With the high temperatures and the humid weather doldrums having arrived in Cleveland, every business owner I talk to tells me that it feels like all their clients are on vacation. Business levels are consequently light and we should have time to catch up and prepare to start the second half of 2011 strong.

But hold it, with the lighter load we have more time for distractions and so the summer dramas have arrived, too. Most companies are following the media trends closely. Rumors are flying and every day there seems to be something else blown out of proportion. One week the media is focusing on the overblown breakdown of Charlie Sheen, followed by the breathless coverage of the Casey Anthony trail and in between the sexual antics of Anthony Wiener and Dominique Strauss-Kahn are supposed to shock us. One can only wonder why the media would pay that much attention to these incidents and obvious lack of judgment and why employees would give the rumor mill their undivided attention. The answer might be obvious. There are things in life we can control. And then there are issues completely out of our hands. The fact is, that whenever congress will decide to tackle the pressing debt problem, make decisions on Libya or decide on many other issues impacting our lives, these are completely out of our control and for the most part we are even powerless to affect the conversations.

This is frustrating and overwhelming and makes us feel left out. The same is true with the office rumor mill. Like with all the media created dramas, rumors distract us from pressing tasks and thus lower company productivity at best; in many cases, however, rumors result in creating mistrust among team members or -in Obama speech- between us and the big fat cat management. As trust is removed, friction is created and, as we all have witnessed, this has an impact on how we appreciate our internal and external customers. Therefore we call rumors "drift". We drift away from successful habits in undefined directions while losing focus and productivity. Objectives are all of a sudden questioned and deemed unrealistic and newcomers to the team are easily swept up in it and lose their motivation to share their ideas and observations. And with every repetition, drift becomes solidified and is shaping the mood even more.

When we compare rumors in different businesses, we find that they do not much differ from business to business. Besides shrugging this off as expected summer dramas and live with the consequences, we have the option to counter it to keep the team inspired and in unison. The second option is the one we encourage our clients to take. There are three reasons for doing this:

Foremost is to preserve the trust a team has developed, secondly distracted people will make costly mistakes, and lastly drift does not create a possibility for a better future.

To counter drift we recommend paying close attention to the rumor du jour in your organization. Knowing what rumors are created is key to shaping the conversations. If you are not aware of what is being said you cannot influence the content.

And the most important tool to shape drift is communication; open conversations with one's team members to let them know what is going on in the business. The more they know about their leader's directions, his/her judgment of the current situation and the plans and progress to get to set goals, the fewer possibilities exist to create damaging rumors. This includes that leaders need to welcome feedback, suggestions and input from their team to develop or modify plans.

The communication with the person or group of persons responsible for creating the rumors is the second important step. Most rumors are created as a distraction to a feeling of powerlessness. The basic point is that one can vent and pontificate and be safe that whatever happens will not impact them in a significant way. Holding people responsible for their actions is tough and most leaders are hesitant to lead this conversation. Most of the time when I confront them I hear: he/she is one of my best..., he/she is going through a tough time..., he/she is with this company for or is related to... all good points. In the end, however, businesses are like sports teams and the best team will always succeed and win. High performance teams can only win when everybody is caring his/her load and is willing to put the team's success over their own agenda.

Addressing drift in times like these must therefore be a priority for every leader. Let's get going and be prepared for our customers' needs after their vacation!