Why We Need Trauma Informed Communication at Work
A central skill in every job and workplace is strong communication.
Communication or a lack thereof is also a frequent culprit when things don’t go as planned, or relationships are harmed.
Communication is also an umbrella term and if you’ve ever heard feedback to ‘improve communication’ you likely looked for something more specific and more tangible to take action on.
While we all have different communication styles and needs, all of us can benefit from a trauma informed approach to communication- regardless of whether we’ve experienced trauma. However, it’s important to note, that many of us have — over 70% of US adults self-identify as having one or more traumatic experiences in their lifetimes.
Trauma informed communication goes hand in hand with trauma informed workplaces and the principles to build these trauma informed cultures. These principles are Safety, Trust and transparency, Community, Collaboration, Empowerment, Humility and responsiveness, and Cultural, Historical, & Gender issues.
Like trauma informed cultures, trauma informed communication should acknowledge the existence and pervasive impacts of trauma and center supportive, informed communication styles where everyone has the opportunity to both speak up and be heard. It is also important to note that trauma informed communication actively avoids re-traumatizing survivors and notes that words matter and can also do incredible harm.
Building trauma informed communication styles is a great way for every team member to support efforts to build more trauma informed cultures in every organization they are a part of. So how can you build your communication skills to be more trauma informed?
How To Build a Trauma Informed Communication Style
Recognize and Appreciate Differences
Imagine each person with a suitcase they bring with them to work and everywhere they go. In the suitcase is all their knowledge, experience, skills, and abilities- those things that are needed for them to perform their job and what makes them a great partner and teammate. That suitcase is also filled with all their lived experiences — coloring their approach to life, work, and communication.
For most of us, we approach communication the way we communicate! But we all have different styles, needs, and methods that work best for each of us. While it’s easy to approach these differences with frustration, it’s important to focus on acknowledgment and appreciation for the myriad of ways we all communicate.
By pausing to recognize the differences, we can better position our own styles to suit those around us and offer more flexibility when communication styles are getting wires crossed. This is extra important if you are a leader.
A great way to start recognizing and appreciating differences is by reflecting on your own communication style. Think about how you approach conversations with different people, and how you best process information- do you like to brainstorm out loud or do you need time for private reflection?
As part of your reflection, see if you can put your style into words. For example, I might say- “I like to talk things out on the fly and will talk about any topic without preparation. I’m a verbal person and I like to talk through ideas and conflicts directly.”
Why is this helpful? If you can verbalize your own approach to communication- you can communicate it to others and let them adjust and offer their own style.
I’d also encourage you to proactively ask others for the preferred communication avenues and styles (and if you are a leader or in a position of power- ask them to share first, then offer your own preferences.)
For example, since I enjoy talking about things on the spot and I can be quite direct, if someone prefers time to reflect first and is uncomfortable with very direct conversations; we won’t have the most effective conversation.
Unless we can both verbalize our needs and adjust to the other person. We will also be more likely to offer each other grace and understand when there is a misfire in communication because we have a better understanding.
Openness
Approaching communication with openness is another key aspect of building a trauma informed style. It involves being receptive, non-judgmental, and willing to listen and learn from others. Here are some ways you can infuse openness into your communication style.
Practice Active Listening
Give your full attention to the speaker.
Avoid interrupting or formulating a response while they are talking.
Use non-verbal cues like nodding or maintaining eye contact to show you’re engaged
Stay present in the conversation and avoid distractions
Suspend Judgment:
Avoid making assumptions or forming opinions too early in a conversation.
Recognize that everyone has their own perspective and experiences that shape their views.
Be Non-Defensive:
If someone expresses a differing opinion or criticism, avoid becoming defensive.
Instead, try to understand their viewpoint.
Be Vulnerable:
Share your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences when appropriate. This can create a sense of mutual openness.
Ask Open-Ended Questions:
Encourage the other person to share more by asking questions that invite them to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings.
Avoid Assumptions:
Don’t assume you know what someone is going to say or how they feel. Let them express themselves in their own words.
Be Mindful of Body Language:
Your non-verbal cues can convey openness or closedness. Maintain open body language (e.g., uncrossed arms, relaxed posture)
Recognize and challenge any preconceived notions or biases you may have that could hinder open communication.
Openness takes practice, and that’s a great reason to start practicing today. Keep in mind it’s about creating an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, where individuals feel heard and valued. By approaching conversations with openness, you foster stronger connections and deeper understanding in your relationships as well.
“Clarity Is Kindness”
I first heard the quote ‘clarity is kindness’ from Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer/Chief People Officer at VaynerMedia and it sums up an issue I’ve found so frequently in my career. Oftentimes, especially in business, we are faced with delivering news or information that isn’t the most joyful or welcomed.
This is an uncomfortable spot to be in and it’s uncomfortable to be associated with bad news, especially when we have a genuine, caring relationship with someone.
The tricky part is, often without the clarity of the not-so-fun to deliver news, people are often working from a place without all the information they need, and it can oftentimes make the issue even worse.
