Team Drama – Perceptions and Perspectives
Every Office has drama among teammates. The struggle is real and detrimental to the team.
Do you step in and deal with the situation? Do you avoid it and hope it goes away? Maybe you attack it dead on at full force and nip it in the bud or hint around it softly and hope someone confesses. Every manager has their way of handling these issues and every team is different.
How can you get your team to be adults that talk to one another and solve these kinds of things before they become a real issue?
What if you could change the perception of your team? The goal is to ransform their perceptions to affect things positively. They need to realize how their behavior is perceived by others and how it has a ripple effect on everyone’s day.
A Code Phrase
Our team was having issues reading into what each other meant and guessing the worst-case scenario. I decided to implement a code phrase to use when someone was thinking a team member was upset at them that we could use in front of parents and patients. This phrase was used to help each team member to recognize how they were being perceived by others.
Create a code phrase that you can say to a team member that might be having a stressful day. Example: One team member slams a door or drawer. The other thinks, “She is upset at me but what did I do to her?” Instead of running to another team member and gossiping, stop and use your code phrase. “Are you ok, how can I help?” This code phrase means I want to know what is going on and I don’t want to take your current actions at face value.
This gives the team member who might be upset a chance to say what is going on and then discuss how they can help each other. If the team member has a problem with someone else, they need to have a private discussion with the person they have a problem with.
Looking at it from a Different Approach
Our brains automatically go to negative thoughts and start guessing at teammates’ intentions and meanings. Keeping things in perspective is hard when frustration enters the day. Perspective is the angle or direction in which a person looks at an issue.
Everyone has different backgrounds and how they look at things. Each has a point of view with an opinion of what just happened, what someone meant, or the tone of voice they used. You can change someone’s perspective when you get them in the other person’s shoes. Remember the phrases “don’t be quick to judge, and “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”
If you were the one upset, how would you want to be treated? Don’t guess; use your code phrase then respond with a positive perspective, not a negative one.
Understanding Your Personal Response
People react differently when someone is upset. Some react by getting upset themselves and others get defensive. Some will cry or get quiet on stew on it. What happens when you are upset? How do you react to others that are upset? “The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective.” You don’t have to control your situation, but you have a choice about how you view it and react.
Only you can change your behavior. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon of negativity, stop and think about how I can change perspectives.
I challenge you to change your and your teammate’s perspective to make life better. Forgive each other daily. Challenge yourself to be positive. Be a good teammate and work toward increasing care and kindness in the world. Have compassion and empathy for others and their struggles.
Don’t sweat the little stuff and give people the benefit of the doubt in their intentions. You and your team will be better for it!
Resources:
Positive Perception:
5 Practical Steps to Build POSITIVITY! https://youtu.be/lNlQ1fRuTRQ…Open link in a new tab…
Everyone has a story https://youtu.be/2v0RhvZ3lvY…Open link in a new tab…
Perspective:
I have included a few links to help with perspective for you and your team.
https://youtu.be/ue3hCVHtZZY…Open link in a new tab…
Teamwork:
Teamwork takes work https://youtu.be/K8Ij03h-8mc…Open link in a new tab…
Don’t single someone out https://youtu.be/fUXdrl9ch_Q…Open link in a new tab…
Team Positivity: youtube.com/@BrendonBurchard…Open link in a new tab…
About the Author
Traciee Stafford, FAADOM
Traciee Stafford is the Practice Manager for Children’s Dental Associates of Columbia, TN/Sims Orthodontics. She started as an assistant in 1989 and is a lifetime member of AADOM, receiving her Fellowship in 2017.
Traciee is the Chair of Pediatric Specialty Network and the South Central TN AADOM Chapter President.
