Advice for a Woman Taking on a Leadership Role in Family Business

Listen to Heidi Vermeer-Quist’s advice on contributing to the family business in a leadership capacity.

The advice that I would give to a woman taking on a family leadership role in business is be yourself, be kind, there’s a wonderful quote by Ian MacLaren, I always have to say it with sort of an accent, because it’s MacLaren, Ian MacLaren, which is “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”. So I think be kind, and to go back to that over and over again because as frustrations arise, which they will in family business, they will in life generally speaking, but in family business, you are so emotionally tied to these people that the emotions are just instantaneous. So to be committed to being kind. And then contributing, again, where you can contribute, and encouraging others to contribute, encouraging others to contribute alongside of you, one of the strengths of family business is to see that we’re a team and that we have much more responsibility with regard to not only being a family, but being a family business and that together we can come up with much better ideas that I could on my own, right? But that what I have to contribute is valuable.