‘Soft’ Skills Are the Hardest to Teach

Beth Chapman joined the Cathy Family Office, part of the Chick-fil-A Corporate Support Center, almost two years ago in a brand new role: Family Services Lead. She focuses on learning and development, communications and governance. Chapman holds both a Ph.D. and an MBA, and she previously had a 20-year career in higher education teaching business school students subjects such as management, ethical leadership and negotiation.

The Cathy Family Office serves over 60 family members and spouses. The family is in its fourth generation, with the business currently led by the third generation. Chapman discusses how she is bringing business education into the family office:

Why is family education important?

I think there’s an assumption that when people are born or come into a family business, they just automatically know everything about it. There’s a flaw in that assumption. As families grow, not everyone is involved in the day-to-day operations, and they get farther away from the founder’s story.

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One challenge is balancing, particularly as the younger generation comes in, the desire for these young adults to pursue their calling where their interests and talents align, and then also exposing them to the family business — so that if they want to be employed on the operational side, they have opportunity for that if they’re qualified for it.

Quite for the story:
Image by Cassidy Reed

I believe everyone wants to stay connected to the family business in a sense of representation, even if they’re not working on the operational side. At a basic level, whether they’re owners or future owners, they’re going to have some type of involvement or exposure to the business.

What do you teach the family members?

I come in saying, ‘OK, what’s the family history?’ We want to make sure that the incoming generation is, first and foremost, educated on the family values. Then you expose them incrementally to basic business elements: personal finance, income, expenses, debt, investing, planning for retirement, insurance and philanthropy. We want to make sure that they’re good stewards of their own finances and understand the importance of giving and generosity.

Then we look at this particular family business: How did it start? As the family grows, each generation is farther away from the founder’s story. Some may not have met the founder. So, we want to ensure they understand the success that they see now — it didn’t start that way. I think it’s important that they’re very well connected to the work ethic that created what they see today and recognize the struggles that went along with that.

I’ll also help with ‘soft’ skills, though I don’t love that term because I think those are some of the hardest skills to teach. As the family grows, family governance and communication can become more challenging. I enjoy being able to help the family navigate how to make tough decisions, how to have conversations where there could be a ‘right-versus-right’ issue.

We learn about influence, communication, decision-making, and negotiation. When you look at the professional skills, the personal skills — I believe this is an area where this family business really was ahead of their time. These skills are critical to family business success and they are not easy just to learn from a book. You really have to practice them — and you need truth-tellers and feedback to be able to hone those skills.

What types of activities are included in family education?

I use a number of creative techniques to engage the family members, especially the younger generation.

I’ve run a market simulation where they create and sell their own services and products. They start to understand the basics of a P&L statement — and, parallel to that, what goes on in the business. They have those ‘Aha!’ moments of, ‘OK, now I understand why this is going on in the family business.’ That was a big hit for the younger generation, but also older generations got to see the fruition of what these young adults are learning.

Quote from the story: When you look at the professional skills, the personal skills — I believe this is an area where this family business really was ahead of their time. These skills are critical to family business success and they are not easy just to learn from a book.
Image by Cassidy Reed

We had a book club where we read a book by the founder. We used that to learn about the family history and the founder’s story. I assigned chapters to family members to lead that discussion, so there were leadership elements as well.

We include team elements where they work together as a group, but I also work with individuals on personality assessments, strength finders, and goal setting. I try to capture both sides: working together within their family, but also making sure that they’re investigating their own interests and paths.

Is the education program in person or virtual?

The family members are all in different locations, so getting everyone together at one time can be challenging. We use both virtual and in-person meetings. The market simulation was in person, for example. The book club was virtual.

I’ll also spend some time one-on-one with each of the family members to cultivate and look at their individual goals, and I do several individual assignments with them.

Which family members do you work with?

I work with all generations. For the NextGen family members, I start working with them their freshman year of high school.

I also work with that generation’s parents — I do both independent studies and group learning sessions. I try to make any type of educational session they have with me relevant and interactive because they’re busy adults. 

About the Author

Margaret Steen

Margaret Steen is the editor of FO Pro, The Family Office Professional. Based in Silicon Valley, she has written for Family Business Magazine for more than 15 years.


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