175 Stephen Shortt: How to Successfully Transition Leadership in Family (and other) Businesses

We learn how to successfully transition leadership in family businesses and other businesses from Stephen Shortt on this episode of the Learning from Smart People Podcast with Rob Oliver. As someone who has spent his entire life working in 2 family businesses, he knows the ups and downs of successfully transitioning between generations. What he learned applies to businesses beyond family businesses but that’s where he started and learned.

Here are some key points as Stephen Shortt and Rob Oliver talk about how to successfully transition leadership in family businesses:

· It is important that your family does not destroy your business and that your business does not destroy your family!
· It pays to sit down and think about your “Why?”
· The family business can become seen as a member of the family
· Deciding to sell a family business can be difficult, especially getting everyone to agree that it’s a good idea
· Even if you own the business, you need to work together with other members of the family
· You need to know your own purpose, the purpose of your business and how those factors relate
· There are lots of ways to make money, why are we doing it this way?
· Once you establish the purpose of the business, it guides everything you do
· The five P’s of Succession: Purpose, Pick, Preparation, Promote, Patience
· Figuring out where you want to go starts with figuring out where you are
· The best leader for the business may be different depending what phase of business you are in
· Develop an inside hustle for helping younger family members “earn their chops”
· Transition can happen gradually

You can learn more about Stephen Shortt through the links below:

Website: https://successfulsuccession.com
All the Social Links: https://successfulsuccession.com/social

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