You Built It. Can It Thrive Without You?

Dear Friends,

What happens to the business you’ve built when you’re no longer the person holding everything together?

For nearly thirty years, Chip Scholz has sat across the table from CEOs, business owners, and leadership teams. Across different industries and challenges, one question kept surfacing: Have I built something that can thrive without me?

That question became Handoffs: A Family Business Fable About Leadership, Succession, and Keeping Your Word, Chip's brand-new book, and we're excited to celebrate its launch!

Why a Fable?

Chip could have written a handbook on succession, but he chose to write a story.

A business fable is a short, novel-style story with a leadership lesson tucked inside. (Think Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.) You turn the pages for the characters, and somewhere along the way you realize the lesson is about you.

We get defensive when someone tells us what we're doing wrong. But when a character puts off a hard conversation or holds on too long, we see it right away, and then we see ourselves. Fables also give a team or family one story to talk about together. "Which character are you?" is a much easier way to start than "We need to talk about succession."

In Handoffs, a sudden crisis at Northaven Logistics pulls three generations of one family into the conversations they've been putting off: leadership, trust, succession, and letting go. Over two and a half days, decisions they thought could wait have to be made now.

If you've ever led a family business, worked in one, or wondered what will happen to what you've built, you'll find yourself at that table.

You don't have to be planning your retirement to need this book. Chip's point is that handoffs happen every day, long before anyone announces a change in ownership.

Every time we delegate a decision, keep a promise, set a standard, or give someone the chance to lead, we're making a handoff. Those small moments either build people's confidence and capability or teach them to wait for us to take over.

So the real question is, “Are the people we lead becoming stronger because of us?”

Wherever you are in your leadership, that question is worth asking.

How Chip Is Spreading the Word

Chip has been busy bringing these ideas to new audiences. A popular podcast guest, he’s appeared on numerous shows to discuss his books and the experiences behind them, including Succession Stories, On the Brink, Positive Talk Radio, and The Boomer Woman’s Podcast. His conversations explore leadership, reinvention, everyday decisions, and the work of letting go. His most recent appearance was on The Art of Succession which you can watch HERE.

Later this month, he’ll bring that conversation to Supply Chain Baton Rouge as the headlining speaker. Every participant will receive a copy of the brand-new Handoffs.

We love seeing authors create these connections between the page and the people who can put their message to work!

​Get your copy of Handoffs on Amazon​

Congratulations, Chip! We’re proud to help bring Handoffs into the world and excited to see the conversations it starts.

With Aloha,

Beth Berger