2 Ideas to Ensure Your Kids Succeed in Running the Farm
April 12, 2023 I’ve spent my career talking to owners of family businesses, and the topic of getting the next generation ready to take over comes up a lot.
Among the businesses I’ve most admired, I’ve heard two particular techniques repeatedly.
Get the Kid Out of the Business for a While
By their nature, family businesses tend to be worlds unto themselves. Your parents taught you how to be a grower, and their parents before them did the same. There’s a strength in that. But also a danger.
Just as it’s a good idea to have friends who think differently than you to keep your thinking flexible, it’s a good idea to have new ideas brought into the farm and challenge the status quo. Your kids and nieces and nephews can help do that by spending a few years working for other farms.
Another benefit to exposing your kids to how other farms work is for them to stop being the boss’ son or daughter for a year or two.
My first job was for my mom, who headed up an outpatient hospital. Even though I was a lowly janitor, and then an office drone, some doctors showed me a lot more respect and affection than they did the rest of the staff.
The future owners of your farm need to spend some time earning their own reputations and building their own networks away from you.
I also know of several current owners who broke away from the family farm to work in corporate America for a while. The story I hear from them all is that while they’re grateful for the solid business grounding those jobs gave them, they learned how much they hated being pinned to a desk and missed working in nature.
Let Them Work Their Way Up
I remember being introduced to one farm’s main staff. The 21-year-old son, who looked like he had partied a little too much the night before, was the farm manager. He oversaw people who had worked for the family for decades. Even an outsider like me could feel the poisonous atmosphere, though the owner seemed oblivious.
There’s a fifth-generation operation in Minnesota where family members showing interest in running the farm are handed over to trusted employees. They’re given full authority over them and told to do what they can to make the kids into the kind of boss they’d like to work for.
There’s an inherent respect for those who help you run your farm when you do that. And it gives your kids the chance to earn the respect of those they’ll eventually lead.
Oh, One More Thing
These two ideas are just my observations from informal conversations I’ve had over the past couple of decades. I haven’t made a study of it. MBA programs like Harvard have, however.
Here’s a list of their generational shift best practices:
- Build a “shadowing” program. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) says it can start young with bring you kids to work day, followed up with internships for teens.
- Create progressive developmental experiences. This is the HBR’s way of saying have your kids work their way up the ladder through different departments. Doing so makes them competent is several aspects of the business.
- Offer context for business goals and operations. This can start with dining table chats and move into working hours.
- Insist on integrity. HBR uses this section to address family dysfunction and the importance of separating sibling rivalries and childish fibs to get out of trouble from the family business.
- Make a plan for the future. This advice boils down to: If you don’t know where you’re heading, how can you help your kids run the finances and build their own future?
- Educate the entire family. HBR recommends creating a family council, including those who will not work in the business. This will give the new owners support as well as checks.
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