Remember, while what you have to share may not be the best, providing clarity to someone- being transparent, is a kindness. This will help you move to communicate in the moments where you should, but it can be very difficult.
Empathy
I want to start here with a quick definition of empathy because it is often confused with sympathy and understanding is important to incorporating it into your communication. Empathy is ‘the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.’
Sympathy and empathy both refer to a caring response to the emotional state of another person, but a distinction between them is typically made: while sympathy is a feeling of sincere concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult or painful, empathy involves actively sharing in the emotional experience of the other person.
Practicing empathy in your communication style involves understanding and acknowledging the feelings, perspectives, and experiences of others. It’s about listening and responding in a way that shows you care and are trying to comprehend their point of view. Here are some ways to cultivate empathy in your communication:
Validate Emotions:
Acknowledge the other person’s feelings, even if you don’t agree with their perspective.
Use statements like, “I can see that you’re feeling [emotion]” or “It sounds like this is important to you.”
Use Reflective Listening:
Repeat what you’ve heard in your own words to confirm your understanding.
For example, say, “It sounds like you’re saying…” or “If I understand, you feel…”
Put Yourself in Their Shoes:
Try to imagine how the situation might feel from their perspective.
Consider their background, experiences, and circumstances.
Express Understanding:
Show that you understand their point of view by saying things like, “I can see why that would be difficult for you” or “I understand why you feel that way.”
Avoid Offering Immediate Solutions:
Sometimes, people just need to be heard and understood. Don’t rush to provide solutions or advice unless it’s requested.
Use “I” Statements:
Share your feelings and experiences in a way that focuses on your perspective, rather than assuming you know what the other person is feeling.
Respect Boundaries:
Be mindful of the other person’s comfort level in sharing their feelings. Don’t push them to disclose more than they’re comfortable with.
Offer Support and Reassurance:
Let the person know that you’re there for them and that you care about their well-being.
Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is the feeling or belief that you will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with questions, ideas, concerns, and opinions. It is vital to trauma informed communication; without it- you cannot expect to get honest and open dialogue.
You can build psychological safety in a conversation by leveraging the previous components we discussed and also focusing on building relationships that are safe with those you work with. If you are looking for more tools to leverage to create psychological safety on your team and within your relationships, this is an excellent resource — re:Work — Guide: Understand team effectiveness (rework.withgoogle.com).
Often times, trauma informed cultures are reliant on big changes to culture and systems, however the ever person can help their organization become a little more trauma informed by building their communication skills with the lens of traumatic experiences in mind.
What the Heck is Neuroplasticity? And Why We Should Be Talking about Neuroplasticity at Work
Stephanie, I thought this article series was about trauma informed workplaces; so why are we talking about neuroplasticity? And on that note, what the heck is neuroplasticity?
I promise- we are still talking about trauma informed workplaces! Neuroplasticity is an important and amazing tool when it comes to addressing and recovering from the impacts of trauma. It is also an amazing aspect of humans with countless implications in the workplace. This article will explore the basics and connect these dots!
What is Neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, refers to the brain’s remarkable ability to continue to grow, adapt, and reorganize itself throughout a person’s entire life. It is the process by which the brain changes in response to experiences, learning, and environmental influences — rewiring the brain. Think of neuroplasticity as your internal system of evolution!
Neuroplasticity encompasses how nerve cells adapt to circumstances — to respond to stimulation by generating new tendrils of connection to other nerve cells, called synapses, and to respond to deprivation and excess stress by weakening connections.
Neuroplasticity plays a crucial role in learning and memory. When we learn new things or practice a skill, the brain forms new neural pathways or strengthens existing ones. This process allows us to acquire new knowledge, develop new abilities, and adapt to changes in our environment. When you think about neuroplasticity, it’s easiest to think of a baby and how they learn new skills and behaviors at a swift pace as their brain is developing.
While the brain does change most rapidly in childhood, new research shows the brain continues to develop throughout our entire lives! So no more saying ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’- because it’s not true! (It’s also just not a very nice thing to say.)
The importance of neuroplasticity can’t be overstated: It means that it is possible to change dysfunctional patterns of thought and behavior and to develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities throughout our entire lives.
What Role Does Neuroplasticity Play in Trauma and Trauma Recovery?
Trauma, especially childhood trauma and ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), can have an astounding impact on our brains and the neuropathways that are formed. Trauma’s effect on the brain starts with the amygdala which is activated once it detects a threat. Once triggered, the hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system, often colloquially referred to as the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses. This system in the body is called the limbic system.
Repeated and severe experiences of trauma can result in the brain detecting these perceived threats more easily- leading to increased feelings of stress, anxiety, and or depression throughout life.
The limbic system can be activated not only by trauma itself but by the stimuli that trigger traumatic memories — a smell or a sound, for example (think of war veterans and fireworks).
This means that the limbic system can fire off the same response to a trigger that it does to trauma before the brain has a chance to evaluate whether the person is in danger.
