Too Much Drama in Your Workplace? Here’s What You Can Do!

Whether you are struggling with the level of drama in your workplace, or unknowingly perpetuating it, there are immediate steps you can take to reduce and probably eliminate this toxic habit that is draining the productivity and morale from your staff. Robin shares ideas to help you address all stages of the drama equation in your organization.

Distracted by Workplace Drama?

Do you have too much drama in your workplace? Depending on who you ask, you could get various responses! Those that are perpetuating it may not even recognize it, nor realize the impact it’s having on everyone’s productivity and morale. But if you are struggling with it, there are immediate steps you can take. In this video, I’m going to offer some ways that you can reduce and probably eliminate this toxic habit in your workplace.

The First Step is Being Aware

Drama is a result of people making the wrong assumptions and spreading that through the organization, as if were fact causing doubt and stirring the pot in unnecessary ways. The first step in reducing the drama is being aware of it. If someone comes to you with a statement about another person behind their back, or creates some unfounded assertion about someone or something, take note that this is not helpful approach.

For example, perhaps a co-worker comes to you complaining about a mistake that another peer made earlier in the day, they remain annoyed and frustrated with the person’s performance, calling them lazy and not willing to take the extra step to finish off the task as they thought they should. If you go along with the conversation, agreeing and sympathizing with the one complaining, you are adding to the drama. There could be a million reasons why that mistake was made and until someone talks to the person directly, there can be no good outcome for anyone.

What to Do When You’re Put in the Middle

When you find yourself in the middle of the drama, the best thing you can do is end the conversation immediately. Respectfully acknowledge the frustration that the other person must be feeling but let them know there is nothing you can do solve the problem. It has to be dealt with directly with the person in order for some resolution.

There are some other things you can do proactively to prevent the drama from happening in the first place.

1. The first is to model good behavior and never introduce drama yourself.
2. The second is to help your team establish a code of conduct that does not accept gossip and drama.
3. The third is to hold others accountable so that if anyone falls back into old patterns there is a reminder that there is a better way of moving through this type of conflict.

Alternate Methods

Another wonderful method that will help eliminate this drama in your workplace is to focus on positive intent. So in other words, rather than getting caught up in all the negativity of all the bad things that can happen, think of positive intent that the person may have had in a situation. If you are inclined to say: “I don’t know why he did that; I don’t understand why he did that wrong!!!” Instead say, “I wonder why he did that? I don’t understand it and I’m curious to know what I’m missing!” Shifting your mindset into that curious, positive intent perspective will automatically create a higher quality conversation.

Working directly with the parties that are involved and having a mutually respectful conversation will turn your drama into discernment, which will be much more positive and productive.

Be sure to check out other videos in the Learning Resource Center, available to you as a member. Here’s to your Graceful Leadership!