Gather Round reminded me that feelings matter – from Kate Burke

I’ve just returned from a week away with mates. We went to the AFL Gather Round in Adelaide. I watched four games of AFL live over three days.

It got me thinking more about feelings and how they influence our experiences.

I felt the lack of emotion for games I wasn’t invested in and the intense emotion of watching St Kilda v Greater Western Sydney.

It was a reminder about how emotions impact our thinking and doing and why they cant be ignored when it comes to Succession Planning.

In the last Newsletter I asked and you responded. The feed back on my call for an approach to succession that prioritises the emotional reality was extraordinary.

The emotional toll of succession and the need for a pathway that factors this in was stark.

Commercially Compassionate Succession is one way to describe this pathway.

When all parties are supported to manage themselves and others with more compassion and less criticism, a succession strategy that makes financial and human sense can happen with less friction and better outcomes

Will there be shouting, will be there be tears? Maybe.

Will there be commercial tensions between business reality and personal desires? Probably.

Will there be confusion around the technical details of financial and legal matters? Most likely

And all of that is ok and part of the process of getting to an implementable succession strategy that sits within a business strategy and a family strategy.

What does commercial compassion look like in practice? It’s a way of thinking that covers off on people, technical and money matters.

It’s an approach that recognises the tangle of family, farming and feelings.

It leads to better thinking and better outcomes.

It’s not rocket science. It’s about asking critical questions.

Here’s a sample of the questions I ask at the beginning of family business strategy sessions and in Farm Business Resilience or Succession Planning Workshops:

 

A. Eight questions about how you and others see the world and your respective parts in the farm as a workplace and business?

1. What excites you about farming with the family?
2. What strengths do you bring to the farm workplace?
3. What personal challenges that impact on your work do you need to address?
4. What solutions can you implement to manage your part in the farming family dynamic?
5. What excites others in the team?
6. What worries others in the team?
7. What do they tell you about you and your role and impact?
8. What do they tell you about when you are at your best?

 

B. Eight questions about how you interact and function as a workplace team and family?

1. What strengths do each individual and couple bring to the team?
2. How clear are individual roles and responsibilities?
3. Is it clear who has spending authority for operational and capital purchases?
4. Is it clear who has selling authority for produce?
5. How effective is the team at getting the work done on time and cost effectively and harmoniously?
6. How similar or different are the values systems of different families?
7. How can these differences be managed so they do impact on family or work?
8. What boundaries do you need to manage in family and work relationships?

 

C. Eight questions about business decision making

1. To what extent are your business decisions driven by tax management?
2. To what extent are your business decisions driven by wealth creation?
3. To what extent are your business decisions driven by business growth?
4. To what extent are your business decisions driven by profit optimisation?
5. To what extent are your business decisions driven by what your peers are doing?
6. To what extent are your business decisions driven by risk management?
7. To what extent are your business decisions driven by conflict avoidance?
8. To what extent are your business decisions driven by historical habits?

 

D. Eight questions about the business and money

1. Is it clear who owns the business?
2. Is it clear who owns the assets (particularly land)?
3. Is it clear who “owns” the debt?
4. How profitable is the business relative to opportunities presented? ($/mm/Ha or $/ML/Ha)
5. How effectively is the asset being utilised? (% ROC operating)
6. Is the business entity net worth increasing?
7. Are individuals net worth increasing?
8. Are financial freedom/independence pathways clear for individuals and couples?

 

E. Two Questions about what will you do next as a result of asking these questions?

1. Which questions raise issues that need addressing?
2. What resources do you need to address these issues?

 

As always, any thoughts  are most welcome

Stay well

Kate

 

To hear more from Kate or to subscribe to her e-newsletter head to her website thinkagri.com.au

To purchase Kate’s bestseller – CROPS, people, MONEY and You Kate’s Book – Think Agri

Reproduced with permission. Brought to you by the GRDC funded RiskWi$e project.