This is known as hypervigilance. On a biological level, it’s one part of the brain shutting down another part of the brain and limiting a person’s ability to reason their way through a trigger instead of instinctively reacting to it.
Since neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to re-wire itself, it is key in changing the body and brain’s automatic responses to perceived threats and triggers as a result of traumatic experiences. This means that regardless of age, it may be possible to rewire your brain and nervous system from trauma by having new, positive, and supportive experiences.
Restructuring the brain is not a quick fix, it is a journey focused on habits and new practices to reroute neural pathways.
If you are looking for places to start practicing and flexing neuroplasticity, you can learn new skills, take new routes to work, or try some of these exercises as a simple place to start — 6 Neuroplasticity Exercises to Relieve Anxiety (psychcentral.com).
The most powerful way to open windows of plasticity in your brain is through physical activity; specifically aerobic exercise which stimulates the release of BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) that facilitates the growth of new connections in the brain and strengthens signals.
Other ways to stimulate BDNF include-
Engaging in positive social interactions
Participating in novel activities
Engaging in play
Being in enriched and stimulating environments
Practicing and repeating positive activities — even mentally rehearsing them
Engaging in mental training strategies such as mindfulness meditation
Developing a sense of purpose in life.
It’s also important to note that stress will weaken BDNF in the body.
Neuroplasticity at Work
Neuroplasticity can play a significant role at work; as you may have already guessed from the information so far. Ther are countless ways neuroplasticity comes into play at work and can support both organizational and individual outcomes and goals. We’ll explore a few key ones here in the article.
Embracing neuroplasticity at work can transform the way organizations approach employee learning, development and well-being. Encouraging team members to engage in ongoing learning cultivates a culture of growth and innovation, allowing them to adapt to new challenges and technologies in the workplace and helps actively facilitate the creation of new neural pathways.
By recognizing the brain’s capacity for change and growth, organizations can invest in training programs that enhance communication skills, including active listening, empathy, and clear expression of ideas. This fosters a culture of open, effective communication, ultimately strengthening teamwork and collaboration.
In today’s changing environment, adaptability is vital. Understanding and leveraging neuroplasticity underscores the brain’s remarkable ability to learn new skills and adapt to change. This resilience enables employees to navigate shifting landscapes with confidence and agility, contributing to a more resilient and dynamic organization.
Embracing neuroplasticity can lead to enhanced problem-solving and creativity. Activities that challenge the brain, such as collaborative problem-solving exercises or brainstorming sessions, stimulate innovative thinking. This approach encourages employees to explore new solutions and approaches, ultimately driving progress and growth within the organization.
Effective stress management is another area where neuroplasticity can make a significant impact. By providing resources and practices that support mental well-being, organizations create a healthier, more productive work environment. This, in turn, empowers employees to manage stress more effectively, leading to improved overall mental health.
That said, organizations must also work to deliberately manage and mitigate employee stress to realize the full benefits of neuroplasticity building. As we noted above, stress limits BDNF in the body and can work against creating those windows of plasticity.
Encouraging a growth mindset is also a powerful way to leverage neuroplasticity in the workplace. By instilling the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and learning, organizations empower employees to take on challenges and persist in the face of setbacks. This mindset fosters a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability.
Neuroplasticity and Trauma Informed Cultures
Neuroplasticity holds profound significance in trauma informed cultures as it underscores the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt and recover from traumatic experiences. Understanding this concept informs approaches to healing and support. It emphasizes that, even in the aftermath of trauma, the brain can forge new pathways and each of us can continue to grow and change. This knowledge informs therapeutic interventions, promoting resilience, trust-building, and effective communication.
Understanding neuroplasticity and leveraging it supports awareness of trauma and reinforces the principles of trauma informed workplaces. Specifically, empowerment, humility and responsiveness. In empowerment as a principle, we honor the importance of the opportunity for growth for every member of the team; which is heavily tied to neuroplasticity and forging those new connections in the brain.
With Humility and Responsiveness, we recognize that none of us are perfect and that we can take action to make changes, just like neuroplasticity allows us to take action and make meaningful, changes in our brains.
By acknowledging the potential for positive change and growth, trauma-informed work cultures create environments that empower individuals to heal, learn, and ultimately thrive.
How to Use CliftonStrengths as a Powerful Tool in Building Trauma Informed Workplaces
Most of us have had plenty of experience with personality assessment and self-awareness tools in the workplace. Like most leaders, I have a favorite.
And while there are many reasons CliftonStrengths (previously StrengthsFinder) is my preferred tool, the number one reason is it is the best option for a culture that seeks to be trauma informed.
What is a Trauma Informed Workplace Culture?
Trauma informed cultures center supportive, informed environments where everyone has the opportunity to be successful. These cultures prioritize eliminating workplace trauma and actively avoid re-traumatizing survivors.
I
t is important to note that Trauma Informed Cultures DO NOT seek to diagnose or treat trauma. Nor should there be an expectation that individuals are under any obligation to share their traumatic experiences.
