Apart from all the advertising, KIA is not only a Korean car. KIA is also an unfortunate military acronym for “killed in action”. Within the business succession realm KIA also has a mantra of morbidity as it stands for “Know-It-All; I’ve got this; Don’t need your input”. More importantly from a succession planner’s perspective: KIA means uncoachable!
The absurdity of a Know-It-All in the realm of succession planning is that even a dedicated Certified Succession Planner does not know it all. The Succession Matrix of issues impacting the continuation of business success through the next generation is just too complex. The consummate professional “knows what he/she doesn’t know” and works as a team member with the clients other advisers in pursuit of a common goal: succession. The shared mantra of morbidity is that a KIA leading a family business is allowing his/her arrogance to imperil the continued vitality of that business.
Of late, I have witnessed a grand face-plant of a very smart, highly competent KIA which adversely impacted many family members and employees who were contributing to the success of the business. More importantly I have also witnessed several modest, uneducated, marginally equipped family business leaders achieve outstanding results through listening to their advisers. So I am motivated to just offer a shout out to those business owners, prospective successors, family members and key managers who have perfected the art of listening. They are not waiting their turn to talk and show off their prowess. They ask questions, welcome diverse opinions; and endeavor to learn from the knowledge, experiences and perspectives of others. They understand the concept of learning big lessons from small mistakes and minimizing the impact of mistakes by considering alternatives and consequences prior to taking action. It does not matter how they came to recognize that they don’t know it all. The celebration is that they have opened themselves to an unlimited foundation of knowledge and expertise by respecting the insights of others.
Unfortunately, being coachable is not common within the realm of family business; otherwise the remains of countless businesses and families would not be residing in the bone yard. Keep in mind a big family business mistake inflicts trauma both on the family and the business. Not only is coachable cool, coachable is cash. Confidence, competence and commitment may be the ingredients to success, but being coachable is a predicate to the continuation of that success; succession.
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