The Power of Peers:
Executive Roundtable Group for Family Business Leaders
Business leaders carry a unique responsibility – you want your customers, your business, and everyone in, it to be successful. People are depending on you, at the same time that you are depending on them. This is doubly true for leaders of family businesses, in which family ties and responsibilities add even more weight and complexity.
- Are family dynamics complicating business decisions?
- Would you like to be able to think with some peers, other family business leaders, people with business acumen and experience, led by an expert in family dynamics?
- Are there challenges you face, but have nowhere to discuss them?
- Would it be valuable to get regular feedback and encouragement to help you work on your business, especially when feeling overwhelmed in your business?
- Do you seek a regular source of new ideas to keep your business on track and growing?
Axelbank Executive Roundtables introduces you to others who know what that burden is like, people who intuitively understand the responsibility you carry. We bring together leaders from non-competing family-owned businesses to create a community of peers. By creating a space in which people can take the risk to share difficult problems, including those involving family dynamics, members can discuss topics and share challenges that they can’t discuss anywhere else. These groups generate strong feelings of camaraderie and cohesion, and members reliably attend them for many years because of the benefit they receive.
This is ensured by Jeff Axelbank’s psychology background, and the unique structure of Axelbank Executive Roundtables. Members of the group are carefully selected, and the activities and topics discussed are determined by group members. By joining an Axelbank Executive Roundtable, you gain an expert advisory panel to rely on for helpful and supportive feedback, developing relationships that endure for the long-term, with tangible and intangible benefits. The overarching goal is to improve the performance of your business, family relationships, and your quality of life as an executive.
- Axelbank Roundtables are Expressly for Family Business Leaders
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While family businesses drive the American economy (80-90% of all North American businesses are family-owned), they also present unique challenges. Yet most other Roundtable programs do not meet those special needs or have the breadth and depth of experience, nor the expertise of a psychologist, to address them. Axelbank Executive Roundtables are geared specifically to leaders of Family Businesses.
In addition to the advantages of our framework described below, these groups attend to the distinct challenges faced by Family Business leaders. Issues complicated by family dynamics, such as succession planning, intergenerational and sibling conflict, clarifying boundaries between family relationships and business relationships, and relations with non-family business partners and employees, garner ample attention.
As a psychologist, Jeff Axelbank is uniquely qualified to help untangle the web of family and business relationships in family enterprises. His expertise in working with families provides added value as Roundtable Facilitator.
- What happens at Roundtable meetings?
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The activities in Roundtable meetings are lively and stimulating, designed to meet the needs of each of its members.
- Most Roundtable meetings are held at retreat settings, providing the chance to get away from the press of day-to-day decisions.
- Some members may invite the group to their business site, a chance to get invaluable feedback from the other members, and a rich basis for discussion of all the members' businesses.
- Members present challenges that they face - in their business, in their personal and family life as it is affecting their business, or in their work/life balance. These can then be discussed productively in a structured format that offers both confidentiality and safety.
- Members often present detailed plans they have developed for their businesses, and get useful feedback from the other Roundtable members.
- Members may make presentations to the Roundtable, drawing from their own expertise, on topics of interest to the group.
- Members may identify particular topics where expert presentations are useful. Jeff may present on some topics, and invite outside experts to address the Roundtable on others.
- All Roundtable meetings allow for social and networking time, during meals and evening leisure time. The group may also decide to schedule some purely recreational activities following the meeting.
- What is the selection process for new members?
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To be successful, Roundtable Group members need to know how they will benefit from participating. An initial meeting with Jeff is used to explain the model, its benefits, and what is involved, in order to help you determine how the Roundtable can best meet your needs.
We take great care to ensure that there are no competitive relationships among Roundtable members, or complicated prior relationships or history. Second, all prospective members have an interview with Jeff, and take an individual self-evaluation assessment. (If a prospective member has recently done such an assessment, that can be substituted.) These not only ensure that members will benefit from and fit with other members of the group, but also help identify and clarify specific goals that the participant has for themselves, their team, and their business.
