How do you deal with anger in the family business?
Business Leader Post, December 11, 2013
Thomas D. Davidow, Ed.D.
Forgive me if I put on my psychologist’s hat for a second, but family businesses are so full of frustration and disappointment due to the overlapping systems of the family and the business and due to the demands of integrating family relationships, that I cannot think of a single situation where I have been involved when anger has not been present.
The first construct is to accept that as human beings, none of us are protected from disappointment and frustration; and that anger is a normal feeling that all of us have felt at one time or another. The challenge becomes how to address that anger and/or manage that feeling, both in terms of how to respond to it when it is coming your way as well as how to manage it when you are experiencing it yourself.