Hasan Roomi, co-founder of boutique design practice H2R Design.
Can you strike a balance between work and family? It’s an age-old question, and one that lends itself to a number of striking global examples. From Walmart and Samsung, to Nike and Volkswagen, time again we’ve seen family-centric business values aligned with resilient and successful business paradigms.
In my case, family dynamics are present in everything I do – from owning a business with my brother to navigating the parental waters of becoming a new father. Building a successful business while nurturing and prioritising family life go hand-in-hand.
The reason for this is that family values form the nucleus of any successful organisation. Wearing a multitude of hats as a business owner, leader, employer, brother, husband and father, I often find myself asking: Is the idea of achieving work-life balance too simplistic? Does the sweet spot exist at all?
Here are a few ideas that illustrate core tenets that every family business can benefit from.
Trust above all
A study conducted by Gulf Family Business Council (GFBC) and McKinsey & Company, found that “clear ownership for decisions and implementation is a must” within working family businesses. When your life and livelihood collide, it’s crucial that a system of trust and reliance is well established, allowing you and family leaders within your business to align on communication and decision-making.
In a small family business that relies on constant collaboration, this notion is even more significant. Whether you lead alongside one family member like I do, or if the entire family plays a role, it’s essential to align on your communication and messaging to avoid contradicting each other to the team.
In our case, sharing the same ethics, dynamics and beliefs allows our team to feel as though that if they come to myself or my brother Husain, they will receive the same answer or advice. It also gives us two heads instead of one to allow constant accessibility to all of our people.
The essential time divide
Functioning as the backbone of a company alongside a sibling or family member requires clear parameters from the get-go. For both your working and personal relationship to function, keeping work-related topics in the workplace and family-related topics for family time.
Although easier said than done, you owe it to yourself and your team to avoid blurring the two so that your work days are fully committed to functioning as a boss, leader and mentor.
As a rule of thumb, particularly during times when family commitments are more heightened than usual, a margin of error gives you the flexibility required to find solutions to problems that may arise. As any parent knows, occasionally your energy needs to be shifted towards family matters at the drop of a hat.
Inclusion is fundamental
There is no denying that family businesses could not be kept afloat or thrive without the hard work, dedication and commitment of non-family team members. This team is your second family and requires your time, attention and nurturing.
It’s essential that family businesses ingrain a sense of higher trust and resonance with employees to foster inclusion and build collective mindsets. By creating efficient team dynamics and mindsets that are inclusive by nature, this enables organisations to become what academics Karlene Roberts and Karl Weick refer to as “high-reliability organisations”, in which strong interrelations between people empowers continuous operational reliability.
The best advice I can give is to invest in people who are kind, knowledgeable, experienced and enthusiastic. Assess your team and their capacity, identify their unique skill sets and personalities, then put them in positions that allow them to confidently put these traits into action. Secondly, outline your own skills, capacity and capabilities followed by abruptly parking your ego at the door. There is no room to be offended or offend, be it within your team or with your fellow family members.
This sense of inclusivity is what will allow you to establish the building blocks that will provide solutions and strengthen your business.
As you grow your family business, reaching the pinnacle of work-life balance – or work-family balance – will seem more and more unattainable. Perhaps that’s because it is. In many ways, if you own your business, it owns your time.
The high intensity, high demand and high expectation will be ever-present, but ensuring you have a team behind you that lives and breathes the ethos of your brand, this will help you drive successful outcomes for eons to come.
Hasan Roomi, co-founder of boutique design practice H2R Design.
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by Staff Writer
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Family values form the nucleus of an organisation’s success
Striking a proper work-life balance is an age-old question
Can you strike a balance between work and family? It’s an age-old question, and one that lends itself to a number of striking global examples. From Walmart and Samsung, to Nike and Volkswagen, time again we’ve seen family-centric business values aligned with resilient and successful business paradigms.
In my case, family dynamics are present in everything I do – from owning a business with my brother to navigating the parental waters of becoming a new father. Building a successful business while nurturing and prioritising family life go hand-in-hand.
The reason for this is that family values form the nucleus of any successful organisation. Wearing a multitude of hats as a business owner, leader, employer, brother, husband and father, I often find myself asking: Is the idea of achieving work-life balance too simplistic? Does the sweet spot exist at all?
Here are a few ideas that illustrate core tenets that every family business can benefit from.
Trust above all
A study conducted by Gulf Family Business Council (GFBC) and McKinsey & Company, found that “clear ownership for decisions and implementation is a must” within working family businesses. When your life and livelihood collide, it’s crucial that a system of trust and reliance is well established, allowing you and family leaders within your business to align on communication and decision-making.
In a small family business that relies on constant collaboration, this notion is even more significant. Whether you lead alongside one family member like I do, or if the entire family plays a role, it’s essential to align on your communication and messaging to avoid contradicting each other to the team.
In our case, sharing the same ethics, dynamics and beliefs allows our team to feel as though that if they come to myself or my brother Husain, they will receive the same answer or advice. It also gives us two heads instead of one to allow constant accessibility to all of our people.
The essential time divide
Functioning as the backbone of a company alongside a sibling or family member requires clear parameters from the get-go. For both your working and personal relationship to function, keeping work-related topics in the workplace and family-related topics for family time.
Although easier said than done, you owe it to yourself and your team to avoid blurring the two so that your work days are fully committed to functioning as a boss, leader and mentor.
As a rule of thumb, particularly during times when family commitments are more heightened than usual, a margin of error gives you the flexibility required to find solutions to problems that may arise. As any parent knows, occasionally your energy needs to be shifted towards family matters at the drop of a hat.
Inclusion is fundamental
There is no denying that family businesses could not be kept afloat or thrive without the hard work, dedication and commitment of non-family team members. This team is your second family and requires your time, attention and nurturing.
It’s essential that family businesses ingrain a sense of higher trust and resonance with employees to foster inclusion and build collective mindsets. By creating efficient team dynamics and mindsets that are inclusive by nature, this enables organisations to become what academics Karlene Roberts and Karl Weick refer to as “high-reliability organisations”, in which strong interrelations between people empowers continuous operational reliability.
The best advice I can give is to invest in people who are kind, knowledgeable, experienced and enthusiastic. Assess your team and their capacity, identify their unique skill sets and personalities, then put them in positions that allow them to confidently put these traits into action. Secondly, outline your own skills, capacity and capabilities followed by abruptly parking your ego at the door. There is no room to be offended or offend, be it within your team or with your fellow family members.
This sense of inclusivity is what will allow you to establish the building blocks that will provide solutions and strengthen your business.
As you grow your family business, reaching the pinnacle of work-life balance – or work-family balance – will seem more and more unattainable. Perhaps that’s because it is. In many ways, if you own your business, it owns your time.
The high intensity, high demand and high expectation will be ever-present, but ensuring you have a team behind you that lives and breathes the ethos of your brand, this will help you drive successful outcomes for eons to come.
Hasan Roomi, co-founder of boutique design practice H2R Design.
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