Certificate In Family Business Advising

The employment marketplace - more complex every day.  Since the start of the pandemic, every person has had a chance to reflect on work, life, balance, etc.  The outcomes for each individual are as diverse as the people themselves.  What we have found - since day #1 of the pandemic, is that employers started asking different questions/requiring different interactions - and so are the employees (and in the search world - candidates).  

Finding the right person for each opening has grown more complex - the times have changed us.  New terminology has emerged - we see these in varying articles:

• The great pause.
• The great realignment.
• The great resignation. 

It made me think about how we could be better in all of our work as a search firm. 

I went to (back to) school!

Many of our clients are privately-held and/or family-owned businesses.  So why not - I asked a few trusted advisors about pursuing additional education and with almost unanimous advice, decided to pursue a Certificate program through the Family Firm Institute (see https://www.ffi.org/).  After a year of study (on-line individually and through global Zoom symposiums), I received my Certificate In Family Business Advising! 

Our Focus is Retained Executive Search

Each business or organization is complex regardless of size, structure, industry or functional need.  While the title ‘Family Business Advising’ is specific, the curriculum is anything but.  The ability to really understand history, tradition, interactions and true situational understanding is universal for all business and non-profit entities.  My goal in pursuing this program was simply to be smarter for all of our work.  The lessons learned through each class and interaction with others were priceless. 

In early December, I will be speaking to a Family Business group on the topic of Finding & Keeping Key Non-Family Employees.  As I told the person responsible for the program, ‘keeping’ will be the focus - ‘finding’ happens if keeping is not as successful as desired.  (Hopefully ‘finding’ then happens as a result of growth.) 

I will happily share more about the Certification lessons/learnings in future blogs.