EP21 Speech 23 - Passionate Enterprise: Couples Who Work Together - Ellyn Bader, PhD

Description: Dr. Ellen Bader reveals strategies for successfully working with your spouse, drawing from her 40-year experience of owning a business with her partner. She provides insights into managing professional and personal dynamics for couple-owned businesses, offering practical tools like the "Candor Solution" to enhance communication, decision-making, and mutual respect. Learn how to transform workplace challenges into opportunities for strengthening your relationship.

Syllabus Description: Increasingly more and more couples are working together or working virtually in the same space. It is estimated that in the United States 43% of small businesses are family-run and 53% of managers share day-to-day management with a spouse. Working together tends to kill romance and take over a couples life.

As therapists we tend to look at our clients mainly through the lens of our favorite therapy model. However, couples who work together face unique challenges that are not rooted in attachment styles or family of origin conflicts.

Ellyn will delineate 6 foundational skills that support couples who work together and demonstrate how the business can become a source of connection rather than generating stress and disconnection. (Includes video)

Learning Objectives

1. Describe 6 foundational skills for building effective collaboration in couples who work together
2. Delineate 3 distinct decision-making strategies that minimize conflict and facilitate clear boundaries at work and at home
3. Outline negotiation principles that are unique for couples