50 Common Causes of Family Business Conflict ... and how to deal with them

Confusing Roles: Owners, Leaders, Managers & Employees. The Dotted Line!  

By Jon kenfield. Solutionist.  

• Conflict flows from confusion and attacks.  

• A fundamental source of confusion is lack of role clarity.  

• Another revolves around unjustified change. That’s not  the same as unwarranted change - unjustified means “not explained, therefore not accepted or supported”.  

• According to business best practice, leaders, managers and employees all have clearly definable roles in a business. Clarity provides Certainty & Confidence.  

• Owners should be placed off to the side in any Org Chart. They have no definable role in the business, and their interests can clash with business imperatives.  

• Owner interventions also confuse everybody in the chain of command.  

Solution:  

Create an Org Chart with a dotted line separating strategic & governance roles from operational responsibilities.  

• Leaders (directors) should stay and operate above the dotted line (governance).  

• Everybody else operates below the line (doing the doing).  

• Leaders can go below if they have a specific operational roles.  

• Develop detailed job descriptions and appropriate KPIs so everybody knows what’s expected of them and how their performance will be measured.  • Establish discipline in the business structure - above and below the dotted line. And have an isolation box for owners to stay inside!  

• All business employees need to perform. When owners try to re-write that rule (perhaps in support of a non-performing family member) business systems and discipline suffer.  

I'm interested in your comments below.  

Thank You.