I’ve interpreted the Trauma Informed Care Principles developed by SAMHSA in 2014 to focus on application to all organizations and a focus on internal culture versus a client-focused approach.
At the core of Trauma Informed Culture are seven principles that help ensure supportive environments for all members of the team- regardless of their experience with Trauma.
What is CliftonStrengths?
The CliftonStrengths assessment (formerly known as the StrengthsFinder assessment) is a popular tool developed by Don Clifton and the Gallup Organization to help individuals discover and develop their unique strengths or talents.
Based on the belief that people are more successful and fulfilled when they focus on their natural abilities and talents, rather than trying to fix their weaknesses, it was a novel change from the current state of the field of psychology.
The field of psychology was focused more on interventions that decreased an individual’s misery or problems before Clifton created this tool. But he saw an opportunity to supplement this traditional science — a way to build the “enabling conditions of life.” Strengths science answers questions about what’s right with people rather than what’s wrong with them.
Clifton initiated early work on strengths and received a Presidential Commendation from the American Psychological Association (APA) as the father of strengths-based psychology and the grandfather of positive psychology.
When Clifton studied human behavior, he noted hundreds of positive characteristics and saw that many of those characteristics had commonalities. Based on those common traits, he distilled them down into the 34 talent themes central to the CliftonStrengths tool; identified and rank-ordered using the assessment. But to turn those talents into strengths, you must invest in them — practice using them and add knowledge and skills to them.
Here’s a quick summary of how the CliftonStrengths assessment works:
Assessment: Individuals take an online assessment that consists of a series of 177 questions. The assessment is designed to identify and rank top talents which can be leveraged as strengths.
Results: After completing the assessment, individuals receive a personalized report that lists their top strengths. These strengths are also organized into four domains: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking, to help leverage the results for relationships and teams and create a common language.
Understanding Strengths: The assessment provides detailed descriptions of each of the identified strengths, including insights into how these strengths may manifest in an individual’s behavior, thinking, and interactions with others.
Application: The CliftonStrengths assessment encourages individuals to focus on developing and leveraging their top strengths. Gallup emphasizes that it’s more productive to invest in areas where one has natural talents and abilities, as opposed to trying to overcome weaknesses. This is a powerful perspective to promote self-acceptance and growth in tandem.
People can apply their knowledge of their strengths in various aspects of their lives, including their careers, personal relationships, and personal development.
Team Building: The CliftonStrengths assessment is also used in team building and leadership development. By understanding the strengths of team members, leaders can assemble teams that are well-balanced and can work together more effectively.
Self-awareness tools can play a crucial role in helping individuals become more trauma informed by enabling them to better understand their responses, triggers, and emotional states and helping understand those around them. Where CliftonStrengths stands far above other self-awareness tools is the incorporation of self-acceptance into the purpose and outcomes of the tool.
CliftonStrengths isn’t about finding what is wrong with you and fixing it; it’s about finding what is right and natural talent and leveraging it to be the absolute best version of yourself.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of self-acceptance in personal development and growth. I shared that self-acceptance doesn’t mean you won’t change and grow; we all change of course, and our self-acceptance will flex with those changes. It may be helpful to think of self-acceptance as acceptance of yourself now- as you are and acceptance of who you can become.
Self-acceptance also includes recognizing what you will not become or what is not available to you and accepting it. It may seem challenging to let go of who you can never be, but it is also powerful. Don’t mistake this for a limiting belief, rather it is a focus on the reality of ourselves and what we can and cannot change.
This aspect of recognizing who you will not become- who you are not — is sometimes overlooked, but it is key to self-acceptance. CliftonStrengths allows you to recognize this in a safe, empowering way.
How to Leverage CliftonStrengths to Build Trauma Informed Cultures
Trauma-informed awareness can help people not only in their healing journey but also in their interactions with others who may have experienced trauma, including coworkers and direct reports.
Here’s how CliftonStrengths can facilitate this process:
Personal Awareness and Regulation: At the heart of CliftonStrengths is better understanding of yourself, your motivations and your natural tendencies. This is accomplished in a way that looks to maximize your strengths versus creating shame around things that may not be natural talents. Whenever each of us can better understand how our behaviors can impact both ourselves and those arounds us- we are better team member and can be more conscious in efforts to prevent trauma or re-traumatization of our peers and ourselves.
Identifying Triggers: When we get to know ourselves better, we better understand our potential triggers. CliftonStrengths can help us with this. It can be as simple as giving us the tools to understand why we may be approaching something differently than a co-worker; because we have different strengths.
Continuous Self-Reflection: CliftonStrengths and the robust tools for ongoing use of the assessment for personal and team development make continuous self-reflection and growth a key component of the tool. Continuous reflection is important in shaping humility and responsiveness- one of the key principles of trauma informed workplaces.
Building Empathy for Ourselves & Others: Becoming trauma informed a involves understanding the experiences of others and ourselves. Self-awareness tools can help individuals develop empathy by encouraging them to reflect on their own experiences and emotions. This, in turn, can make them more sensitive and compassionate when interacting with others.
