This single line from a Nina Simone song, is powerful. It’s a simple reminder to check where you are in life ever so often and to question whether you are in a healthy environment.
- Who sits at your table? and do they support your dreams and vision?
- What are they feeding you?
- Is it realistic, objective, and honest? Or is it a narrative that is not who you are?
There is a level of drama that has ingrained itself into our everyday lives. The unfortunate and detrimental influence of reality tv culture* on how we conduct our relationships. Nonetheless, we yearn for this kind of escape. For what is a storyline without a twist.
Yet in business, drama is not only a distraction. It is all consuming. It undermines continuous improvement, productivity, and innovation. It denies progressive and principled decisions. Drama endorses toxicity in business and organizations instead of strategy and sustainability. For a team to be successful and productive, they need to have a comfortable level of focus, determination, and psychological safety with each other. Drama is a step back from that and damages a team’s ability to prosper. More importantly, long term it impacts performance and compromises the integrity of your organization.
**According to Cy Wakeman, the average worker spends 2.5 hours of their workday on drama. Inevitably assuming the worst of others and stimulating wasteful thought processes and unproductive behaviour. In contrast, professional leaders focus on modelling high levels of trust and respect and set the tone of workplace behaviour.
How to move away from drama and refocus:
- Set clear expectations but know what you want and need first.
- Intention and accountability. Hire people that take accountability for their decisions and have the same value intentions. We behave and act out of our ideology, ethics, and business beliefs.
- Remind everyone of the intention of the meeting if it takes a dramatic turn.
- Encourage understanding and respect amongst members.
- Prepare your team for business volatility by setting contingency plans in place and readying them for potential issues.
- Address problems as they come up in real-time. You don’t have to have all the answers. Show an openness to address issues is a move in the right direction.
I ask again, who are you seated at the table with?
* Gibson, Bryan; Hawkins, Ian; Redker, Christopher et al. / Narcissism on the Jersey Shore: Exposure to narcissistic reality TV characters can increase narcissism levels in viewers. In: Psychology of Popular Media Culture. 2018; Vol. 7, No. 4. pp. 399-412.
*Thompson, J; Hou, Beini; Gibson, Bryan. / Just harmless entertainment? Effects of surveillance reality TV on physical aggression. In: Psychology of Popular Media Culture. 2016; No. 5. pp. 66-73.
**Inc.Africa.incafrica.com/library/martin-zwilling-10-ways-to-cut-workplace-drama-make-work-fun-again. Accessed 25 Oct. 2022.
