Family Business

My full time gig is working with a group of high achieving schools in New York. One of the key components of any child's success is the involvement of the parents.  Schools make sure that every week, they hold a Community Circle, where parents and family members can come and see each class cheer for their classmates and themselves and or participate in some positive reinforcement based activity or competition.  There is a strong sense of "it takes a village" in those moments and they tend to be the highlight of any given week in a school building.  It motivates the kids, empowers the parents, reminds the teachers of their why.

Most industries in the business sector would not be keen on folks inviting their spouses or family members to come to business meetings or events.  In fact the idea of you working with or for a member of your family is looked down upon as favoritism and can be a huge HR concern.  (No one wants to get sued for being nice to their family).  For most, there is an internal struggle for where to spend your time (with your family or with your job).  So working professionals are constantly choosing one over the other.

For working moms this battle becomes a stretched out decision, impacting all aspects of life - pursue your career or start a family.  Rarely at the same time.  This truism forces women to take time off from their careers to raise a family, which slows their progression professionally. It takes them out of the workforce (slowing their accrual of retirement funds) and when they do return it's still for .80c/$1 compared to her male counterparts.  Family has never been part of the business world and for women it's actually seen as a pretty severe handicap.

The company I contract for in my own business has the opposite approach. With a foundation in financial education as the business' product, it's as though the idea of a community circle has lodged itself in the core business model.  They know that family is a motivator, a necessity of basic human relations and of high functioning teams.  People who don't have family, will manufacture one from their colleagues and close teammates. We hold meetings and trainings where spouses are encouraged to come.  They host breakout sessions for significant others to learn how to be supportive in the business both personally and professionally. Even at large conferences and events, you will find small children playing or sleeping in strollers because it is acknowledged that the primary motivator behind most businesspeople is the desire to provide for the family in a way that is bigger and better than they have been able to do it before.

Case in point, I went to a training event last weekend to learn how to grow my business.  In attendance: My husband, his mother, his sister, his cousin and both of our kids.  We ate together, we packed into a hotel room together, we learned together.  In a world where we are told there is no room for family in the work place, this is the only field I have found where family is the reason for the workplace, and they keep that ideal front and center.  God, Family, Business in that order.

Day 12s reason my business is awesome: Family Business redefined.