doug smith training

Whenever I ask a group the following question, the answer is a resounding "yes." Is there too much drama at work? Drama feeds on itself. People who crave the drama may not even know that they do, they simply repeat whatever it takes to make any situation emotional. Run out of supplies? It must be somebody's fault = drama! Behind schedule on that big project? = drama! Struggling with demanding and unreasonable customers? = drama! Drama creates tension that craves release -- which likely then drums up more drama. Breathe. Slow down. Skip the blame and play a new game -- one of cooperation, curiosity, and respect. My latest way of dealing with drama is simply to pause long enough to smile -- as I ponder: "Ah, I recognize this. Drama!" It's completely made-up, and it can be completely by-passed. ; Manage the drama so that it does not manage you.

Whenever I ask the question "is there too much drama at work?" the answer is a resounding and nearly unanimous "yes!"  What do you think? Where does all that drama come from? Drama comes from conflict, from unmet needs, from interpersonal problems, from economic hardship, from overwork and overwhelm...drama comes from an endless supply of sources. But... Drama enters on our own invitation. You can have the problems and the drama, or you can simply deal with the problems and leave the drama where it belongs: in entertainment. Having worked for many years in entertainment I learned that drama is better left on the stage and we need better ways to meet the rage.  What do you think? -- doug smith  

In my studies about performing and writing plays, one of the things that I learned was that there is always status in every scene. If two people are in a scene, one of them has higher status than the other and then for the rest of the scene there is a kind of struggle over that status. The one with lessor status strives to win, the won with higher status strives to preserve. It may not hold up for EVERY scene, but if you watch for it you'll see how prevalent that is. Why is that? Could it be that in LIFE we also struggle for status? Could it be that when we sense that we are being treated as if our status is lower than others that we do not like that and work to change it? If, as a leader, you visibly treat your team members as underlings, they will notice. If you treat them as equals -- keeping in mind different levels of responsibility -- as equals your team members will respond with more initiative. Isn't that more of what you really want? Whether or not you like it or suppo...

If you're going to wait for someone to tell you what to do they're going to expect you to do it. Get ahead of that drama. Take initiative. Set your own plan. Get things done. It's what high performance leaders do. -- doug smith