Family business leadership transition: how an adaptation of executive coaching may help

Within the traditional business organizational climate in which an executive coach operates, the identity of 'the coached' (coachee) can be quite clearly differentiated from the business identity. This is not the case within the world of family business, where the incumbent family business leader, the successor, the business and the family culture, are interwoven. This unique feature of family business means that, for executive coaching to be effective within the family business environment, a radically different approach to that used in traditional business environments must be adopted - namely, the consideration of what generally are thought of as noneconomic variables. This article represents a first attempt to effectively address the key and unique variables executive coaches need to know to work within the family business environment.