With one in three marriages ending in divorce, it is highly likely that someone on your team will go through a divorce at some time.

Equally, people will go through other relationship breakdowns and have to deal with other difficult family relationships with parents, siblings or children. These things are all part of life.

As a caring leader, often the temptation is to ‘care’ for the person, almost in a paternal/maternal way. In the height of an emotional moment or conversation, many leaders simply want to free the person from all work responsibilities so that they can concentrate on the issue in their family. With the best intentions, it starts with ‘take as much time as you need’ and from that point, stumbles without a plan, into an awkward long-term employment issue.

In dealing with highly emotional situations, here are some things to consider: