About Dr. Dupree & Relationships at Work
About Dr. Dupree
Hi! I’m Debra Dupree, founder and president of Relationships at Work, Inc. I actually go looking for people in trouble. You might ask “Why?” Well, I share my story because it’s relevant to what I do today and why I am so passionate about working with people like you to dig deeper and go beyond. My early exposure to the dynamics of a family-owned business taught me a lot, particularly around poor communications and the conflict generated between family and business relations—and significantly influenced what I’ve grown up to be.
My father and grandfather ran a family business in the Midwest, buying and selling dairy cattle, influential throughout the region—and, NOT! The community visibility spoke volumes. And I grew up on the younger end of 9 children, to be seen and not heard. With a combination of German and Norwegian heritage, we didn’t deal well with conflict much less express real emotion. I saw my fair share of damaged relationships, lost opportunities and a lack of voice to speak up. Ultimately, the family business didn’t survive.
So, for years I’ve been fascinated with makes people tick at work and at home. I became a therapist—a mediator, a professor and doctor of psychology—and now a public speaker and author.
What do I do today? I help people recover from the drama and trauma and discover how to move beyond their troubling past. We uncover those emotional pains that get in the way of true success and happiness. We map out a plan for a whole new way of “being” for stronger performance at work and at home! Together, we turnaround how to manage up, down and around at home and at work.
Relationships at Work, Inc. evolved out of my 2014 doctoral dissertation, which explored the psychology of good bosses versus bad bosses and how they evolve. Today, I work with leaders at all levels—entrepreneurs, small business owners, and managers/leaders at the enterprise level—on how to grow themselves and their companies by building psychological safety.
Take a journey with me as your Relation “Ship” Doctor and I’ll safely navigate you through the journey of discovering how bad bossing, bad behavior and poor performance can be transformed into unbelievable opportunities to strengthen performance and profitability while also increasing personal happiness.
Call me when you see anyone not effective as a leader—together, we can turn that around. Take advantage of a complimentary 15-minute consultation!
About Relationships at Work
At Relationships at Work, we transform people and companies into peace and profits. Why? Because living a life of happiness within brings stronger results than living a life in conflict!
Oftentimes, organizations recognize problems exist but don’t know where to start or where the source of conflict really lies. Knowing and understanding the emotional drivers of behavior in relationships at any level is critical to effectively resolving workplace conflict. Conflict comes in many shapes and forms. It erupts through acts of bullying, bad bossing, personality clashes, dysfunctional teams, and strained executive leadership relations at CEO and board-level positions. Many workplace conflicts have little foundation in the law but represent problems in relationships.
One of Dr. Dupree's many gifts is to bring the heart and brain together to help create psychological safety so people can be productive and creative, which also happens to be good for the bottom line.
Relationships at Work helps individuals and organizations master their relationship challenges through its speaking engagements, training workshops, coaching programs, and facilitation and mediation services along with the resources available on this site.
About Our Clients
Entrepreneurs growing their business, partnerships in transition from one stage of growth to the next, and leaders of established organizations challenged with difficult people and difficult situations.
Here some examples of how leaders find themselves in trouble and where we can help!
- Organizations undergoing a change in leadership. When there's been a problem with leadership that has had a negative effect on the organization's performance and employee moral, Relationships at Work can assist new leaders in turning that around.
- A reorganization that disrupts roles and responsibilities. We intervene to help people find a positive way forward.
- New partnerships forming productive working relationships.
- Partnerships in conflict or facing dissolution.
- Family-owned businesses dealing with succession planning or family disputes.
- Individuals with relationship crisis at work or at home, whether it be a co-worker, a significant other, or a parent or child.
We bring turnaround strategies—how to be successful with others up, down and all around—by redirecting the emotional intelligence of human behavior.
Complimentary Discovery Session
Take advantage of a complimentary 15-minute consultation!