children follow you it is never too young to start!
What does young Julie or Jason need to learn? There are two key things any employer looks for today – an ability to think and the right attitude to find solutions.
A young man with one of our clients was expected to take over the multi-million dollar family business. It didn’t happen – not because he was not bright enough to do this but rather because he was raised to feel he was superior to everyone. He was treated as a wonderful individual who could do no wrong.
Unfortunately, at the same time he was treated as if he did not need to invest in himself. This tears a person down! He felt he was being prepared to simply step into the CEO position, take the chair and make the decisions. It just doesn’t work that way. One has to learn the nuances behind each thing that needs to be done in a business and the decisions that need to be made.
An investment needed to be made with this young man. Telling him how wonderful he was and how he would be a great CEO undermined what he needed to learn. In the end, this young man did not have the skills because he was never given the opportunity to learn the skills.
Listen up parents – CEO’s are made, not born!
Julie wants to follow her mother into the hair styling business. At the age of 7 Julie has already spent a good part of her life at the salon – now that she is in school it is not as much, yet she still helps her mom and she knows some of the customers already. Jason loves machines and he wants to follow his dad into the automotive field. At 7 he has watched his dad change tires, connect the computer diagnostics to the cars and seen him listen intently when the car is not humming the way it should.
Like Julie, Jason has spent a lot of time at the garage, each taking in via osmosis much of what is going on around them. They look, they listen and they learn. These young minds are in their prime – take advantage of this time to allow these young people to begin to develop into entrepreneurs.
Today’s “helicopter” parenting style is not what any youngster wants, even less so if this is a youngster thinking of going into the family business. Between the age of 7 and the high teens, many young family members choose not to go into the family business. Why? Simply put, they are not prepared!
Allow your children the opportunity to grow into the family business by following the 3 steps mentioned next:
1. ATTITUDE
Everyone has an attitude – let’s help the young, budding CEO build a caring and “can do” attitude. Help your child see the glass as half full as opposed to half empty. Show your child how you make a mistake and then learn from it so you don’t make the same mistake again – and how mistakes can cost a business dollars on the bottom line. You can equate putting a water hose in place of the brakehose is not going to work and then relate it to their bicycle and how replacing the chain on the bike with a chain from a chain saw just will not work.
Together you get to see how mistakes can happen and need to be fixed as opposed to simply getting angry.
Yes, it is okay for your child to see you angry. What is not okay is for your child to see you throwing a temper tantrum and still not getting things right. The goal is to have a can do attitude that says “we can get this done!”
And while we are on the attitude wave let’s talk about how one treats one’s customers – remember, children do what they see mom and dad do. So, if you are short with your customer that is what your child is learning. If you are gentle, friendly and caring about your customer and his or her life, then you are more apt to have a future CEO who is gentle, friendly and caring towards internal and external customers.
2. CREATIVE THINKER
It’s never too early to start a CEO becoming a creative thinker. Most families discuss their day over the dinner table – that is, those that eat together. It’s not a bad idea to institute a one meal together every day rule into the raising of your children.
Bring up some of the challenges you have at work and see what your youngster has to offer as a solution. You may be surprised by some of the responses. It has been exciting to hear the wisdom that comes from the mouth of some very young individuals and conversely it has sometimes been a surprise to hear some of the silliness that can come from the mouth of teenager or even older individual.
Regardless, it tells you something about the training that is needed to help this CEO in training get the skills needed to take over the family business. However, depending on the type of parent you are you may not even recognize the need for training. Some parents think creativity is a gift – it is, however, rarely. Like our young man expected to take over from his father creativity needs to be taught to most of us.
There are simple things to help young people approach things creatively – try jig saw puzzles, simple Sudoku, simple cross word puzzles, and pick out the pictures from the maze. The opportunities are endless. This is the start and then you get to move on to greater elements.
Slowly you will see your child offer wise solutions to some of the challenges that inevitably occur in every home and every business.
3. ACCOUNTABILITY
In today’s business world many are complaining about the lack of accountability some young people exhibit on the job, at home and in the community. Well folks, it generally starts in the home and it generally starts with us as parents. We do so much for our children they never learn where the buck stops.
Your CEO needs to be accountable for a myriad of things – perhaps the opening of the shop, the goals, the budget, the cleanliness of the operation and the list just grows – almost like a bad weed! Start now and help your child be accountable – for simple things that relate to his or her age.
For instance, by 3 a child can make his or her own bed, by 4 put their dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, by 5 put their dirty dinner dishes in the dish washer (hello … it is low enough for them to put them right in), by 6 sweeping the floor and by 7 making simple meals for themselves or helping to make one dish for the family dinner.
Yup, no doubt about it, it is our job to begin growing those CEO’s at a young age. By being accountable though it is not enough to simply do the task. More importantly it is critical the task be done to specifications – this is a learning process.
Talk to the young CEO about the need to be accountable in all we say and do. And, to live up to our own expectations of ourselves. Everyone needs to know who they are and what they want to show the world and be remembered as.
I always remember a story about my uncle, he was only a couple of years older than me and had passed on before I was born. However, I heard over and over how Billy would come into the house whenever the other children were fighting and would not return to the group until the fighting had stopped. He had learned at an early age that only he was accountable for his behaviour and he could remove himself from situations where people were not getting along.
Your CEO must be accountable – first to him or herself and then to their family and staff and finally to their customers. If you can help your eventual CEO learn these 3 simple (or maybe not so simple) things you will want to turn your business over.
Enjoy the journey!