It has been famously said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Take a second to think about that. The people you spend time with can lift you up or bring you down. We all need other...
Trust is one of those things we don’t think much about until it’s gone. We notice it when a leader breaks a promise, a colleague undermines us, or a relationship begins to fray. Suddenly, something that felt like a given requires tremendous energy to...
Succession planning often grabs headlines with dramatic CEO exits at major brands – like the recent shake-ups at Disney or the bold ownership handoff at Patagonia, where founder Yvon Chouinard made Earth the company’s only shareholder. But you don’t have to be running a...
As we celebrate July 4th, a symbol of our collective independence, it’s a great time to reflect on freedom as an ideal that we experience in highly personal ways. One framework to explore how we view freedom is the Enneagram, a tool for understanding...
These days, the future often feels like a moving target. Shifting priorities and constant change have made it harder to plan with confidence. With so much noise and change around us, it’s no wonder so many leaders find themselves hesitating, stuck in a kind...
Succession is no longer just a possibility – a wave of leadership transitions is already underway. According to recent data, nearly 40% of family businesses expect a leadership transition in the next five years, yet only a fraction of them have started planning for...
It’s safe to say that the past few years have kept leaders on their toes. While the crisis of the pandemic is well behind us, the workplace continues to evolve. Hybrid models, shifting employee expectations, and the rapid integration of AI are just a...
The willow that bends to the tempest often escapes better than the oak which resists it. – Albert Schweitzer, physician, philosopher, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Change is a constant, and the ability to navigate uncertainty has never been more valuable. Some leaders and organizations adapt...
Reflecting on nearly 14 years with our Labrador Retriever, Belquest Charlotte Brontë – known to all as “Charlie” – I'm reminded of the many lessons she taught us about life, leadership, and loyalty. Just a few weeks ago, we said goodbye, and with that...
When facing leadership transitions – whether in a family business, a non-profit organization, or any other type of enterprise – one of the most pressing questions is: Can this team take the helm? This isn’t just about managing day-to-day operations; it’s about whether the...
As summer begins to fade and the crisp air of autumn settles in, we find ourselves in a season of transition. Daily rhythms shift as kids go back to school, families adjust to new routines, and businesses begin planning for the final quarter of...
Did you know that by 2026, Fortune 500 companies – the iconic list of largest companies in the U.S. by revenue – are projected to maintain their status for an average of only 14 years? That duration is less than half what it was...
Here’s a question to ask the managers in your organization: “What kind of employees do we want to have in our workforce? Employees who think for themselves? Or workers who mechanically do only what we tell them to do, exactly when and how we...
By Margaret Wilson, Tandem Partners & Ann Quinn, Quinn Strategy Group As advisors to leaders and teams, we’re often asked, “Can people be taught to think strategically?” Our answer is an unequivocal “Yes.” While some people are born with a predisposition to thinking long term...
Like many of you, members of our team belong to professions that require us to be licensed to practice. So every year, we engage in continuing education, just like our friends who are social workers, engineers, estheticians, and architects. We do it to comply...
Raise your hand if you love turning the clocks back in November and hate springing forward in March. Yeah, us too. That one lost hour can be so disorienting. And it’s not as if you didn’t already have enough on your mind and your...
By Margaret Wilson, Tandem Partners & Ann Quinn, Quinn Strategy Group We’re well into the new year now and the economy continues to give out mixed signals. Growth has slowed, but half a million jobs were added last month. Inflation is high but consumers are...
Recently, Margaret Wilson appeared on Java with Jim Ries, Director of Business Development at Offit | Kurman to discuss the origin of Tandem Partners and its dedication to helping families, owners and businesses in transition....
Employee burnout is real. And while it’s not new, during COVID it got worse. During the last two years, compounding pressures including hybrid work and high turnover have impacted the stress that employees feel, their ability to do their work, and whether they’ll look...
Like many of you, we belong to professions that require us to be licensed or certified to practice. Every year, Tandem Partners coaches and consultants engage in continuing education, just like our friends who are social workers, engineers, estheticians, and architects. We do it...
By Margaret Wilson & Ann Quinn | This time last year, we thought we were looking back on the longest 12 months ever. We couldn’t have known then that 2021 would be equally challenging and memorable. Yet even now, when things have...
No one knows exactly when people started making New Year’s resolutions, but whenever that was, the habit of breaking them probably started a few weeks later. Failed resolutions are such a common occurrence that a lot of leadership coaches aren’t in favor of making...
The If-I-Want-Something-Done-I’ll-Do-It-Myself Solution - A business owner named Sue had initiated a succession process at her company. Like many leaders, Sue struggled to relinquish responsibility to younger leaders. She’d always been reluctant to delegate, and often found herself re-doing others’ work. This tendency seemed to...
When you hear the term “leadership development” what comes to mind? Who comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you think of leadership development as about the people coming up behind you. People younger than you, or less experienced. The next generation, you...
If you’re feeling burned out in the family business, you’re not alone. It can happen when you’re feeling overwhelmed by business problems or prolonged tension in a relationship or any number of reasons. Whatever the cause, burnout doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s practically impossible...
“The final test of greatness in a CEO is how well he chooses a successor and whether he can step aside and let his successor run the company.” Those deceptively simple words are from Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, whose ideas continue...
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For families in business, success is not just measured in fiscal years, but over generations. Yet often, leaders are so focused on the day-to-day that they aren’t able to step back and focus on the issues that impact long-term sustainability. We help leadership teams assess where they are now, where they’re trying to go and how they’re going to get there. Our expertise in the areas of organizational strategy, structure, process and performance is a unique feature of our work, and integral to our transition management approach.
When it comes to developing leaders and teams, one size does not fit all. Your business is unique, and has specific strategies and capabilities that drive it forward. We help you identify and develop the specific leadership competencies that make you who you are as an organization and who you’d like to be. We work with leadership teams on the real issues they’re facing now, helping them to see more, be more, do more and lead more effectively, together.
Most leaders accept that at some time in the future, their time at the helm will end and the business will be given into the care of the next leader. However, just thinking about the transition can be daunting and overwhelming for the senior leader. If that weren’t enough, most owners experience their own succession just once. Tandem Partners provides the experience and professional guidance needed to move through the strategic, operational and interpersonal issues that are all a part of transition.
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