The presence of respect and/or trust within a group confirms a Blood Related Business Group or a family in business. Love is sweet and it can indeed amplify both trust and respect but love is not a critical component of family or family business performance.  The respect and trust associated with healthy families provides the natural advantage with regard to accountability, governance and teamwork. This organizational natural infrastructure advantage is what can give a family a performance edge in business. The presence of both respect and trust and variations of each make some families more effective than others.

As a student of family business performance I naturally ask where does the trust and respect come from?

  • Family “RESPECT” comes from reaffirmations of the worthiness of parents, siblings, and people in general.
  • TRUST comes from the achievement of confidence that there is comforting consistency and predictability in the valued behavior and attitudes of those we respect.

As a student of family business performance I naturally ask where does the trust and respect come from? It would be great to have some magic family dust to sprinkle on BRBG to enhance synergy or stop the squabbling, backbiting, etc, unfortunately I have not as yet discovered this dust but I have reached a few conclusions.  

What I have concluded is that the respect and trust that define family are not byproducts of the now. Respect and trust are experiential. We are born with neither and the critical components of family harmony and productivity do not just happen. Accordingly the source of disrespect and distrust are in the past. Based upon our unique perceptive filters, interpersonal experiences progressively generate conclusions regarding respect and trust that drive our current behavior and attitudes.  These perceptive filters mean that two family members may have different conclusions about the same behavior. What impresses one positively may impress another, negatively. Furthermore, the same seemingly consistent positive or negative behavior takes longer to make an impression on one person versus another. Respect and trust are earned, achieved, embedded over a period of time. Respect comes from reaffirmations of the perceived value and trust comes from the achievement of confidence that there is comforting consistency and predictability in valued behavior and attitudes. I also believe that these feelings can be reinforced through leadership, either positive or negative. 

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