Thanksgiving Dinner deals with family and business corporate governance issues. We often find bottlenecks in either family dynamics or business communication. These bottlenecks can keep you from enjoying the fruits of your labor.
Having clear communication and direction in your family as well as in your business allows you to enjoy every day of the year. Our goal with Thanksgiving Dinner is to make sure that when holidays come, you look forward to them and use them to re-charge and re-connect with family members.
Clear communication on the family level means having regular conversations about what’s important to you and your family. Some families do this through a formal family council; others just make sure they have dinner conversations designed to help everyone understand the wants and wishes of others. The goal in having clear family conversations is to make your life better and more fulfilling with your family.
On the business level, clear communication starts with having a corporate mission that can be integrated into every area of your company. This mission statement will be integrated with vision, values and goals. When all of these are used with all stakeholders of your company, you will find that everyone who comes in contact with your business understands what you do and who you do it for.
We often observe companies that have clear focus and purpose also have an excellent board of advisors. The value of having a good board is that it forces senior management of your company to explain to outsiders what you do within your company and why. In our experience, companies that have good boards tend to outperform those that don’t. Again, the goal with an outside board is to help make your life better.
Activities that often happen around Thanksgiving Dinner are:
- Having a governance system for your family
- Having a governance system for your business
- Understanding what your business is about and what makes it tick
- Having clear communication within your family regarding family and business issues
- Having a family constitution that outlines what the rules are for the family participation in the business
- Having business rules in place for family participation and promotion
- Understanding how your business mission, vision, values and goals integrate with your own personal mission
- Being able to integrate your personal mission and corporate mission into your daily activities