How to avoid workplace drama and keep your reputation intact

This guide outlines how to avoid workplace drama without damage to your reputation — or your sanity.

Many years ago, I worked with a person who said to me: Michelle, you can get to a certain level in your career by being good at what you do.  But if you want to go any further, you need to know how to play the game.

Their comment always troubled me as it implies you need to play politics and be Machiavellian to be successful in a corporate world. In an inter-connected world where your reputation precedes you taking that approach can have long-term, negative consequences. If you want to progress with your reputation intact and even elevated, it’s imperative to focus your efforts on effective and sustainable impact.

How to avoid workplace drama

Live your core values, consistently

This approach starts with knowing who you are and what you stand for.  A person’s values influence the decisions they make, how they interact with people and ultimately, the type of leader they will be. Issues arise when there’s a disconnect between a person’s stated values and their actions; that is, a difference between their espoused values and their values in use.  To have a healthy and robust reputation consistency is vital.

Ask yourself: How are you showing up every day?  Are you acting with integrity? And lastly, is your behaviour congruent with your espoused values?  When it’s inconsistent, you will send mixed messages to team members and colleagues – making it harder for people to trust what you say, and harder to avoid workplace drama.

Avoid gossip to avoid workplace drama

Gossiping is part of our evolutionary psychology and is not the exclusive domain of one gender. Dr Robin Dunbar, the author of Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, advises that it’s a form of social behaviour that helps large groups bond. We feel connected with someone when we gossip, just as we like being part of the in-group when someone shares a secret with us.

At work, people sit back and gossip, size people up, sometimes revel in the misfortune of those they don’t like, spread rumours and innuendo and play politics. All of these behaviours are unhealthy and do nothing to enhance a person’s reputation. Instead, when these conversations arise, avoid workplace drama by challenging yourself to not engage.  Instead, stand up for your values and remember always to treat others as you would like them to treat you.

Seek to understand workplace drama

We all have difficult people in our personal and professional life who we find challenging.  You may label them as ‘precious’, ‘difficult’ or ‘hard work’.  The typical approach to managing such people is to avoid them or find a way to work around them.

It’s time to do the opposite, and seek to spend more time with them.  When you spend more time with a person, you have the opportunity to understand better their perspectives and what motivates and drives their behaviour.

We all interpret the world and what is happening through the lens of our own experience.  Consequently, it’s easy to misinterpret a person’s intent or think we know what a person is thinking or why they are behaving in a certain way.

By seeking to understand a person, you suspend judgement and drop the labels by being curious, open-minded and interested in them. All of which puts you in a far better position to cultivate a healthy relationship, and elevate your reputation.

Listen first, talk later

People want to feel they, and their needs, have been heard.  When they don’t, they’ll either withdraw from the conversation or find ways to destabilise it. In contrast, when a person feels heard they feel valued. By you showing you are interested in what they have to say, you are demonstrating that they matter.

Taking this approach starts with you being curious as to what is said and not said.  You ask questions and seek to clarify what you’ve heard before sharing your ideas or providing a solution.  You are actively acknowledging how they feel and taking the time to recognise what they need.

How to manage workplace drama

Investigate the causes in depth

If a small problem is not resolved in a timely manner, it can snowball into a big disagreement. Therefore, the first step is to investigate the causes of the wear and tear that arise in the company’s coexistence.

Be willing to analyze the attitude of each employee, the way they are working, the way they treat other people and the occurrence of errors in their daily lives.

Be cautious: the workplace drama may be located in one area or team, but it is also capable of crossing organizational boundaries when the employee has contact with external suppliers or customers. Try to talk to the interlocutors of the individual you have recognized as part of the workplace drama problem.

Then get as much information as possible and examples to support you. Furthermore, to interpret the facts assertively, you need to put yourself in the shoes of each person involved.

Encourage direct feedback

One of the main benefits of feedback about workplace drama is helping the other to develop. It is a feedback about a posture or about the result obtained in the tasks performed – which can be either negative or positive. But it is necessary to emphasize that this answer must always be given with a constructive objective, aiming at the growth of those who will listen to it.

Direct feedback sessions are great to help resolve and prevent team clashes. Clear communication is able to reduce gaps in internal dialogue, as everyone will have more contact with their colleagues’ ideas.

Be neutral

Most of the time, managing workplace drama is necessary because conflicts arise due to sincere differences of opinion or difficulties in understanding. The leader must, therefore, create a favorable environment for people to feel comfortable discussing problems in a non-emotional way.

This makes it easier to identify what they think and why they want something. Remain neutral in the face of wearing circumstances and try to avoid anyone feeling left out or disadvantaged. When emotion is removed from the workplace drama discussion and we really stop to pay attention to each other’s opinion, we may discover that we have common interests and come to an agreement that benefits all parties.

Invest in good communication

Communication failures hinder the progress of all work processes in a business. Information transmitted in half or incorrectly causes delays, difficulties and weariness among employees. To ensure that communication flows as desired, develop good resources for exchanging internal information. This is essential for efficient people management.

Invest in face-to-face meetings and in the use of channels or technological devices for securely transmitting data. Thus, it is possible to prevent any divergences and resolve recurring workplace drama problems.

Conclusion

Organisations are by their very nature political constructs. So while you need to be aware of politics and how it operates in your workplace, you don’t need to play politics to be successful. It’s your choice.