Most of us carry the very same blind spots, limiting beliefs, and relational habits to work as those we demonstrate in our personal relationships. And, for better and worse, those patterns impact the people around us – our employees, our colleagues, and our business partners. Or as the host of the podcast How’s Work? likes to say, “There is no doubt that your emotional dowry follows you to work.”
How’s Work? invites listeners to be a fly on the wall during one-time counseling sessions with NY Times best selling author and iconic couples therapist, Esther Perel. During these sessions, Perel helps to make visible the dynamics that lead to productive partnership and meaningful connection, as well as the factors that contribute to misunderstanding and conflict.
In one of my favorite episodes, two new business partners talk about the kind of partnership they want to have. Very quickly, they begin exploring how disappointments and traumas with family members and past business partners shape their approach to this new partnership. Perel skillfully helps them uncover the legacy of fear and destructive habits each partner brings to the business. More importantly, she challenges them to take responsibility for who they are in their work and their personal life.
How’s Work? features real counseling sessions, involving real people, dealing with real challenges. Each episode invites us to share their moments of confusion, resistance, pain, and epiphany. And in doing so, we gain greater insights into our own relational habits both at work and in our personal lives.
Image Credit: Barrett Ward on Unsplash