This work asks something of you
Consulting and advising, done with heart
Family business advisory is often seen as something that’s done to a business family, but I consider that the wrong approach.
Quality coaching and consulting for a family business in transition should be done with the family, not to it.
That is why this work asks something of you - not in a way that should feel daunting, but honesty demands I tell you that you and your relatives will participate in, contribute to and be as accountable to this process as I will be.
Because the families I work with don't just hire a consultant and wait for recommendations to arrive, with the adviser taking over the direction of travel:
My business families show up. They engage. They're willing to look at each other but also at themselves, and they’re willing to sit with the discomfort that self-awareness and accountability can sometimes create during the process of change.
I will help with that - using the emotional current to reflect what’s really going on. Guiding the process so that everyone gets to be heard, to be safe and the family make better and unified decisions together.
That is what makes my work work. Not just my skills and methods, but also the way they collide with the openness and commitment of each of the individuals within a family enterprise system.
In return, as an independent advisor and coach, you will see the results of me deploying empathy, rigour, curiosity and radical honesty - and my genuine investment in building trust and alignment within your family systems, committed to define and protect your family's desired outcome and the future of your business assets.
What You Can Expect Of Me
My role is not to fix your family.
Instead, my role during the consulting and advising process is much more intricate and delicate than that. Besides, trying to ‘fix people’ is a futile endeavour, wouldn’t you say?
In a sense, my role is to be the glue: the constant, stewarding presence that holds the process and the systems together as you travel through complexity, uncertainty, discovery and resolution.
I carry your family in my head between sessions - noticing connections, holding threads, synthesising conversations and considering what has yet to be said, and how to keep showing up to facilitate conversations and guide your family.
I will listen to what's spoken and listen to what isn't. I will ask the questions that need asking, and when they're uncomfortable, I will create the requisite safety for them, making the unknown discussable. I will challenge assumptions — yours and mine — with honesty and care.
What I won't do is hand you a Gantt chart and call it a plan, and I won’t build a process based on one person’s point of view alone.
Family business work doesn't unfold on a tidy timeline with one person influencing the direction of travel, so my role is to walk alongside you, all of you, as the path emerges — adapting, holding steady, and keeping sight of what we're here to protect.
Think of it less as a project and more as a riverside journey. With a guide who's travelled alongside many rivers before, and who knows how to deal both with the voyage and with the unexpected.
The Consulting Journey: An adaptable and customised 3-phase approach
Some families in business feel harmony and purpose, others feel tension and uncertainty, and most live somewhere inbetween.
No one family enterprise system is the same, and neither will your work with me be. The consulting process is always iterative, and to allow for what emerges and to accommodate for the kind of adaptation your family will need, I work in three distinct phases:
Diagnose & Understand
Strategic Alignment
Governance & Legacy
This structure is defined enough to enable rigour, yet allows for all the custom attention your family and business may need.
To future-proof your family business we will dip into these three phases to varying degrees, the work is always tailored to your family's unique situation.
-
Every intervention has an unknown outcome, and in a system as complex as a family business it is absolutely vital that we understand the full picture before making any changes or even decisions.
The business structure, the relationships, the assumptions and conflicts of interest, the unspoken dynamics and the influential loyalties that shape every decision:
These are only a handful of the many aspects that need to be assessed and tested before we create any changes, recommendations or plans.
The Diagnosis phase allows that, and helps us map out what’s there to work with and what needs doing. Proper diagnosis informs us on how to approach the family, its members and goals and challenges, and helps us define the nature and the shape of the work to be done.
The result is clarity and a properly informed plan that prepares the family for the upcoming changes, and helps create the much-needed and often lacking alignment.
-
Finding the path you can all walk together
A business will have its own vision and goals, and the owning family (or its members) might have goals and interests that differ - and it's required that there's alignment between the two.In fact alignment is so foundational in a thriving business family, that Phase 2 is specifically designed for build a strategically aligned, unified vision.
Because when a family's unity weakens over time, or when an owning generation wants to ensure that the healthy nature of the family business persists into the future, a strategy needs to be developed in collaboration, one that the business and the family & each of its members are happy to sign off on together.
What makes a healthy family business work is a blend of family harmony and business needs, and that means imposing decisions or seeking compromise - so often the cause of problems - needs to be replaced with creating a shared vision that everyone unites behind.
-
This phase is about building the structures that will support you to deliver your ambitions with a rock-solid foundation.
It can be hard to make good decisions, and sometimes it’s even harder to make good decisions together.Well-formed governance structures, shared agreements and robust practices enable conversations and dynamics that ensure stability and longevity - both for the family and the business.
Good governance gives families a framework for making decisions together - not just now, but for the generations that follow as well.
Phase 3 creates the structures, agreements, and practices that allow your family enterprise to evolve and endure without risking the decay of business results, family relationships, or the well-being of the family members.
Understanding where you really are, aligning where you want to go, and building the structures that will guide you across generations
Who this is for
Whether you are preparing for CEO succession or just trying to avoid a family blow-up at Christmas lunch, a consulting & advising program with The Mickel Practice will give you the tools to move forward together.
It’s not just your business - its personal and it’s worth getting right.
My programmes can vary from six months to eighteen months - in some cases more if the challenges and goals are considerable, or if a client requires a slower, more patient transition phase. In all cases the shape and size of a programme is custom-designed to suit your personal and your family’s needs and other business obligations.
In a smaller family business the focus is often on creating clarity on roles, better communications and clear and aligned planning.
Using the combination of practical business experience and my emotional intelligence, I will independently facilitate those hard conversations that will supercharge your business direction while harmonising family involvement.
For larger family businesses or Family offices, the stakes are higher, the complexity is deeper and my role as your guide will be more intense.
I support all families to shift from assumption and avoidance to alignment and action, creating long-lasting stability and trust between the generations and with non-family leaders.
To work with me you must be ready to tackle the real issues - succession, leadership, continuity, communication and, in some cases, business exit.
The chemistry and trust between us is key - see my guiding principles to figure out if we’re the right fit.
Your family enterprise is so much more than the sum of its parts, it deserves a well planned, long lasting legacy.