I love watching the grandchildren. I am in awe of their curiousness, their instincts (Kolbe), their volition, their compassion, and their competitiveness. It is competitiveness that I want to talk about. It shows up in the sharing of toys. There can be a lot of toys at Gramps’ and Jiji’s home but invariably there is one that isn’t shared. There is the one that someone has, and in their competitiveness, one someone has to have.

Two of my grandchildren were arguing about something. The volume of this argument was quite a few decibels above my tolerance level. My grandson put his hand on his cousin and quoted Mick Jagger. “you can’t always get what you want”. I had to laugh because I immediately thought “but if you try sometimes, well, you might find you get what you need”. They needed a peacemaker and some rational thinking.

Competitiveness without direction is often a waste. What is the common vision in your family business? What does the business look like when it is done? How do you use our natural competitiveness for the greater good of the business? Maybe the better question is “Do we have a vision?”

Happy New Year 2020