A healthy family business intentionally develops leaders.

Most family businesses are excellent at pouring themselves into the work and struggle to pour themselves into the people who will one day lead it. We build the brand but neglect the bench. Leadership development gets labeled a luxury, something to get to when the busy season ends or the founder is ready to talk about it. But the busy season never really ends, and the founder is rarely ready. Enterprises built to outlast one generation often struggle to pass the baton.

Family businesses consist of three overlapping circles: family, ownership, and management. There is a distinction between the three, but healthy enterprises prepare people for each role and build pathways for them.

Every succession plan has predictable failure points. Naming them in advance helps avoid landmines:

  • The founder who waits too long to name a successor.
  • The heir handed the title without the experience to warrant it.
  • The family member who wants to pursue other opportunities but is pressured into the business.
  • The capable non-family leader who never sees a path upward.

No succession plan is foolproof because nobody is ever fully prepared to lead. Leaders grow when they're given real decisions, real risk, and real challenges before they feel ready. Delegation requires wisdom, but responsibility and agency are the way people mature.

Every leader is an interim one. Leaders who think they will never be replaced are building an institution that won't outlast them. Every project, every meeting, and even every failed plan is a chance to form those who will come after you.

Developing others is slower than doing the work yourself and messier than keeping control. But it's an investment that compounds. Equipment breaks. Technology advances. Markets shift. Strategic plans change. But a leader you have formed goes on forming others long after you've stepped away. The goal of every founder is to become gloriously unnecessary and have their legacy continue through the next generation they helped develop.

Who are you preparing and mobilizing for leadership?

Josh Eby is a founding partner of Aven Advisors. Earlier field notes are collected here.