
Changing workplaces for the better needs intentional leadership and direction, supporting leaders to become more trauma-informed in the way they lead their teams. Just as trauma-informed practice is paramount for service providers in how they support their clients, Trauma Informed Leadership should be the way all organisations lead their teams.
Integrating Trauma Informed Leadership into your management style and organisation can profoundly transform your team's culture and significantly enhance workplace success.
While some organisations are already using trauma-informed practices with their customers/clients, the real benefits emerge when the framework is used to inform decision making, system design, and leading teams with a trauma informed and authentic leadership style.
Implementing a trauma informed leadership skills in your 'toolkit' can help to
improve customer satisfaction - better teamwork, collaboration and a culture of learning amongst staff positively influence customer experience
improve individual and team morale
boost productivity, individual and team collaboration and job satisfaction (including your own)
reduce complaints, recruitment costs and amount of time spent onboarding new staff with a more stable and engaged workforce.
do I need to talk about people’s traumas to practice trauma informed leadership?
Not at all.
Trauma-Informed Leadership focuses on understanding trauma and its impact on the body-mind connection, helping us better grasp how our own and others' nervous systems operate, influencing actions and behaviours.
It doesn’t require discussing personal or others' traumas, but understanding how underlying factors may affect reactions is a powerful tool in creating psychological safety within groups.
Trauma-informed practice not only supports those who have experienced trauma, but also helps create conditions where everyone feels safer within the team, group and/or organisation.
what else is needed for leaders to lead in a more trauma-informed way?
Trauma Informed Leadership is about both our own reflective practice and upskilling in being more trauma-informed, but it cannot exist in a vacuum. Adaptive leadership skills need to be cultivated, alongside a strengths-based approach and cultures of learning and growth being focussed on.
Implementing Trauma Informed Leadership with an evidenced-informed approach is the best way to teach leaders how to create psychologically safe spaces for teams. And when we create psychological safety for all - everyone benefits. A team that feels safe and is nurtured with a strength-based approach to development is able to truly be creative. They are able to do their best work, to innovate, and to collaborate with each other, playing to each others' strengths.
These are the teams people want to be a part of. They are the teams people want to stay in. They are the teams that you can tackle big difficult tasks with, because the strength of the team is greater than the sum of its parts.
With many organisations undergoing transformational change (AI! Funding challenges! Restructures for funsies!) the answer to “How do I foster an innovative, collaborative team culture” is the same as the answer to “how do I genuinely lead my team through transformational change”.
We can best do this through fostering an environment which gives every person the best chance of bringing their absolute best selves every day. By supporting their leaders to create the conditions for their teams where everyone has their best chance of feeling safe, supported & seen. Safe to try, safe to innovate, safe to learn, create & innovate.
Of course, that doesn't mean you don’t lead with a focus on results - but by understanding that results are tied to better leadership. Encouraging leaders to be honest, transparent and kind, and considering leadership as a ‘practice’ rather than a job title allows us to shift our lens from “what do I need to get the team to do” to “what does this group of people need to thrive”.
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