The Biggest Mistakes Family Businesses Make With Their Boards

Family business researcher, lecturer, and advisor Claudia Binz Astrachan has studied first-hand how effective boards of directors steer family business management towards strategies that make the firm stronger. Through her consultancy, Generation6, she coaches companies on how to choose board members and how to work with them for maximum impact.

In this frank interview with familybusiness.org Editor Kimberly Eddleston, Astrachan talks about the biggest mistakes she sees families make in how they choose board members and how they interact with them.  These mistakes include putting mostly family and friends on the board and overlooking independent outsiders with unbiased points of view; ignoring good advice from their board or giving extra weight to the loudest voices; and overloading agendas so that nothing gets done.  Astrachan also discusses the four practices that encourage family business leadership and boards to work well together.