There are many fundamentally positive aspects to carrying a legacy forward and being part of something larger than yourself. As a member of the next generation, you may experience a sense of pride in your family, a strong sense of purpose in your role, and satisfaction in acting as a capable steward of the family’s legacy, wealth and reputation on behalf of future generations. At the same time, it is equally natural to feel that the path has been mapped out before you have had the chance to define it yourself.
This is where a clarification process becomes valuable. The better you understand your own preferences, talents and capabilities, the better equipped you are to assess how you can contribute to the ownership structure, and which role you can or wish to take on. At the same time, you gain insight into your blind spots and how you can develop in areas that are almost always inherent to the ownership role (such as selecting advisers, exercising sound judgement in wealth management, understanding board work and responsibilities, and developing geopolitical awareness, etc.).
At Harbour Family Governance, we typically apply two different tools when supporting individuals in clarifying their role within the family’s wealth management and its family community.
Talent assessment – when are you in flow?
Have you ever experienced the feeling of being in a state of flow? When a painting seems to paint itself, a jog is effortless, words pour onto the page, or you deliver an exam or presentation exactly right? An hour feels like five minutes, and when you pause and look up from your work, you are left with a strong sense of having lived up to your potential.
The purpose of understanding your talents is to help you spend more time in that state, where you are working in alignment with your natural strengths. A talent assessment provides a clear picture of your key strengths. It also highlights your development areas, which are often just as valuable to explore. Across four categories of talent, it becomes evident where you naturally operate at your best.
The insights gained are highly valuable when defining your role. Should you take on a visible role representing the ownership, influencing key stakeholders, navigating critical situations, or setting the strategic direction? Or will you use your talents better in a role focused on supporting and enabling those around you, ensuring that others perform at their best? Are you more reflective and oriented towards the past, focused on where the family comes from and what must be preserved? Or are you more future-oriented, focused on the family’s future direction? Talent profiles differ significantly, and so do the roles and responsibilities required to make the most of them.
Talent profiles can also serve as the foundation for more targeted development plans. When you understand your strengths as well as your development areas, it becomes clear which capabilities need to be strengthened.
Personality profiles – focusing on the family dynamics
Where the talent assessment focuses on the individual, personality profiles are particularly effective when used across the whole family. The emphasis is not on what each person excels at individually, but on understanding the different preferences within the family and the dynamics that emerge. For example, if one family member is more introverted but surrounded by extroverts, they may easily be perceived as reserved, disengaged, or even irritated when they leave family gatherings earlier than others. In reality, their social energy is simply depleted more quickly.
When profiles are mapped across the whole family, insights line up like lightbulbs going off. These often lead to greater openness and mutual understanding. It is particularly valuable to see entrenched dynamics beginning to shift and evolve, as family members start to see one another in a new light. For instance, different personality types will often approach the same task in very different ways. Some will instinctively create structure and define a plan, while others will focus on relationships, opportunities or new ideas. These differences mean that people may be working towards the same goal, but in very different ways. Without an awareness of these differences, misunderstandings can easily arise, and people may end up talking past each other. By providing a shared language for preferences and ways of working, personality profiles strengthens mutual understanding and makes collaboration within the family easier.
It also adds value for advisers and employees working with the family, particularly in how meetings are structured, how reporting is prepared, and how family community days are organised.
The two approaches work well both independently and in combination. As a member of the next generation – either already in an ownership role or preparing to step into one – it provides clarity and confidence to understand how you create value in a way that is authentic to you. The better you understand yourself, the easier it becomes to take pride in your role within the ownership.
Please feel free to contact us to learn more about how you can gain clarity on your individual ownership role, or how your family can strengthen its cohesion by working with personality profiles. You can also read more about ownership strategy as a way of aligning around a shared purpose here and here.
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