A privileged dimension of my work with organizational leaders is the daily opportunity to hear real-life stories about how people respond to challenging relationships. In the last weeks of the year, the stories turn sharply towards family gatherings. For example, during the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I heard the following: A family business owner’s adult daughter married a man that “just doesn’t mesh” with the rest of the family. Her parents see him as an aloof, behi

To business owners and leaders: You say, “The business is important, but the family is more important.” That’s a good-sounding motto, but do you really believe it? If you did, you would be thinking about your relationships with individual family members. You would be thinking about your family the way you think about your business. You would be thinking about what those relationships mean to you. You would be imagining all the ways that strong family relationships t

I spent the hot summer days of my early teen years painting our three story house. From the upper rungs of a ladder, I swatted away wasps with my wide, gooey paint brush. Those high eaves tested my mettle. My mother prayed the ladder wouldn’t fall. It never did. At night, Donny Craig and I would throw burlap bags into the trunk and drive to Churchville Golf Course. We parked out of sight, waiting in the dark. When the night sentry’s golf cart passed, we stripped down to