Let’s Control the Drama!
For those of you who know me, you have heard before how I love the saying “Not My Circus, Not My Monkey”. My youngest and I say it all the time. We are usually referring to one of the children sticking their nose into someone’s business. We also use it when one of them goes on and on about a “problem” they think they are experiencing in life and want us to feel the burden. This “problem” is usually DRAMA that has been created out of lack of something better to do. After offering up my favorite phrase to the child, I then usually ask them to take a look at what is causing them so much distress and attention. Is it really that big of a deal? Will it matter next week? Is it something that can and should be ignored and not given any attention to? Is someone else just trying to get to them? I continually work on teaching my kids to take a step back from their “problem” and really assess the whole situation. Once that is done, we then determine if it was ever worth our concern in the first place. We remind ourselves that next time this same situation occurs, we need to recognize it for what it truly is; a waste of time.
Unfortunately drama doesn’t just happen in middle schoolers and high schoolers. It is now showing up in so many areas of everyone’s life. I have also learned that DRAMA is one thing in common with most companies that are experiencing trouble in the work place. No matter how large or small a company is, it can be negatively affected by drama that continues to circulate through the office.
Just like high-schools, companies are built and run on combining different people with vastly different upbringings and backgrounds together into one connected group, most of the time in the same building. These people are then expected to work together for forty plus hours a week to complete a job that expects growth and success. Most of the time, these different combinations of people aren’t given any training on how to master working together or given any explanation of their co-workers backgrounds.
With that many different people all working together with no interpersonal training, there is no wonder why there is drama. It really is to be expected. The sad part is that many managers feel that drama is unavoidable and something they just have to deal with. This is absolutely incorrect. There are many ways that drama can be avoided all together or stopped before it gets way out of hand. It is up to management to learn about their employees and how they will work together. Try these simple steps to work towards ridding your office of drama and the people who create it.
• Learn all you can about an employee before they are hired. An in-depth interview where several very effective questions are asked can help you to understand exactly who the candidate is. Get to know them on a personal level, not just their skills for the job. This will allow you to see who they are and how they tend to interact with other people.
• Train your employees and lay down exactly what is expected and what won’t be tolerated. This training would include ways to work with people who have vastly different backgrounds, ideas and social skills. In the training, you will clearly lay out what is and isn’t acceptable workplace behavior and the consequences for engaging in these behaviors.
• Conduct team building workshops to allow for better understanding between employees and to foster deeper relationships. Getting people out of the workplace and into a “fun” atmosphere will allow for a deeper bond to be formed between people and many times, a whole different side of someone will appear. Connections can be made and a relationships formed.
• Monitor the workplace so that any unseen conflicts can be handled as they arise. You are never going to be guaranteed that someone won’t try to start drama or make a simple issue into a full-blown problem. It is up to management to monitor what is going on and redirect any issues that come up. Assist that employee to see the situation for what it truly is. Sometimes people just need extra help to take a step away and look at things for what they really are, not what we have made them in our heads.
• Implement a no-tolerance policy for drama. If your company says that drama isn’t welcome then management needs to reinforce it. When a person starts to create drama, it needs to be addressed immediately by a supervisor or manager and action needs to be taken based on previously set-up policies. If another employee starts to interfere with someone else’s issue, the same needs to happen with them. The quicker you react and stop the drama before it’s created, the more respect and appreciation the employees will give to management and the company as a whole.
• Acknowledge when teamwork goes smoothly and success is accomplished to show your appreciation for your employees’ hard work and for abiding by the policies of the company. Everyone loves to be praised for a job well done. Showing appreciation for focusing on work and keeping drama out of the office will foster a more productive and efficient work environment.
Monitoring and preventing drama can seem like a large task to take on and for some companies it will be. But there is one thing that is for sure: if you let drama run rampant in your company it will very quickly grab hold of the employees and soon control the flow and success of the majority of the office. Eliminating drama altogether or greatly reducing the occurrence of it will increase the productivity of your office and increase the success of the company as a whole. Don’t let the monkeys run your circus!
