By: Marlene Chism
Reviewed by: Roundtable Member Nirav Patel
The Premise: Let’s face it, we all face drama in our workplace and it can be toxic. Marlene Chism’s book reviews how we can all be “no drama” leaders.
Chism takes her readers on a journey to review the key concepts of alignment, clarity, accountability, awareness and responsibility – all key ingredients which allow an enlightened leader to better deal with workplace drama. While these concepts are thrown around in the workplace quite often, it can be difficult to understand how they all connect. This book reminds us how stopping workplace drama often starts from within and requires a change in behaviour on the part of a leader as well.
One of the best parts of this book was around effective communication when you hear someone complain. It’s about being patient, showing some compassion but then quickly using coaching techniques to ask what the employee wants versus what you don’t want – which can be draining. It’s about teaching staff how they can solve problems themselves and building positive relationships based on transparency and respect.
The Bottom Line: What I loved most about this book was its practicality. Common management terms such as accountability, alignment and clarity were broken down in easy to understand ways to show how we can effectively use these concepts to be strong leaders. The author underscored the need to align your own values to behaviours and encourages readers to look inward to determine how they themselves can help enlighten their staff when drama arises. This would be an excellent book for first-time leaders or leaders experiencing significant change in the workplace. Drama often follows quite closely to significant change and this book will help supervisors to make their team more effective and energized.
Roundtable Rating: This book is a great read for anyone wishing to self-reflect on how values and behaviours play out in the workplace and to new supervisors who want to ensure their teams begin focusing on the right priorities.
