LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 31: Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis attend the “Freakier Friday” UK Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on July 31, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images)
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Do you remember being frustrated or embarrassed by your mom when you were a teenager? We’ve all been there at least once in our lives. For me, multiple times. Mother-daughter relationships are a study in complexity. Even the closest pairs navigate a maze of messiness. Misunderstandings occur in moments that leave lasting marks. As I matured, I began to understand where my mom was coming from, and as she matured, she, too, could recognize her own pattern of behaviors. When healing occurs, it’s not just luck; it’s hard-won progress that transforms both parties, offering a powerful lesson for both home and the workplace.
Today, Freakier Friday is released in theaters nationwide. The latest rendition of the plot, a mother-daughter body-swap comedy, digs deeper. Peel back the laughs, and you’ll find a blueprint for transformative leadership. The real power of the story is not in the physical comedy of switching bodies. It’s a shift in perspective: a lesson every leader, entrepreneur and especially any parent-child business duo should pay attention to.
Suddenly thrust into each other’s shoes, the mother and daughter are forced to see the world through a different lens. This idea of changing your focus on a situation isn’t new to leadership, but it’s rarely practiced with the depth the movie (and real life) demands. For parent-child business teams, especially, the transition from family roles to business partners can only be successful if both parties learn to deliberately and frequently switch perspectives.
According to Psychology Today, leaders can’t afford to ignore the impact of trauma in the workplace. Studies show that unhealed childhood wounds often shape how adults handle stress and interact at work. This quietly reduces productivity and affects workplace relationships. Effective leadership means recognizing the signs of trauma and offering genuine support; helping employees understand how their early experiences influence their reactions enables them to navigate triggers and channel those lessons into personal growth.
To understand how to make these perspective shifts stick, I turned to my own mother, Maria V. Robinson, a certified neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner. For over three decades, she has helped leaders from corporations, including New Jersey Natural Gas, reframe their perspective on situations and learn effective communication strategies.
As Freakier Friday reminds us, real transformation happens when we challenge our assumptions and choose to see situations from another vantage point. Changing your perception isn’t just a movie plot twist; it’s the cornerstone of resilient leadership.
Switching perspectives unlocks new levels of understanding, both in business and at home.
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Modal Operators—The Words That Make Or Break Partnerships
In theory, separating our personal lives from work is ideal and easy. The reality is that it can’t fully happen. Our smartphones keep us connected to everything and everyone in our lives, as well as those around the world.
Language plays a significant role in the childhood experience. Whether it’s emotional abuse, praise or disappointment, it shapes our future realities.
For years, my interactions with my mother fell into familiar traps that teenagers often experience with their parents. One day, my mom brought a surprising tool from her corporate playbook into our home: modal operators. Once she broke down the power these words have on motivation and mindset, everything shifted. What started as a lesson at the kitchen table followed me into college and every job since.
Language shifts the mindset and breaks old patterns. Modal operators are the words we use that either open doors or slam them shut. “You have to. You need to. You should,” Robinson explains, are the classic trigger words that ignite resistance in any relationship, especially when stakes are high.
“If somebody told me I had to do this, I would say, ‘You and who else’s army is going to make me,’ because nobody told me what I had to do,” she continues. Leaders and collaborators who use neutral, goal-oriented language like “It’s important to,” or “the goal here is to,” are less triggering. This type of language breaks down mental boundaries, making team members more cohesive.
There are close to 30 modal operators, including:
- Willing to
- I must
- Want to
The first step is to be self-aware of your own trigger words. Take note of how you react when someone tells you to do something. Are you triggered by the words they use? Does it motivate you or demotivate you? For some, “you should do this” motivates them, while for others it deters them.
Once you understand what words work well for you, pay attention to the modal operators you use when speaking with your team members; how do they react?
Once you understand which language motivates your team members, you can adjust your communication efforts accordingly.
Translating Triggers Into Opportunity
Robinson offers a practical technique she calls “translating.” If someone says, “Here’s your next task,” she rewrites it in her mind as “Here’s your next opportunity.” It’s a simple but profound shift. She continues to explain, “This allows me to decide what I do and how I interpret it based on what they’re asking me to do, not the trigger word.”
Reframing unlocks choice and agency—a must-have for business partners who want to avoid being stuck in power struggles or old family scripts.
Mother-daughter duos who learn to communicate and heal together set the stage for powerful collaboration.
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Healing Childhood Trauma—The Leadership Imperative
However, perspective-shifting extends beyond word choice. For mother-daughter founders, unresolved childhood wounds often manifest in boardrooms and brainstorming sessions. “You figure out what’s not working,” she confirms. “We call it a loop. Somebody says something that triggers you, then you say something back that triggers them, and then you just keep going through this loop over and over again. Start paying attention to when people get upset, and you can say, ‘How else could I say this? How could I express it? What are you perceiving me to say?’”
The CDC stated that approximately 64% of adults in the United States reported having experienced at least one type of adverse childhood experience before the age of 18; meaning, if not healed, a majority of workers are carrying a childhood trauma with them into the workplace.
Self-awareness and healing are the foundation for business success. Perspective isn’t just a leadership buzzword. It’s the hinge that opens the door to resilience, especially for those bold enough to go into business with family. As Freakier Friday makes clear, sometimes you need to swap places, if only in your mind, to unlock what’s possible.
“It’s being willing, as in any relationship, to face what’s really going on,” Robinson concludes. “Without self-awareness and healing, founders are potentially doomed to repeat the same patterns, blocking growth and innovation. Ask yourself, ‘What is being triggered in me that I am reacting this way, and how can I express it in a way that is not an attack?’”
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylrobinson/2025/08/08/how-freakier-friday-teaches-leaders-perspective-shifts-and-healing/