Effective Communication and Common Language: CliftonStrengths helps create a common language about who we are as individuals, what we need, and what we can bring to the table. By creating this common language that is focused on what is right with each of us and prioritizes elevating our strengths, communication is rooted in empowerment.
Creating Safe Spaces for Acceptance & Growth: Because CliftonStrengths focuses on strengths for each of us — and there are no bad strengths- discussion and working to better ourselves and focused on continued growth feels safer.
Driving Empowerment: When we talk about trauma informed workplaces, empowerment includes choice, strengths-leveraged, recognition, and growth. CliftonStrengths is an excellent facilitator of all these aspects of empowerment. And the tool works across all levels of the organization and any type of role.
We focus heavily on systems and processes to build trauma informed workplace cultures, but it’s important to never overlook the individual impacts each of us can have on the workplace- both positive and negative.
The beauty of the CliftonStrengths tool is it works for a dedicated individual, a team, all the way to a full, strengths-based organization. All of which are key bricks in building a trauma informed culture.
If you’d like to learn more about CliftonStrengths and how to leverage it yourself or your team, reach out and schedule a discovery call with me here. Or check out Gallup.com
Why We Need to Build Trauma Informed Recruiting & Hiring Practices
Your employee experience begins as soon as you apply for a job at an organization.
Talent and HR leaders are well-versed in the importance of the candidate experience and how it is the gateway to overall employee experience and overall employer brand for future recruiting efforts.
Sometimes it’s helpful to think of recruiting as a first date- an introduction of both parties to see if it’s a match and if there can be an ongoing, productive, positive relationship.
In both dating and recruiting, we talk a lot about ‘ghosting,’ dishonesty, misrepresentation, and the general exhaustion the whole process causes for everyone involved.
Like many of the common challenges facing today’s workplaces, trauma informed approaches can be the key to creating better recruiting and hiring practices for both candidates and employers.
Trauma informed approaches center supportive, informed environments where everyone has the opportunity to be successful. It prioritizes eliminating workplace trauma and avoids re-traumatizing survivors. Trauma informed recruiting and hiring processes work with an understanding of the prevalence of trauma in our workforce and build systems and processes with this in mind.
Let’s take a look at how the Principles of Trauma Informed Cultures can be applied to create better candidate experiences and employer results when it comes to recruiting.
Safety
Safety is foundational to creating trauma informed spaces and processes. We look at safety as a three-legged stool — the three legs of physical safety, psychological safety, and financial safety. For recruiting and hiring, we will focus on the importance of fostering psychological safety throughout the process.
However, it is important to note that creating a physically safe environment for any interview or pre-employment screening is also non-negotiable. Do not ask candidates to engage in behaviors that could be interpreted as unsafe.
Creating Psychological Safety During the Recruiting Process
Searching for a job is a stressful experience, so creating psychological safety as part of your recruiting process can have significant impacts on the overall success of your quality of hire and candidate experience. To be fair- it can also be a tall order.
The best place to start is to ensure everyone participating in the recruiting and interviewing process has a strong understanding of what psychological safety is and how to work to create it. This can be accomplished by extending training to ensure psychological safety is top of mind while hiring.
Focus training on prioritizing curiosity over judgment in the interview process. Asking follow-up questions about a focus on learning after mistakes or missteps. Share your own experiences and learnings with failure if appropriate.
It is also important that everyone who is participating in recruiting and interviewing receives training on best practices and applicable laws to avoid missteps that can erode psychological safety and trust due to lack of knowledge.
Trust & Transparency
When approaching trust as part of the recruiting and hiring process, this is another place to begin with self-reflection for the internal team. Self-awareness in how you approach trust will help you better understand how you approach new people and subsequently candidates.
There are two primary ways people approach trust:
Automatic ‘trusters’ approach a new relationship with at least some level of trust, initially trusting the other party unless something happens to break that trust. Think of this as an inclination to give others the benefit of the doubt.
These individuals are less affected by actions to build trust. However, trust infractions trigger a more severe and long-lasting backlash.
For a candidate, you will defer to a position of trust.
Evidence-based ‘trusters’ approach a new relationship with distrust as the default.
Trust will take time to establish and be based on trust cues and alignment of words and actions. Once trust is established, only major infractions are likely to undermine the trust in a relationship in a significant way.
For a candidate, you may be wary of them and their answers because trust hasn’t been built. Structure your questions in an interview in a way that can help you get a glimpse of that alignment and begin to build trust.
It is important that we keep in mind that there is no wrong way to approach trust. In fact, avoiding judgement in this area is key because approaches to trust may be tied to prior traumatic experience. Equally important is avoiding the assumption that others trust in the same way we do. Again, awareness here is key to understanding how you approach a job candidate.
Creating Transparent Processes that Build Trust
Transparency is a powerful tool for building trusting relationships. It’s also a hallmark of a strong and trauma informed recruiting and hiring process. How can you build the right level of transparency into your searches from the start?
