• Focus on the future. “If you don’t think succession is important, then you don’t believe in the evolution of a company,” says Christina R. Wing, a lecturer at Harvard Business School and founder of family business consultancy Wingspan Legacy Partners. “New leaders come with new ideas.”
• Start early. “The most evolved are the ones that start talking about their succession well before it’s needed,” Wing says.
• Be transparent. “If the criteria are straightforward, it’s going to be seen as fair,” says Izabela Szymanska, founder of Business Transition Services. “Try to make it transparent and involve a larger group of people.”
• Consider ownership and leadership separately. “Who is the leader and who gets an ownership stake are separate decisions,” Szymanska notes. “There are lots of ways to divide ownership.”
• Cultivate healthy family relationships. “If you have healthy relationships with each other, you can figure everything else out,” says Robert Pasin, chief executive of Radio Flyer Inc. “And if you don’t, it doesn’t matter how many policies you have in place.”
• Create opportunities for safe conversations. People are often reluctant to talk about these issues openly, so it’s important to find a way to have the conversations where everyone feels safe. “Having a facilitator to help with these conversations is really key,” Pasin says.