'Tis the season to remember employees, but how? For years we have been encouraging companies to separate performance bonuses from year-end gifts, often called bonuses. In this season we want to take a step back and think strategically. What is it we want to reward? What is the best way to give that? Are you thanking someone, sustaining a tradition , improving morale or incenting results? What assumptions are you making about the bonus? What assumptions are your employees making about it?

Hewitt Associates notes that 65% of all companies will not be giving a holiday bonus this year. Those that do will limit it to cash rewards less than $300, minimal gift certificates, and the food, all tallying a total of 2% of their payrolls. However, bonus plans that pay for performance -- or the incentive model -- will average about 9%.

What we encourage leaders to consider is to separate the two by several months. If you want to acknowledge the loyalty, tenacity, and contribution of people that have impacted your company, by all means use the holidays to do so with a company celebration and some standard "gift" of certificates, cash, and food. In a time when employee morale is at an all-time low, this would be strongly recommended.

Read more about Separating Bonuses and Year-End Gifts... »

When only 30% of family businesses survive to the second generation and 10% to the third, it begs the question: Why do family businesses die so quickly? Since 92% of businesses are family-owned, they employ a vast majority of the country's workers. The success of family-owned business affects everyone.

There are several unique challenges in running a family business. The most obvious is you can't get away from coworkers at the end of the day because they are eternally tied to your personal life. The inverse of that is equally true. What falls out between you and your sibling at Thanksgiving dinner will ultimately impact your working relationship. It is this very merger of personal and business relationship which led corporations years ago to discourage romantic relationships and nepotism in the staff.

How many pieces of the pie? Roles and positions in family firms are not always tailored to the particular skill set. Often it is a noncompetitive recruitment initiative that designs the job around the candidate rather than vice versa. On the other hand, the collective passion of the family team can be a driving force if unproductive competitions, communications, and complacencies do not undermine the business.

More Pitfalls and Pillars of Family Business... »

Q: We have a very technical expert who is in line to be promoted to managing a small team. How can we best prepare her for this?

A: The best way to prepare her is to provide her with some management training and coaching to understand what her key strengths and challenges are. Many technical experts are great at their skill, but that does not mean that part of their skill set is managing others. We want to reward great employees by promotion, but it is only a reward if we give them the skills to accompany the responsibility.

There are some great assessment tools that can be a starting place -- the DISC and the KOLBE -- to help people know what strengths they may have and where they may be challenged.

The next step is to give her some fundamental management tools for managing self, managing others, managing change, and managing time. Have her talk with you about what she wants to learn to be an effective manager. Provide her with mentors or coaches to help her develop skills and skillful ways to deal with situations. Give her encouragement to take risks, make mistakes, and learn. Offer her some books on management like Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, On Becoming a Leader: The Leadership Chain - Updated and Expanded, and The One Minute Manager.

Learning to manage and lead is a skill set many can learn as long as the company and leadership are committed to providing the tools of the trade.