Achieving diversity in the workplace is a worthy goal in a civilized society celebrating individual and cultural differences. However, managing diverse personalities in an organization can be quite difficult for team leaders. Many times, managers hire personnel with similar personalities as their own, in an effort to eliminate office feuds sparked by individual differences. But homogeneous teams don’t represent diverse, heterogeneous skill sets among team members, which can limit task management.
According to Carl Jung (1923), individuals have unique gifts to offer and also face special challenges to overcome. Jungian typology can be useful to employ in team development because when teams work together, they “try to maximize each member’s special talents, thereby minimizing gaps in knowledge and skills” (Hirsh, Hirsh, & Hirsh, 2003, p. 1).
Family Business Intervention
In collaboration with Paul Breaux, Principal and CEO of White Oak Consulting Group, the two of us have developed a model to identify, assess, and intervene into family businesses that are in trouble because of dysfunctional family dynamics. Families have their own unique, historical way of relating to each other. The way in which a family relates is a primordial relationship, meaning that the family relationship will tend to supersede other types of relationships including those formed to conduct business. In general, how the family relates as family is an indicator of how they can reasonably expect to relate in other undertakings. Healthier family systems will succeed more in business than family systems that are dysfunctional.
| Healthy Family Attributes | Dysfunctional Family Attributes |
| Good boundaries, sense of individuation. | Enmeshed, too richly cross-joined. |
| Supportive of each other, relational. | Sibling rivalry, overly competitive. |
| Affirms dignity and worth, nurturing. | Shaming, critical, or indifferent. |
| Honest and forthright. | Deceitful with agendas. |
| Externalizes problems to be solved and collaborates. | Personalizes problems through blame and avoids. |
| Resists splitting (triangulation). | Factionalizes. |
| Contributes to the family Gestalt. | Takers drains family resources. |
| Atmosphere of love and trust. | Atmosphere of love punctuated by fear and suspicion. |
| Helping gives from abundance. | Token giving, with strings attached. |
| Maintains honor, creates legacy. | Impugns heritage, rests on laurels. |
| Forgives transgressions, reconciles relationships. | Holds on to resentments, keeps score. |
To learn more about White Oaks Consulting Group, please visit: whiteoakconsult.com/paul-breaux
