Healthy communication in marriage (and business) is a non-negotiable.
We know this.
When there is miscommunication, confusion abounds.
Confusion brings frustration and wastes time. If we don’t learn from past communication mishaps, we will repeat the same poor decisions.
There’s a lot to be said about communication in marriage and business, so we’ll spend the month dissecting the different areas to consider.
Today, we’ll start with areas to avoid, or better yet, what to do to guarantee horrible communication in business with your spouse.
If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business:
1) Don’t share the truth about your feelings (especially when asked). If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, lie and say ‘you’re fine’ when there is clearly something wrong. Also, please wait until your spouse drags it out of you before you share your hurt. It's always best that way.
2) Expect your spouse to know what you are thinking even though you've never said it. If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, get upset when your spouse can’t read your mind.
3) Try to force your spouse to think as you do in business. If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, don’t give your spouse room to think differently than you. Having a different perspective can be detrimental to the bottom line. 🙃
4) Hold grudges and decide not to forgive your spouse (quickly). If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, train your spouse to be on eggshells or always argue with you because you hold grudges and don’t let up easily.
5) Use the ‘silent treatment’ on your spouse when he/she does something to upset you. If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business simply ignore your spouse because this kind of manipulation justifies your feelings. Weaponize your presence. It works every time. It will also grow your business. (not)
6) Be unwilling to have hard conversations to keep the ‘peace’ (fake peace). If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, skirt issues under the wrong that bother you, and expect them to disappear.
7) Do not consider the ‘timing’ when needing to have a ‘hard convo’ with your spouse. If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, ignore what else may be happening in your spouse’s life and expect him/her to immediately stop everything to hear your concern.
8) Expect you and your spouse to hold the same roles in business when you have different gifts. If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, hold your spouse at the same level of execution as you in an area that isn’t his/her sweet spot.
9 ) Shoot down all (or nearly all) of your spouse’s ideas when you’ve asked for their feedback in the business. If you want to guarantee horrible communication in your marriage and business, ask for your spouse’s insight but then criticize every idea shared.
We can speak to all of these because we’ve been there!
If you want excellent communication in marriage and business, do the opposite of these 9 points.
Today have daily legacy meetings baked into our day; they help us communicate clear expectations and re-align when we’re off. If you’re a marriedpreneur couple wanting to incorporate a system like this to scale your business without straining your marriage, you can grab our free checklist for marriedpreneurs HERE.