Family members behaving badly in a small business can look like a lot of things: laziness, dishonesty, problems with drugs and alcohol or just personal drama that gets dragged into the workplace. Mike and Ray take a look at some strategies to handle the problems that arise between family members working together in a small business and share some of their own personal stories of the clashes, missteps, and resolutions in their own business adventures with family members.

Subjects Covered

FOLLOW ‘THE BEAR’: The family bonds and demands in a small restaurant have turned The Bear into one of Mike and Ray’s favorite TV shows, for obvious reasons. Carmy’s discipline in dealing with the grief of his brother’s suicide is one of the better examples we can point to of how to manage the intrusion of family drama into a business.

DISCRETIONARY ENERGY: Ray’s forthcoming book about Story, Culture, and Experience touches on the importance of unleashing the discretionary energy inside of a company’s talent base. Learn more about how to keep your people motivated to go above and beyond.

GREAT MINDS: In addition to the guidance we offer at Nuclear Family Business podcast, the folks at Fortune have some additional (and some of the same) tips for how to neutralize family drama inside your business.

BEYOND NEPOTISM: Plenty of the problems addressed in this episode have roots in an earlier show about nepotism and the damage it can cause to morale and company culture. Mike states it plainly: allowing bad behavior by family members to persist will cost you some of your best employees’ loyalty and dedication.

YOU SAID WHAT?: And because we invoked the famous game show in the title of this show, have some fun with a plethora of hilarious Steve Harvey gifs.