3 ways to avoid unaliving each other
Confilcts between couples who work together may be inevitable, but they don’t have to result in mortal combat!
Here are three methods for de@th avoidance (we’ve purposly altered the trigger words used herein.)
Can You Hear Me Now?
It’s a truism because it’s true: make sure you’re hearing with your listening ears. Heat-of-the-moment situations tend to get amped up at work, leading to conflict. Do your best to listen to and hear what’s being said.
Know your “fight language”
Couples develop an unwritten—and often unspoken—conflict language. In her book Fight Languages, Lena Morgan zeroes in on five styles of disagreement:
The Ignitor-has an angry reaction to fighting
The Amplifier-an emotional fighter, craves being understood
The Negotiator-is connective and reassuring during conflict
The Analyzer-fights logically and reasonably
The Extinguisher-detaches for safety, flees when conflict erupts
Know when to walk away
There are times when you can’t get past an argument. That’s okay too. Knowing when further arguing or discussion is in the way of doing business is important. Just make time to pick up the discussion later, when you’re not sweating a deadline AND you’ve had time to cool down.
At minimum, you’re both invested in the success of your business. That’s a pretty solid baseline from which to proceed.
We’ve done a ton of episodes about working couples’ disagreements. Here’s one of them.