Communicate a Clear Process up Front
First, I’m a firm believer that you should never post a position without a clear plan on how the entire hiring process will transpire — how many interviews, who will be involved, any additional screening requirements, etc.
This is a best practice for a variety of reasons, but an obvious one is that without a defined internal process, you won’t be able to communicate clear expectations to candidates.
Many organizations have created sections of their job posting dedicated to describing what the candidate can expect up front. This is an awesome way to create trust and clarity up front from the moment a candidate is reviewing a posting.
Salary Transparency
Salary transparency is becoming a non-negotiable in recruiting, both because of legal requirements and shifting candidate expectations. Being clear and realistic in your salary range is a best practice for everyone- it avoids wasting time if there is a mismatch and also creates a strong level of trust from the get-go.
Also, as it relates to financial safety- most of us work to pay our bills. Salary transparency supports financial safety principles.
Strong, Meaningful Job Descriptions
We’ve all run across a word-salad job description that doesn’t explain what in the world the position does. These are not going to work in a trauma informed hiring process. Job descriptions are amazing tools to communicate the primary function of the role within the organization, the required skills, abilities, and education, and clear objectives.
The clearer the job description and the more focused on the core of the position, the better for hiring the best match for the role and organization.
Collaboration
Collaboration is a key aspect of all productive teams and workplaces. When we reflect on collaboration as a principle of trauma informed environments, we are most focused on power dynamics and how they inhibit effective collaboration. We also acknowledge that power imbalances are at the core of traumatic experiences and seek to address these imbalances to avoid re-traumatizing those most sensitive to this imbalance.
Recognize the Inherent Power Imbalance in Hiring & Recruiting
It should be obvious to most of us that the typical recruiting relationship has a heavy imbalance of power tipped to the employer. While this is not always the case, for example in very specialized roles or talent shortages, in most cases it applies at least to some extent. You are hiring for a job; you make that decision. If someone is engaged in interviewing, they probably would like to be offered that job- thus the imbalance.
You can’t remove this imbalance, so the important focus is awareness. Ensure that you and all those in the process understand and reflect on their position of power at this moment to ensure that no one is engaging in exploitative or even illegal behaviors.
Hiring managers and recruiters can also minimize the visibility and impact of their power in this situation by practicing empathetic leadership. Make sure and be open and vocal about your humanity and fallibility. Model acts of vulnerability to the team and set an example. Engage with warmth and curiosity.
Ensure you are listening more than you speak and when you do speak, start by asking questions to stimulate discussions. As soon as you make your opinion clear, you may lose out on important discussions and insights in interviews.
While it may be obvious that you should temper your disapproval or disappointment, the same is just as true for your approval- you may send the wrong message to a candidate unintentionally,
Humility and Responsiveness
Imperfection is unavoidable, in trauma informed cultures, the key is to recognize this with humility and respond in a meaningful way — both to repair potential harm and to help the organization learn and grow more inclusively. Your recruiting and hiring processes will not always go perfectly, and that’s okay.
What’s most important is that you are soliciting feedback from candidates (including those who aren’t hired) and having an eye to improving experiences and outcomes. Also, note feedback you receive via Glassdoor or Fishbowl and apply that to improving the candidate experience.
Continuous improvement is the key to incorporating humility and responsiveness as principles of a trauma informed hiring process.
Cultural, Historical, & Gender Issues
Gender, cultural, and historical (or generational) experiences influence the experience and perception of trauma. Societal expectations, power dynamics, and cultural norms associated with these factors can contribute to diverse types and intensities of trauma. Some examples include (but are not limited to):
Women often face higher rates of sexual assault and domestic violence, leading to trauma associated with those experiences.
Differing cultural perceptions and expectations on speaking about or addressing traumatic experiences
Racially motivated violence, such as hate crimes or police brutality.
Systemic racism, prejudice, and other acts of hate
Historical trauma resulting from the collective experiences of racism, such as intergenerational trauma passed down through generations including slavery, colonization, genocide, and forced displacement.
Trauma informed processes and organizations recognize these facts and incorporate this understanding into their approaches. This is vital for recruiting and hiring processes. Trauma Informed hiring practices should have robust and thoughtful DE&I support and insights. Importantly- partnering with internal or external DEI experts is key as you craft your processes.
Actions you should take include, but are not limited to,
Providing Bias & Awareness Training for those in the recruiting process
Standardized processes and interviews for all candidates applying for a role.
Sourcing candidates from broader talent pools
Make sure job postings and communications use gender-neutral, age-neutral language.
Ensure job requirements are real requirements- ask- Is a degree really required?
Solicit and listen to feedback.
Make sure any tools or screen products (including AI) do not create Bias.
Job seeking and recruiting are both challenging for those involved. Trauma informed principles help shape experiences and process that are better for everyone and create better results. Investing in these will create better candidate experiences, boost offer acceptance and retention and create a better overall brand. It also will be a perfect way to welcome new team members into a trauma informed workplace culture.
