Succession Conversation Too Late?

– photo courtesy of; http://camdenhouse.ignisart.com/canon/prio.htm

I believe human beings are basically honest, but at the same boundaries are so important.

Succession Conversation Too Late is written based on a couple of experiences where the senior advisor had brought in a novice advisor into their business.

The senior advisor with over 25 years of experience, and a lack of vision brought on by unresolved unmet needs, had weak leadership boundaries with the novice advisor.

Casually over lunch one day, the senior advisor says “we can talk about being partners one day”.

Five years pass and the senior and novice advisor finally get around to creating the partnership agreement, and the relationship ends because the novice advisor was thinking 50/50 and the senior advisor was thinking 50/50 from the time that the novice advisor started working with the senior advisor.

The senior advisor believed that their business was worth $250K for the previous 25 years before the novice advisor arrived, and if the novice advisor wants 50% of the 25 years that it took the senior advisor to build the business, the fee is $125K.

The novice advisor gets their nose out of joint fueled by both their generation X/Y sense of entitlement, and the fact that they were not advised of the initial value of the business, and the 25 years that it took the senior advisor to build it before they got there in the very beginning.

The novice advisor soon forgets what it took the senior advisor to build the business while they slide in front of all of the quality A clients that it took them zero sweat equity to be a part of.

Any one can walk out in front of someone’s audience (well almost).

Again, I have seen this more than once and it has ended every time in a sh*t fight.

The solution;

• Know what your values are (get your unmet needs identified and met)
• Have a clear vision for the future
• Use values and behaviors assessments for hiring to weed out takers vs. givers
• Have a clear and documented conversation with new associates and employees about the value of the business at their point of entry and that if they want to buy in, the fee is $ ____________.
• Don’t use the word partnership with anyone that is under 30