Trauma Informed Leadership

The pandemic, as well as increased acts of violence and suicide regularly occurring within workplaces continue to serve as uninvited wakeup calls for the need to respond effectively to organizational trauma. This requires a skill set in leaders often absent from traditional business school curriculums and leadership development programs.

The term ‘trauma informed leadership’ frequently elicits irritation and dismissiveness; that leaders shouldn’t be expected to act as trauma experts or therapists. And they’re right. Leaders are positioned to produce results and run companies….that are populated by human beings who are not immune to the involuntary neuro-biological responses from traumatizing events in their environment.

Being a trauma informed leader is about understanding, protecting and maintaining your human assets.

Trauma is not the same thing as discomfort and discomfort is not traumatizing. Trauma is an injury from exposure to material the brain has registered as a significant and overwhelming threat and it is an individual’s brain that determines this, not some one else’s opinion. It’s why some events can be traumatizing to some and not for others.

Human beings experience a spectrum of responses to stress, some within tolerance known as Eustress that we are hard-wired for, enabling an orchestrated temporary response to challenges and others more severe. Acute responses such as post traumatic stress is an involuntary reaction by the brain and the body to an overwhelming event, not elective behavior.

Contrary to common belief, trauma does not only result from the more familiar circumstances as listed above. Trauma can occur from things such as bullying, layoffs (even if you keep your job) and shaming- so stressful an event for human beings that it can affect us on a cellular level. It’s why people will do the craziest things to avoid it. Sadly, these are common drivers found in work and school environments.

It pays for leaders to have a robust tool box that equips them to respond and manage these events with expertise. Nevertheless, leaders have been acculturated to believe that what they produce is singular to their success. Relational and connection skills building is often sacrificed at the alter of ‘efforting’, when it’s the ‘human skills’- who you are showing up as-that become imperative to a healthy workspace, especially in the wake of crisis.

Recurring active shooting events and COVID to name a few, have taught us that being trauma informed is a core competency (and expectation from employees) for those in leadership positions at all levels of an organization and the choice to forego development in this area is becoming a career killer.

Here’s the part that leaders learning to be trauma informed don’t expect:

It’s not just about the capacity to recognize and respond skillfully to trauma responses in others. It includes developing an unvarnished self awareness for identifying and managing trauma within themselves and it’s influence on their behavior, their communication, their decision-making and how they relate to others. This learning endeavor can be life changing for leaders impacting their relationships, health, career longevity and the success of their organization. Why?

Because unrecognized, unresolved trauma repeats itself.

People in authority whose behavior is influenced by unrecognized trauma, unwittingly, can become traumatizing to others. Organizations are interconnected eco-systems. When present, trauma breeds survival mode behaviors, an under current of anxiety, dysfunctional relationships, repeated unintended outcomes, mistrust and chronic conflict. Human beings are neuro-biologically incapable of being in survival mode and growth mode simultaneously….and survival needs always win. Trauma stops the flow of information, stunts problem solving and syphons away any semblance of psychological safety necessary for healthy workplaces and the retention of talent.

Trauma creates septic organizational eco-systems.

When people don’t feel safe they won’t tell you the truth, they won’t tell you when mistakes have occurred-they won’t even tell you when they’ve discovered a better way of doing things. Employees who feel chronically unsafe will ultimately talk to you, with their feet, right out the front door.

Employees don’t expect their leaders to have all the answers, in fact, they already know that you don’t. What they want is to trust that their leader will get the help they need, when confronted with challenges outside the scope of their expertise or experience, and make decisions in their best benefit. That’s the difference between leaders who are respected, trusted, and have ‘followability’, or not.