Guest post by Marlene Chism.

Drama keeps you from success. It’s as simple as that.  Yet, it’s easy to miss the “signs” that indicate trouble is on the horizon.  Picture an island and you in a rowboat rowing toward the island. The island is your business dream. You are equipped with oars (and perhaps a team) to get you to your island.  Now that you have the picture let me share with you four “Drama Signs” that can keep you from reaching your destination. 

Drama Sign #1 Low ROI
You are working hard but not making any money. You are cranky and irritable instead of motivated and happy. Let me guess. You don’t get enough sleep. You eat fast food at your desk and you have given up on physical exercise and your mantra is “I don’t have time.”  

Work without adequate recovery is like rowing harder while the leak in your boat gets bigger. You can row harder and faster, but you end up exhausted with a boat full of water. Even if you do get to the island you are too tired to celebrate your success.  

New research suggests it’s about managing energy not time. Stephen Covey calls it sharpening the saw and Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz calls it “energy management.” The solution is to take regular breaks to keep your energy high. Your body requires rest and recovery every 60 -90 minutes. 

Drama Sign #2 No Teamwork
“It’s not my fault.” 
“It’s not my job.”
“Who is the idiot who messed up this time?”

Instead of your team “rowing together” they hit each other over the head with their oars trying to prove who is right and who is wrong. If there is drama with the team it may be because you need to brush up on your communication and leadership skills.

The solution is to have regular team meetings with clear objectives, an agenda, a task list and a system for accountability. Recognize that your team members are motivated by success not by confusion. 

Drama Sign #3 Excuses
There is a saying, “You can either have lots of money or lots of excuses.” Drama is justifying your lackluster performance. You didn’t reach your sales goals but instead of getting feedback or working smarter, you spend time explaining your situation. You blame the boat maker for making a shoddy boat. You remind others that you only used two oars while everyone else had a motor. The justifying doesn’t help your sales goals the next month either and now you’ve wasted time explaining versus selling. 

Drama Sign # 4 Negativity 
The number one productivity problem is workplace negativity and this boils down to awareness and relationship building skills.

The number one reason an employee leaves a company is because he doesn’t get along with his boss. Anytime there is turnover in a department look at the boss and assess that boss’s people skills. 

Other signs of negativity include constant bickering and complaining. Think about how much time is spent talking about who did what wrong rather than immediately looking for the solution.  

Negativity is a habit that makes the success journey miserable, not only for you but for everyone on the team. You are in the boat, but you aren’t enjoying the journey. It’s too hot, too cold, the seat is uncomfortable or you are tired. 

Now that you know four types of drama, identify one of the four and ask yourself this question: Where would you be without your drama? Rich? Successful? Happy?

If you like Marlene’s perspective and want to learn more, help her become an Amazon #1 best seller by purchasing your copy of her book Success Is A Given on December 10th. For your convenience, we have provided this link for you – Get The Book.

Marlene Chism is a communications strategist and founder of www.stopyourdrama.com.

She is the author of Success is a Given: Reading the Signs While Reinventing Your Life.

To learn more about the book go to www.successisagiven.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 12:17 am and is filed under Entrepreneurship, Guest Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.