🎭 The Drama Triangle in Teams (Using Telesales as the specific example):

From Front Line to Leadership

After my first newsletter, where I talked about Transactional Analysis and specifically the Drama and Winners Triangle, lots of people asked me for more detail. So, in this edition we delve a little deeper into examples of what you may see or hear that indicates the communication and interaction in your team may not be functioning very well. 

We see it everywhere – from the person making the calls to the person leading the team. The Drama Triangle isn’t about being dramatic – it’s about falling into unhelpful roles (both when pressure hits and when it doesn't) and it's about the culture we find running through our business and teams. But the good news is- it is entirely sortable...

Let’s break it down…

📞 The Front Line Advisor

• Victim “No one picks up.” “The data’s rubbish.” “People just aren’t buying right now.” Constantly asking the manager to step in. ➤ Result? Inactivity, fear, and withdrawal. Continued helplessness.

• Rescuer “I need to help out another department – they’re struggling.” “The customer called me instead of customer services, so I thought I’d just do it. It’s quicker.” ➤ Result? No growth, just hand-holding. Loss of time and efficiency. Decline in sales numbers.

• Persecutor Snappy on calls, defensive with feedback, blames customers or other teams. Reactive with colleagues and team members. “Lording it” over other teams or taking the mickey out of colleagues. ➤ Result? Damaged relationships, spirals of shame, poor morale. Broken trust across the team.

👥 The Senior Leadership Team

• Victim “They should know how to do it by now.” “I’ve told them a hundred times.” “I don’t have time to deal with this right now.” ➤ Result? A blame culture. Frustration without change. Stagnation disguised as busyness.

• Rescuer Doing the work instead of coaching through it. “I’ll sort this one – you just watch.” Solving problems that should be delegated. “I’ll take over this call” (when shadowing/training), or constantly stepping in as a manager. ➤ Result? No accountability. Teams lean out, not in. Learned helplessness in the team. Exhausted leaders, under-powered teams.

• Persecutor “I’ve had enough – just sort it out.” Aggressive with KPIs, cold in 1:1s, blunt in feedback. ➤ Result? Fear-based compliance, not performance. Teams work to avoid punishment – not to thrive.

💼 The Sales Director / Senior Leader

• Victim “This isn’t working – maybe we need a whole new team.” “It’s impossible to recruit good people.” “I’ve got too much on my plate.” ➤ Result? Constant restructures, misaligned strategy, knee-jerk decisions that don’t fix the root issue.

• Rescuer Stepping in too deep, too often – attending team meetings, micromanaging deals, becoming ‘the fixer.’ ➤ Result? Clouded vision. Dis-empowered managers. Burnout at the top and chaos below.

• Persecutor Top-down pressure with no support. “We’re not here to make friends.” Target obsession with no people plan. ➤ Result? Culture of fear, talent drain, reputation loss. Good people leave or disengage.

👇 Coming up next time- how we move to functional and useful interaction by stepping into the Winners' Triangle.

The shift into the Winners’ Triangle – where leaders move from drama to empowerment:

• From Victim ➝ Vulnerable (with strength)

• From Rescuer ➝ Caring Coach

• From Persecutor ➝ Assertive (with clarity and direction)

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series – and if any of those examples hit a little too close to home, maybe it’s time we had a conversation.

Get in touch.