Self-Acceptance — The Missing Key to Your Personal Growth & Development
First and foremost- consider this article as my invitation to you to start practicing self-acceptance and building it as a skill.
It may seem odd to offer an invitation for great self-acceptance, but I recently experienced a sort of invitation to do just that and it proved quite eye-opening.
I returned to an active yoga practice after well over a decade away at the beginning of this year. This practice has been an amazing, life-changing addition to my life. I’ve been attending about 5 days a week for the last eight months. If you’ve been to a yoga class, or any other fitness class in a studio- you know there are often lots of mirrors to visually assist with form.
For these last eight months, I’ve been staying far away from those mirrors in the studio, and I skip contacts and glasses most days for class; not using the mirror to look at myself and do any adjustments to my form.
Last week, I arrived at class a bit later than usual and the only spots left were right in front of the mirrors. So, I begrudgingly took a spot in front of the mirrors. I had a decent practice, but honestly not the best because instead of using those mirrors to get better, I instead fell into self-critique and judgment. In my head, I said, no more mirrors- get to class earlier, it’s just too distracting.
The next day, before class, one of the women I practice with, Bonnie, who has been practicing for years and whom I admire approached.
“It was so lovely having you in the front row to practice with, I hope you practice up here more often.”
I responded- “I don’t know- I can see myself and it’s so distracting and hard not to see what I don’t like.”
Her response was lovely and that invitation of self-acceptance I references above. Bonnie offered — “Your mat is your safe place, and you are — you are you. Give yourself the space to be there and observe yourself to deepen your practice.”
I took her invitation. I’ve been practicing my yoga in front of the mirror for a handful of classes and while I often have to pull myself out of self-judgment; it’s been a phenomenal reminder to practice self-acceptance and compassion. It is also allowing me better visibility into my practice and ways I can improve. Without being able to look at myself in the mirror (at least without being overtaken by self-judgment), I was unable to have full self-awareness to improve my practice.
And while you may not be practicing yoga, this same concept applies to every aspect of your life. If you cannot practice self-acceptance, you are limiting your ability to be self-aware and grow into the best version of yourself. So today, let’s explore self-acceptance and how we can use it to live the greatest version of our lives.
What is Self-Acceptance
Self-acceptance is exactly what its name suggests: the state of complete acceptance of oneself. True self-acceptance is embracing who you are, without any qualifications, conditions, or exceptions.
This doesn’t mean you won’t change; we all change of course, and our self-acceptance will flex with those changes. It may be helpful to think of self-acceptance as acceptance of yourself now- as you are and acceptance of who you can become.
Self-Acceptance also includes recognizing what you will not become or what is not available to you and accepting it. It may seem challenging to let go of who you can never be, but it is also powerful. Don’t mistake this for a limiting belief, rather it is a focus on the reality of ourselves and what we can and cannot change.
For example, I am 5'4"; I will never be 5'11". Focusing on not being as tall as I want accomplishes nothing and limits me in a way that I cannot overcome and move forward. By letting go of the idea of becoming tall, I give myself space to focus on acceptance and ways I can improve, within my control.
Misconceptions of Self-Acceptance
One of the reasons we often don’t talk about self-acceptance in the workplace as much as we talk about self-awareness is because of common misconceptions of what self-acceptance looks like in action. Let’s go ahead and tackle some of these common misconceptions head-on-
Self-Acceptance means you don’t have to work on yourself.
This is the most common misconception of self-acceptance, that once you accept yourself, you don’t have anything to work on or grow. This is completely untrue. Self-Acceptance is not about achieving ‘perfection’ so there is nothing to work on. It’s not possible to attain ‘perfection’- so we cannot wait for it to practice self-acceptance.
Self-acceptance gives us the power to better understand where we are and work to improve without judgment for not being perfect. Remember- self-acceptance can include who you can become. So, progress and growth can work hand-in-hand with self-acceptance and compassion.
Self-Acceptance is lazy or will make me complacent.
Self-acceptance is not about never changing or avoiding growth; it is about removing self-judgment as a focus and acknowledging both your strengths and imperfections as what they are and moving forward. Self-acceptance helps us enhance our efforts to grow and develop because we are spending our energy on growth and what we can change versus self-judgement and dissatisfaction with what we cannot.
Self-Acceptance is Narcissistic or Selfish
You cannot be the best leader, friend, peer, parent, etc. without investing in yourself first. Period. Much like the saying ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’ — you cannot bring your best self to your relationships and various roles in your life without first investing in yourself.
Self-acceptance also helps you bring an authentic, genuine version of yourself to these relationships. Self-compassion and acceptance also help you extend that compassion and acceptance more readily to others.
How Can Self-Acceptance Boost Personal Growth & Development?
We talk a lot about self-awareness as a tool for improvement and growth, especially in the workplace. And I agree that self-awareness is also important for us all, especially for leaders. However, without self-acceptance, self-awareness can only take us so far in our development. When coupled together, self-awareness and self-acceptance are one of the most powerful development combos.
