When you are a family in business you need to be crystal clear

Many families in business identify fairness and equality as two core values to guide the family. For example:

• We will be fair in our dealings and treatment of people.
• Family members are treated equal.

On the face of it, these values are clear in definition.

However, in a family business, perception and interpretation is everything.

In the scenario of appointing the best person to a vacant role in the family business:

• Open the vacant role to both family and non-family is fair.
• Communicating to all family members the role is vacant, and any family member may apply for the role is treating family members equally (the same).
• Adopting a consistent and transparent approach to the interview and selection process is both fair and equal.
• Appointing a family member to the role because they are the best person for the job is fair.
• Remunerating that family member the same of other family members in the business is equal, but unfair – on the flipside, if the newly appointed family member receives more than other family members, this is fair and just, however other family members may perceive this to be unfair and unequal.

Trying to combine fairness and equality at the same time and/or in the same situation is problematic. And in the end, it creates confusion, misunderstanding, and in extreme cases manipulation.

The family is better served by being crystal clear in their own definition of fairness and equality - and the related behaviours associated with each.

The definition is specific to that family, as ‘google definitions’ don’t consider the nuances of families in business or the specific family dynamics (e.g. what has shaped the family and the family business in the past; the purpose of the family business and family aspirations; or addressing past patterns of behaviour).