Defining your family values

A first step to instill vision for your family office

A successful family office strategy requires clarity and distinctiveness at the core of operations, defining and aligning on a shared future purpose among family members (often across multiple generations with diverse perspectives and motivations), relentless leadership, a strong focus on operations, detailed execution and a balance of short- and long-term performance to ensure a multi-generation legacy.
Martin Roll

I really like this phrase from Martin Roll, which defines in a very simple way the meaning of a family office, and at the same time the way to achieve its objective.

Legacy is probably the ultimate goal of many of us, humans, and it is no different for UHNWI than it is to those less fortunate. What goes into it, might change though, depending on the level of wealth and the complication of assets involved. In fact, I believe wealth is a distraction to what is truly one person’s legacy.

Therefore, it is important to dive into what a massive wealth might hide. We need to go into the core of what we are, what we believe in, what drives us and what infuriates us. In the midst of this all, we can define our own values and place them at the heart of this empty shell that is wealth.

This is what I consider to be the first step on instilling a vision to the family office, and defining the legacy we want to leave behind us.

How to find your values?

There is a tremendous amount of ressources to help you find your values. Worksheets, masterclasses, workshops, books… you name it. A simple research on the topic would left you overwhelmed!

I particularly liked this very simple yet powerful exercise proposed by John Caroll University. I love the fact that it shows you at the end, how adding a verb to your values once defined, can give you directions for your life. They become statements to guide you in living more purposefully.

These statements, and especially the one you consider the most important of them, can become a motto for the family office, and be fully included in the decision making process in all areas of the practice (investments, HR, estate planning…).

If you have a hard time finding your values, try following those steps :

Still not enough? Remember values emerge when we face challenges.
– What were challenges you had to face?
– What values have you deployed to overcome these challenges?

Finally, values are not static, nor should be forced on you. They will change as you evolve, and you can choose to keep them, or to leave them.

This exercise can be made by the principal, but also by each member of the family independently. Then you can work on the collected data to find common, shared, family values, which will include all the generations.

It is also valuable in the field of human ressources, when we know the importance for the professionals involved, to be aligned with the values of the family.

As a wealth holder, or a professional of a family office, have you been working on the family values to instill purpose and vision to the FO, and ultimately to what you want your legacy to look like?

Let me know! 😉