Council Post: Three Leadership Skills For Family Office Governance To Overcome Crises

Mariett Ramm No.1 Bestselling Author, Publisher and Leading LinkedIn Authority/Live Host sharing trends from Family Offices and HNWIs.

As Covid-19 forced the economy into shutdown during 2020, family offices had to face sudden unanticipated risks with a brutal economic recession breaking many adverse records. These multitudinous unanticipated risks also gave rise to many opportunities to improve internal control and connectivity that can be positively correlated with family offices’ complexity, while also taking stock of legacy infrastructure.

However, every family office is different. For the past several months, I have been conducting meetings between family offices to observe their response under extreme pressure and how they adapted to centralizing and transferring significant family wealth and assets.

And that has resulted in a consequential conclusion: While some family offices looked in horror and with pessimism at the gradually unfolding global economic collapse, some other family offices, whose leadership prioritized interpersonal skills to maintain company morale and build relationships, showed remarkable resilience.

The family office leadership role calls for comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the high net worth/ultra-high net worth family with over-and-above responsibility for operations, a framework for making decisions, facilitating meetings and communicating. These activities include the absolute need for individual and soul transmission between trustees, directors, professional advisers and family members.

Here are the top three qualities that I have observed in high-performing family offices worldwide during these intense times of stress and crisis caused by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Willingness To Adapt To Changes

The pandemic forced family offices to step out of their comfort zone where not only survival was at stake, but family office leadership also had to transfer reassurance, guidance and a sense of stability to thrive. The impact of the change could not be ignored but embraced. This is true resilience. 

People respond to change in many different ways. Personal fear and self-limiting beliefs can be challenging to overcome when faced with the obstreperous repercussion of a sudden shift. Change is uncomfortable and scary. However, there is the opportunity to learn and grow in flux when we embrace a growth mindset and boldly step into the unknown. 

Empowering The Team: ‘Us Against The World’

While embracing empowerment can challenge some leaders’ personalities, taking a decision single-handedly can be a fatal option in a time of crisis. A distributed empowerment approach allows for faster and more systemic decision-making that is vital during a crunch.

When a leader empowers his or her team, they motivate team members to “grow together.” This collective mission can establish trust in the family office, build confidence and increase the mission’s overall success.

Speed + Stength + Flexibiliy = Agility 

To make a decision during a crisis, leaders have to be agile. Agility is the only attribute that helps fast recovery after a massive fall. Integrity, innovation, urgency, engagement and direction are all part of agility that supports team members to work as multi-functional teams to solve problems collectively during times of crisis. As the plan can change radically, displaying agile leadership is essential to be ready at any given moment. An agile decision-maker uses his or her talents to help the organization at all levels to build emotional intelligence. Self-awareness, accountability and challenging the status quo are equally important. 


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