The Upstate Owners Forum is reserved for owners and members of family businesses only. This annual series seeks to connect owners from family and privately held enterprises to educate, network and inform. 

In family businesses, conversations between generations often focus on the nuts and bolts of everyday management and the strategic direction of the business. Conversations about relationships easily get bypassed, e.g.:

 - What frequency and kind of communication do we want with each other?
- How might self-accountability increase in family and non-family relationships?
- What issues do we tend to avoid because of discomfort?
- Which family patterns contribute to or impede progress?
- How do we work through conflict?
- How do we stay in tune with what the other thinks about, wants and fears?

As long-time leadership teachers and coaches, John and Nick Engels have worked with hundreds of family business founders and next-generation leaders to strengthen communication, deepen understanding and make decisions that advantage both the business and the family.

More importantly, they have engaged with each other as a father-son team to face tension points, acknowledge mistakes, confront difficult issues and build greater clarity, courage, and accountability in their relationship.

In this session, Nick will share his experience working with millennial leaders, highlighting the generational differences that often perplex or frustrate their parents’ generation. John will suggest common patterns and mistakes he has observed in founders and other influential leaders.

Based on Bowen Family Systems Theory, and their own extensive experience working with family businesses, John and Nick will present three impactful strategies for strengthening communication between the generations, and engage attendees in practical improvement opportunities within their own families.