Family meetings

Psychologist & Author Lee Hausner, PhD, shares advice for parents on how to have a successful family meeting, including organization, agenda, communication, and more
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Family meetings

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Family meetings are very, very important to the success of families, whether you have a small family or a larger family. And a family meet is exactly what the term implies – you say to the family, “We want to work on the business of the family. We’re going to have an agenda. What works well in our family? What are our challenges?” You use the family meeting to talk about maybe what your vacation is going to be like. You use the family meeting to talk about chores. You use the family meeting to talk about problems or concerns that might come up and have the family come up with some solutions. But the family meeting has a structure. And I also like the fact that you let individual family members chair the family meeting. So sometimes the 8-year-old gets to chair the family meeting. And so what you’re doing in this family meeting is not only helping the family learn how to communicate, but some leadership skills. Now there are rules with the family meeting: no yelling, no negativity, no somebody saying, “That’s a stupid, dumb idea” – that’s not part of family meeting. The family meeting says, “Here is a challenge the family has. How may we solve it? Let’s talk about what really works in our family and how we can increase the things that are working.”

Psychologist & Author Lee Hausner, PhD, shares advice for parents on how to have a successful family meeting, including organization, agenda, communication, and more

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Lee Hausner, PhD

Clinical Psychologist & Author

Dr. Lee Hausner is an internationally recognized clinical psychologist, business consultant and family wealth advisor. She served as the senior psychologist for the Beverly Hills Unified School District for 19 years. She is currently the Senior Managing Director for First Foundation Advisors. An acknowledged expert on psychological issues involving wealth and wealth transfer, she was a presenter at the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, and is a frequent participant at the high wealth/private client conferences for major financial institutions. She is a frequent guest on national radio and television and a quoted expert in national publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Times, Forbes, Fortune, Privilege, Town and Country and Worth Magazine.

Dr. Hausner is the co-author with Doug Freeman of A Founder's Guide to the Family Foundation, published by the Council on Foundations and is the author of the seminal work regarding wealth and the family; Children of Paradise: Successful Parenting for Prosperous Families. In addition, Dr. Hausner incorporated her unique six-step transition model for succession in family business in the critically acclaimed family business resource book Hats Off to You 2: Balancing Roles and Creating Success in Family Business, of which she was a co-author.

Dr. Hausner is a graduate of Northwestern University (BA, Psychology), San Francisco State University (MA, Psychology), and Kensington University (PhD, Psychology).

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