Let's Take the Family Out of Business

My mother the boss

In another situation, the CEO and her daughter, Sally, both lived and worked together. Sally was making $40,000 a year and complaining about not making enough. The CEO—or simply “Mom”—was trying to find something for the 25-year-old marketing major to do. The CEO admitted that if her daughter were just an employee and not a family member she would let her move on.

“She should look for another job,” the CEO told me. “If I change her from hourly to salary, she would not work forty hours. What do I do with this kid?”

The CEO was in pain because she was operating from a “mothering” state and applying it to business. Mothers do not fire their youngest daughters. It can’t be done—though it is, however, acceptable for moms to complain about their daughters’ behavior

Looking at situations like this as a parent is difficult. The little darling, also known as “your baby,” is born with limitations and gifts. You have the rest of your lifetime to deal with those, and deal you must; connected by birth, blood, and genetics, you are family. As a parent, your only choice is dealing with the child you have.

But if this woman put on her “CEO hat” and looked at the situation from that point of view, a pathway would open up. As CEO, the decision about who belongs in the company is of primary concern. In Good to Great, Jim Collins says it’s all about the right person being on the right seat of the bus. In other words, it is essential that you have the right people doing the right stuff. If CEOs do this, Collins says, their companies will invariably win. In this case, the CEO needed to honestly evaluate whether Sally was a fit for the company without considering that Sally is her daughter.

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