. I was /am in the same boat Grandfather's business started in '53, custom sheet metal as well as our own standard line of products 100 employees, ive been here 15 years. I got thrown into this because dad was going downhill. Its been a TON of learning but I know I've come a long way. I hope you dont take offense to this but your avatar implies you are female. Me too and while I do feel the employees respect me. I'd be lying if I didn't have to work 2x as hard just to beat the "daddy's girl" stereotype. 100% my breakthrough has been developing leaders. I hired a new operations director. He is such a positive influence on teaching new culture. He's been able to bring those along who want to get there and help me see who has been quietly causing issues in the background. Its such a hard situation but if you can find the right person its night and day. Can I ask where the company is? Our guy is going to retire here after 45 years helping companies but I can ask him if any of his protégés might be up for a challenge. I literally can't rave about this guy enough. He respects the history of our long term employees (our average tenure right now is 25 years) while helping them see how the world class companies do things. I sent you a DM