Expert Lays Out Alternative Drama Triangle For Workplace

By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The classic characters of drama may be fun to watch in plays or movies but they're a major distraction in the office.

A leadership consultant has a way to break the pattern.

Something like the title of the book Save Your Drama for Your Mama is so familiar it's on t-shirts, but Charlie Sheppard - in trying to develop workplace potential - noticed how life imitates art.

"If you look at the kind of classic drama triangle, you have the victim, you have the rescuer and you have the adversary, but in any of those environments it starts to create a set of behaviors that doesn't allow for a high productive or a high-performance culture to exist," says Sheppard.

He lays out leadership triangle alternatives, the visionary instead of victim, coach, not rescuer and catalyst for adversary, with an eye toward allowing growth among team members.

It's a tough sell.

He says, often the people who need his advice the most heed it the least.

His book comes with an online multi-rater for a self-assessment and those of others you invite, to raise awareness of strengths and weaknesses.