David Bentall - The challenge of working in a family business

David C. Bentall is founder of Next Step Advisors and has been advising family enterprises for over 25 years. He has also personally experienced succession in his family’s real estate and construction businesses. After stepping on many toes in a short space of time, he was summarily shown the door. He then had to examine his own behavior and in time realised what was wrong in his approach. From his soul-searching journey, he saw that mistakes made through youthful arrogance can become a springboard to wisdom and change that needs to occur from inside out is often sparked by a major setback. Alongside a reckoning with one’s own fallibility can come the understanding that traits such as humility, empathy, gratitude and patience serve one as well, if not better, than business acumen. 

David is also an author and his book, Dear Younger Me: Wisdom for Family Enterprise Successors explores the character traits critical for navigating the interpersonal demands of a family business enterprise.

 In this podcast:

• Why it’s important to spend some time working in an outside organisation

• Nine character traits important for business execs

• The dynamics of managing family business relationships

You can find out more about David at nextstepadvisors.ca

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