Comment votre famille stimule votre entreprise

… even when you are not aware of it

Some time back, I was working with a small business owner who employed 7-8 people. On the outside, she had everything she needed to succeed: she was driven, innovative, genuinely cared about her customers, and offered services that for many people were a need rather than a luxury. Yet her results were bad and her business coach has told her she’d be bankrupt within 6 months if nothing would change.

She said the problems started when she ceased to be involved in „hands-on” activities and focused primarily on management. She trusted her staff to work well when she was not around, but instead they were continuously under-performing. Some of them started treating her with open or passive disrespect, making more and more demands or unexpectedly missing work.

I asked her how does she select her staff; she told me she delegates that to one of her senior staff members (let’s call her Mary). Soon it turned out that Mary was the key problem; one of her duties was to select and train new staff, but she slacked in both. Mary was also manipulative; she would hide certain passwords from her boss, would lie and gaslight her while in the same time pretending to care and worry for her. It wouldn’t take long before new employees would copy that attitude (And Mary would, of course, employ the kind of people elle aimé.)

My client was aware of all or most of that. The obvious next question was, why wouldn’t she let Mary go? The answer was not so obvious. She felt somehow emotionally attached to Mary; she was also afraid that other employees who liked Mary would be angry, but the key problem was hope. Somehow she felt she had to believe that Mary would finally „see the light” and change. (See also: Quand l'espoir est une émotion "négative)

A few questions later, it turned out that Mary reminded her of her younger sister she was made to take care of when she was young. The sister soon learned to exploit such a situation and manipulate the parents against my client. This was now mostly in the past, but unconsciously, the unresolved emotions and unfulfilled hopes were still there – and the unrealistic sense of responsibility, too.

We can easily guess Mary learned her complementary behavioral patterns with/from her family, too. She didn’t necessarily have to be a spoiled younger child, she could have also observed such behavior from other family members. Perhaps, as a defensive strategy, she adopted the same behavior others used to control her when she was a child. She would reap some short term benefits from such behavior, but in the long run she would lose trust and respect.

Se sentir comme un enfant au travail

I worked with some more bosses and managers with similar issues, and, on the other side, quite a few regular employees who would suddenly feel small and resource-less in front of their boss. Some of them told me they would literally feel as if they were physically shrinking to a very small size. I would ask: „How old do you feel then?” The answer tends to hover around 3 years old.

For some people, simply seeing an authority figure they feel they depend on, unconsciously reminds them of their original parent-child relationship and causes them to forget most of their adult resources. They might say, „It feels like my head is suddenly empty and I can’t find any words to say”. This sounds like they age-regress to memories created before they learned to speak.

Pourquoi cela se produit-il ?

When we were children, particularly while we were toddlers, our brains were working in overdrive, trying to figure out the world and how to deal with it, as soon as possible. Through a combination of imitation and experimenting, we eventually learned what behaviors result in the most benefit and the least trouble around our family members. Those experiences became the script our brains tend to resort to in challenging situations. For some people, it’s to create drama, or to play a victim. For others, it’s to freeze and try to fade into the background. For some, it might be to blame themselves or to take responsibility. The problem is, what worked best in our families might not work best in the adult world.

The process of adapting to our families often requires us to ignore and suppress various painful emotions – and sometimes even happy emotions if they were not welcome in our families. However, life keeps showing us that suppressed does not mean gone. As one of the pioneering psychoanalysts C. G. Jung said, ‘Until you make the unconscious conscient, il dirigera votre vie et vous l'appellerez le destin..’

Les émotions non résolues de l'enfance peuvent non seulement nous inciter à donner ou à pardonner trop, mais aussi déclencher des préjugés et une aversion déraisonnables. Si vous aviez un frère qui vous bousculait, un oncle qui vous touchait de manière inappropriée ou un cousin que votre mère préférait à vous, toute personne qui vous rappelle d'une manière ou d'une autre ces membres de la famille peut vous sembler désagréable, même si elle n'a jamais rien fait de mal. La ressemblance peut être purement physique, ou la personne peut simplement porter le même nom que le membre de la famille qui pose problème. Si elles ne sont pas reconnues et résolues, ces émotions peuvent pousser même une personne par ailleurs bienveillante à traiter quelqu'un de manière injuste.

Comment se manifeste-t-elle ?

Quelques exemples supplémentaires de l'influence de votre éducation sur votre comportement au travail :

• Vous pouvez vous sentir incapable de fixer des limites aux autres ou à la charge de travail elle-même.
  
• You might try to prove yourself too hard, and never feel it’s enough (I had a client who would even deny herself food and sleep until she’d finish everything she’d expect herself to do in a day, which was, as you can guess, usually too much)

• You might feel spontaneously attracted to people who seem „normal” or „familiar” to you, even if they don’t treat you well, and might not feel able to let them go, out of guilt or fear or hope
  
• Vous pourriez ressentir le besoin de jouer des jeux de pouvoir avec vos collègues (ce qui fait écho à la rivalité entre frères et sœurs).
  
• En tant que patron, vous risquez d'imiter les figures d'autorité de votre passé, sans reconnaître qu'il existe des moyens plus sains et plus productifs de motiver vos subordonnés.
  
• You might feel it’s not acceptable to stand out or to ask for what you want
  
• Vous pouvez procrastiner, soit par peur des erreurs, soit parce que vous espérez que les solutions viendront de l'extérieur (comme quand vous étiez petit).
  
• Vous pouvez avoir des problèmes de discipline ou une envie de défier les autorités sans raison valable.
  
• You might stay at the job that doesn’t satisfy you anymore, because you’d feel guilty if you left.

Comment rester adulte

Describing all of our coaching would require a book (which I’m writing), but here are some helpful first-aid steps:

1. Il n'y a pas de changement sans prise de conscience. Soyez attentif et reconnaissez ce que vous ressentez, plutôt que de l'éviter ou de l'ignorer.
   
2. Reconnaissez que, malgré leur force, ces sentiments ne sont probablement pas réalistes.
   
3. Remind yourself: “These feelings are a reaction to the past, not the present.”
   
4. Ask yourself: “Who or what does this person/situation remind me of? How old do I feel emotionally?”
   
5. Remind yourself: “This is not the same person or the same situation. I am an adult now and I have learned a lot since I was a child. What has worked in my family will likely not work now.”
   
6. Réfléchissez à ce qui serait un comportement adulte et mature dans votre situation.
   
7. La plupart d'entre nous ont peur de leurs propres émotions plus que de toute autre chose et tentent automatiquement de s'échapper et de s'abandonner dans les moments d'inconfort émotionnel intense. Si, pour devenir adulte, vous devez faire quelque chose qui vous effraie, veillez à faire preuve de gentillesse et de soutien envers vous-même pendant que vous affrontez la peur et toute autre émotion désagréable. Plutôt que de vous culpabiliser ou d'essayer de vous échapper, parlez-vous à vous-même comme le ferait un parent ou un ami bienveillant et compatissant.
   
8. Même si vous n'avez pas parfaitement géré la situation (ce qui a probablement été le cas), reconnaissez les efforts que vous avez déployés et ce que vous avez appris à cette occasion. Reconnaissez que vous avez été capable de faire face à l'inconfort et qu'à l'avenir, ce sera toujours plus facile et vous le saurez encore mieux. Continuez à vous apporter un soutien émotionnel, si nécessaire.

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