We strive for demographic diversity across gender, race, ethnicity, etc. A core value of Axelbank Executive Roundtables is that a diverse group of members can provide invaluable input to one another, greatly increasing the value of Roundtable membership.
Before joining a Roundtable group, each prospective member agrees to terms of participation. Establishing norms for behavior in the group in advance is essential to creating a safe space for Roundtable discussions to be valuable to its members.
- What is the schedule of the Roundtable meetings?
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Axelbank Executive Roundtables meet for two and a half days (two overnights), gathering mid-day on the first day to allow for travel time, three times each year. The dates are set by the group well in advance, ensuring maximum attendance and participation. The venues for meetings are likewise determined by the group. By meeting for 2-1/2 days, members have a chance for deep interactions and feedback, avoiding the frustration of running out of time, or just scratching the surface of an important issue. In addition, this format offers time before and after Roundtable sessions for members to relax, reflect, and get to know one another. Members find that meeting three times per year is more sustainable than shorter monthly meetings, and this also minimizes the need to skip sessions.
- What happens in between Roundtable meetings?
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Axelbank Executive Roundtables deliver value all year round. You don't have to wait to discuss ideas or put them to use. In between meetings, Jeff is available for phone or virtual consultation, and members also find their fellow Roundtable colleagues can be valuable resources. Group members form triads, subgroups of three, that can arrange regular virtual check-ins between meetings to help with follow-through and accountability on decisions for action made at the Roundtable meetings. These triads are reshuffled each year, so that Roundtable members get to know one another deeply.
- What makes Axelbank Executive Roundtables uniquely powerful?
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- Axelbank Executive Roundtables are designed specifically to address the unique needs of and issues faced by family business leaders.
- The Power of Peers - The focus in Axelbank Executive Roundtables is on building relationships and resources in the group, rather than providing a platform for outside experts. While outside experts can be valuable at times, we believe that the greatest value of a Roundtable is forged through relationships between and among its members. Sharing YOUR expertise and reaping the wisdom from the experience of other group members is valuable and long-lasting.
- The selection process and initial assessment provides detailed data to help specify goals for each participant and helps ensure a smooth transition into the group.
- Meeting over three days is different from many other Roundtable models. We believe that more time allows for deeper conversations and connections. "Sleeping on it" often leads to brilliant follow-up the next day. It often takes a few hours plus an overnight for people to "let go" of working in their business so that they can switch gears and become reflective to work on their business. Experience shows that two overnights is the ideal arrangement.
- Meeting three times per year is different from many other Roundtable models. When groups meet more often, say monthly, it is inevitable that members will miss more often. This breaks the continuity of the relationships and Roundtable process. Meeting three times per year is sustainable for most leaders, something to which they can commit.
- The value doesn't end between Roundtable meetings. Continuity is provided by Jeff's availability for phone consultations, and the peer-to-peer relations that form.
- Axelbank Executive Roundtables are facilitated by a psychologist. Jeff has over thirty years of experience running groups of all types, and extensive expertise in human relations. He has also consulted to a wide variety of businesses, helping to address complicated challenges. This background can give you the confidence that the Roundtable space will be a safe space to have the right conversations.
- There is no middleman - this is not a franchise, or part of a larger corporation. This keeps costs down and control with the members of the group.
- What is the cost?
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Axelbank Executive Roundtables is a subscription arrangement. The fee is $1,000 per month. In addition, Roundtable members are responsible for their own travel expenses (transportation to/from the meeting site, lodging, food), and an equal share of the facilitator's travel expenses. There is an entrance fee of $2200 which covers the selection interviews, assessment test, and administrative requirements.
Special Introductory Trial
For newly forming Roundtables, there is an optional one-day in-person trial Roundtable meeting, at reduced cost to the participants (other than individual travel and meal expenses, and share of venue cost and facilitator expenses), after which those wishing to continue can begin the entrance process. In addition, in new groups the members will help co-create its logistics and goals.