‘Drama Queens’ and their male counterparts may look like they’re responding quickly – rallying the troops, taking charge and solving problems. But they cause more chaos at work and create more fallout than the problems they’re reacting to. Don’t be fooled by their high energy and don’t promote them. Drama Queens come in many forms. For example: To learn to recognize and stop them, read more.
To read the rest of this article from the Houston Business Journal, see: Promoting a ‘Drama Queen’ is guaranteed to create chaos http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2010/01/25/smallb3.html
Although they come in many forms, Drama Queens share some common traits. They:
- Act as if drama is more important than results or that they believe that drama is necessary to get results. They suck everyone dry of emotional energy.
- Seem strong and forceful, and are perfectionistic, nit-picking, control freaks.
- Over-react as if everything is a matter of life and death. They jump to conclusions and blow up. They’re super-intense, angry, hostile and emotional, instead of thoughtful.
- Want all hands on deck and devoted to the latest emergency. Nothing else matters.
- Are vindictive blamers. They take everything personally and remember forever.
- Think that spewing of emotions reveals the “real” person. They’re uncomfortable with coworkers they see as expressionless. To Drama Queens, loud emotions show strength; calm people are wimps.
They use their strong emotions and manipulations to get what they want. Sometimes they’re overt bullies while other times they use sneaky, covert bullying tactics.
Our language has many expressions for the perspective necessary for judicious action: ‘Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill; don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater; don’t try to kill mosquitoes with a bazooka; don’t jump to conclusions; don’t promote a Drama Queen.’
There are ways you can eliminate the high cost of a Drama Queen’s bullying and low attitudes.
All tactics are situational. Expert coaching and consulting can help you create and implement a plan that fits you and your organization.