The Succession Question Family Businesses Get Wrong
Most family business succession failures are not about choosing the wrong successor. They are about never separating three decisions that look like one.
The Leadership Desk
Editorial Staff
The Leadership Desk covers governance, boards, executive careers and how New York companies are actually run. Reporting under this byline is produced by the editorial staff of Manhattan Standard.
Articles by The Leadership Desk
What A New York Non-Compete Can And Cannot Do
The enforceability question has moved repeatedly in recent years. Here is the framework courts apply, and why the clause in your contract may be weaker than it reads.
How New York Executives Actually Get On Boards
Board seats are not advertised. The pathway is more structured than it looks from outside, and most of it happens before anyone is considered.
What A Chief Of Staff Actually Does
The role is defined by the executive it serves, which is why it succeeds and fails so unpredictably.
How Executive Compensation Is Actually Set
The mechanism is benchmarking, and benchmarking has a well-documented ratchet built into it.
What A Board Actually Does In A Crisis
The board's job is not to manage the incident. Confusing the two makes both worse.
How To Structure A Co-Founder Agreement
The conversation is uncomfortable now and considerably worse in eighteen months.
When A Founder Should Hire Someone Else To Run The Company
The question is not competence. It is whether the job the company now has is the job you want.
What Actually Happens When Founders Disagree
Deadlock is a structural condition, not an emotional one. It has structural solutions.
How To Negotiate A New York Job Offer
Salary ranges are now disclosed by law, which changes what the negotiation is actually about.
What A Severance Agreement Really Says
You are being asked to sell something. Understanding what makes the price negotiable.
How To Change Industries Mid-Career
The obstacle is rarely capability. It is that hiring processes are built to screen for exact experience.
How To Run A Performance Review That Actually Helps
The annual review fails for structural reasons. Most of them are fixable without abolishing it.
How To Manage A Hybrid Team Without Two Classes Of Employee
The risk is not productivity. It is that proximity quietly becomes a promotion criterion.
What To Do When You Inherit A Team
The first ninety days set the terms. Most new managers spend them demonstrating rather than learning.
What An Executive Education Program Actually Buys
Sometimes the teaching. Frequently the network and the signal. Knowing which you want changes the choice.
Why Corporate Training Rarely Changes Anything
Not because people forget. Because they return to an environment that rewards the old behavior.
How To Build An Apprenticeship That Works
The difference between an apprenticeship and cheap labour is whether anyone is responsible for the teaching.