Crisis in the Crystal Cathedral: No one is immune to family business issues.
Not the mega wealthy or those with fame or those whose business is serving God…..or those who have all three.
In today’s NY Times, Laurie Goodstein writes about the conflict in the family of Reverend Robert H. Schuller over the future of his megachurch and its leadership. While we certainly do not have the “whole story” from this one article, there are some lessons that can be drawn from this part of the story:
1. Charismatic entrepreneurs are very difficult to follow. Crystal Cathedral may be the nation’s first “megachurch” and it was built on the senior Rev Schuller’s charisma and vision in a time when people were drawn to a church that would reach them with a positive message through the airwaves and in their cars at the drive-in church. It’s hard to find “your place in the sun in the shade of the family tree” was true here. Even though the younger Rev Schuller was annointed from the time he was young to be his father’s successor, he didn’t have the type of leadership that was needed to wow the audiences in the same way or to inspire his sisters.
2. Enrolling the second generation in the support of a new leader is essential. While dad may be accepted by his family flock as the leader, a second generation leader does not necessarily have the same automatic trust and commitment from his or her siblings. Afterall, they grew up together and the kids all remember each others’ foibles. How can I trust my brother who wouldn’t mow the lawn the take care of our family business? A successor must be a leader who inspires his family as well as his employees and “customers.” It appears that the younger Rev. Robert A. Schuller had not accomplished this. He was quoted as saying:
“It boiled down to, they weren’t ready to accept my leadership,” he said of his relatives and some of the other board members of the cathedral. “And had they been, they wouldn’t be where they are today.”
3. Succession requires reinventing the business for the times. The strategy of using the airwaves was new when his father started “Hour of Power.” With the advent of cable television, competition arose and his followers shrunk in half. The senior reverend might be accused of having an “edifice” complex as part of his strategy was building huge, beautiful facilities designed by famous architects that were supported by mega numbers of donors. This worked for the first several buildings but not the last and the senior Schuller left his offspring and congregation with a $45 million debt.
The junior Schuller tried some strategies, but without success. The article noted:
“The younger Mr. Schuller envisioned using new technologies to expand the ministry’s capacities and reach a younger audience. The average viewer of “Hour of Power” is a 53-year-old woman. But some board members saw his high-tech strategies as vague and distracting.
Things fell apart when the younger Mr. Schuller tried to institute basic good governance rules used by many nonprofit organizations. He wanted to remove anyone with a conflict of interest from the board. That meant unseating some of his sisters and their husbands as well as his parents, who were also employees.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t come up with strategies that had the support of all of the important stakeholders, so that he didn’t have a chance to implement his new direction. Coupled with massive debt, the organization went into bankruptcy. When he was displaced in his role by his sisters and brothers-in-law, he quit and is trying his new approaches on his own with his own son.
4. It takes a special type of leadership to make the first-to-second generation succession work. The combination of collaborative leadership rather than charistmatic, the ability to define and execute a new strategy to meet a new generation of customers and to build the infrastructure that supports the growth stimulated by an entrepreneur is difficult to find. The second generation members of the family may not automatically have these extraordinary talents. Sometimes, it requires importing talent from the outside. In some families shared leadership is the answer. The Schullers are trying an “office of the president.” This type of leadership can work if there are clearly defined responsibilities, mutual trust, excellent communication and the other key players buy in. It will be interesting to see whether this works for the Schuller family.
In conclusion, one of the daughters (who is not working in the family business) was quoted as saying:
“When you mix faith and fame and family, there’s room for a really toxic dynamic”
Amen.
