Leading a family and leading a business are different.
If I lead my family as I do TCFP there would be a mutiny, and if I lead TCFP as I do my family then anarchy is imminent.
For example, I called a family meeting to discuss some of our house rules – sugar and screentime.
It would be easy to lay down the law and just tell the boys what the new rules are going to be and then enforce them. But enforcing anything is quite a bore and requires vigilance that they will soon work around.
So, better I thought, to describe my concerns, why I felt the current rules were defective and what I thought could work instead. Followed by the thoughts and ideas of both Benjy and Tommy.
And so, they have shaped their own rules that they agree with and have been sticking too. A collective approach works, the buck does not need to stop anywhere.
In business, leadership and decisiveness are rewarded, collectivism is rarely. At TCFP the buck must always stop with me.
TCFP is my ideas tweaked by the realities the team face. Ideas are welcome and encouraged, but the chances of everyone agreeing are slim (and a red flag for me if it does happen) and so it is down to me to say yes or no.
The team need to trust that I get more right than wrong, but they look to me to take responsibility. A financial planning firm cannot be run by committee.
With both my family and business the ambition is for a harmonious and rewarding existence, which we achieve most of the time.
But it requires being the boss in different ways.
Different “houses”, different rules, same outcome.