A few months ago, I wrote about the important difference between conflict and drama. We should be willing to take on the former, but no one wants to deal with the latter.
The post was written from the point of view of hiring. How do we look for folks won’t bring drama into the workplace?
I came across another good article about drama – but this one deals with drama that already exists. As much as we try to keep drama out of our shops, eventually, some will appear. The article is well-worth your time. This tip, however, stood out.
Promote Personal Responsibility. It’s often challenging for managers to promote personal responsibility. An indicator of irresponsible thinking is drama that manifests itself as complaining and excuse making; for example, employees running to the boss to solve a problem or tattle on another co-worker. Many managers are proud of their open-door policy, but this policy can make the situation worse. Employees may drop in at the most inconvenient time, and, as a result, the boss may multitask and merely act like he or she is listening – or worse, promise to get back to the employee but forget about the promise. This creates a lack of trust and contributes to workplace relationship problems between bosses and employees.