Drama Magnets, Dust, and the Discipline of Staying Focused

Let’s be honest — leadership, life, and building anything meaningful comes with chaos baked in.There’s dust. Delays. Curveballs you didn’t plan for — and characters you wish you’d never met.

Right now, I’m living it. Building site setbacks. Legal wrangles. Family politics. The kind of distractions that could easily derail focus, energy, and optimism.

But they won’t.Because this is when your values become your GPS.

When everything feels uncertain, your values:

• Keep your reactions aligned to who you want to be

• Shape how you lead, respond, and keep moving forward

• Help you filter people — who you trust, who you hire, who you collaborate with

And that leads me to something I see too often in teams — the Drama Magnet.The person who brings noise, not solutions. Blame, not ownership.You’ll know them when you see them — if you’re paying attention.

spotting the drama magnet

🚩 Drama Magnet Warning Signs

• They’re never the problem. There’s always a scapegoat.

• Perpetual victimhood. They’re forever misunderstood or wronged.

• Entitlement. Special rules apply to them.

• Gossip, cliques, power plays. They like division more than collaboration.

• Emotional over-reaction. Every minor setback is a crisis.

• Inconsistency. Their story changes to suit the room.

• Lacks empathy. Narcissistic traits often lurking beneath the surface.

🎯 Values Are Your Hiring Lens

When you’re hiring — skills are the easy part.What matters most is alignment of values. If someone is driven by ego, entitlement, or blame — they’ll never align with a culture of accountability, ownership, and growth.

I always ask:👉 “Tell me about a time things went wrong — what did you do to fix it?”👉 “What feedback was hardest for you to hear — and what did you do about it?”

If all I hear is blame, deflection, or ‘everyone else was the problem’ — they’re not for us. And they shouldn’t be for you.

🛠️ When You’re Leading Through Chaos

Whether it’s a building project, a tricky team dynamic, or a life storm — here’s what keeps me steady:

1. Values first. How would the leader I aspire to be act right now?

2. Boundaries, always. Drama doesn’t get a seat at the table.

3. Control the next win. Don’t look at the mountain — tackle the next foothold.

4. Own your energy. Vent in private, show up in public.

5. Find the humour. You’ll breathe easier if you can laugh at the madness.

💡 Why This Matters

You can’t build high-performance teams — or a high-performing life — if you let the Drama Magnets steer the ship.Culture is built on behaviours. Behaviours are driven by values.

When you hire, lead, and live by your values — you create the stability to keep moving forward. Even when the dust is thick, the builders are dodgy, and life’s giving you its best soap opera impression.