Self-Acceptance supports Self-Awareness and empowers your work to be more self-aware to be more impactful in a variety of ways including-
Reducing Judgment and Denial: Self-acceptance encourages individuals to acknowledge and accept their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors without harsh self-judgment or denial. This open attitude fosters a deeper level of self-awareness, as people become more willing to explore their experiences honestly.
Exploring Motivations: Self-acceptance allows individuals to explore their motivations, desires, and values without fear of self-criticism; helping individuals understand why they make certain choices and behave in particular ways.
Authentic Self-Exploration: When people are more accepting of themselves, they are more likely to delve into their true interests, passions, and aspirations, leading to a clearer understanding of who they are and what they want from life.
Embracing and Leveraging your Greatest Strengths: Without self-acceptance, it’s often hard to see what our greatest strengths and talents are and how we can best leverage them. Think, if you had the time to focus on leveraging your strengths instead of thinking about hiding flaws, how much more impactful you could become.
Embracing Weaknesses and Opportunities: Self-acceptance involves acknowledging and embracing one’s weaknesses and opportunities for further growth; helping individuals understand areas where they may need improvement or growth.
Reducing Defensive Reactions: When individuals accept themselves, they are less likely to react defensively to feedback or criticism.
How to Practice Self-Acceptance
If you’re anything like me, self-acceptance doesn’t quite come naturally. That’s ok! Like self-awareness and other leadership skills, self-acceptance is a skill we can work on building. Think of it as learning to flex your self-acceptance and compassion muscles on a daily basis and building it into a strength.
With any practice, make sure you are making it work for you in a way that works for your lifestyle, personality and feels genuine. Here are some ideas on how to incorporate a self-acceptance practice and begin to build that muscle.
Practice Self-Forgiveness — Are you holding on to mistakes you’ve made in the past or things that you wish you could do over? Well, it’s time to let them go and move forward. Take time and forgive yourself for those things in the past that you are hanging onto. If it helps, write a letter of forgiveness to yourself.
Focus on Learning from Future Mistakes — The next time you make a mistake, instead of jumping to self-judgment, instead focus on what you can learn moving forward or what you may do differently in the future. Accept a mistake as an interesting occurrence as much as possible and move forward.
Understand Neuroplasticity — Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences. While some believe this is limited to children, current research shows that the brain can continue growing and changing throughout our lifespan. This means that it is possible to change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving and to develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities.
Engage in Positive Self Talk — Instead of telling yourself what’s wrong, make a conscious effort to point out what’s good and things about yourself you are proud of. You can also rely on mantras to help tap into positivity. For example, “I am enough,” “I get better every day,” “I’m a good and caring person,” etc.
Notice when you Slide into Self-Judgement or Criticism and work to shift those thoughts to acceptance — It happens to all of us, those self-critical comments pop into our minds, especially as we are learning to grow self-acceptance. When this happens, note that self-judgment, maybe even write it down and then shift those negative thoughts to acceptance.
Practice Unconditional Acceptance of Others — When we extend unconditional acceptance to others and move away from judgment, that voice of judgment recedes in our minds. Practice not judging others as a way to help you stop judging yourself.
As we seek to build trauma informed workplace cultures, we will often focus on systems and processes that can have large impacts across organizations, but remember, individual changes and actions are just as important. As we look to create spaces where everyone can be successful, operating with self-acceptance as a priority helps foster a more psychologically safe and trusting overall environment.
Today is the perfect day to being to work on self-acceptance. It is a journey- so don’t expect it to be perfect all at once. And know that I am on the journey with you!
Trauma Informed Ways to Support Your Team When there is Bad News
Our world is more interconnected than ever and news from around the world is often at our fingertips. So often that news is not good, rather it is often a window into a tragic and traumatic experience happening to someone in the world or perhaps in our backyard.
The devastating wildfires in Hawaii this week are a sobering reminder of the destruction and trauma that can be dealt by natural (and unnatural) forces within moments. Perhaps you were affected, either personally or just by the images and knowledge of such devastation.
With news like this, it can be challenging for your team members to focus or hold space to be their best selves at work. Depending on their connection to the event or what it may trigger in their own experience- the effects range from minimal to severe- without you knowing why.
In addition to the bad news we all hear about, each of us also may receive personal bad news- a passing in the family, a frightening medical event, or challenges with a loved one. As you are working with others, you likely will have no idea what persona ‘bad news’ they are facing.
Bad news, and challenging times- whether at the community level or personal, are part of life. So they are also something organizations need to be prepared to navigate. Given the sensitivity of these moments, it is also important that organizations and leaders navigate them with the principles of trauma informed culture in mind.
Actions you can take to support your teams every day to help navigate challenging times and bad news
Acknowledge
Acknowledging the challenging news and events or that bad things happen is the first step in supporting your teams. Acknowledgment is a key aspect of transparency and helps your team know that they are not alone in their feelings or experiences.
When significant public events occur, it may be appropriate to call out to your team that you acknowledge and recognize the distress being experienced and offer the appropriate support to your team and also those directly affected if applicable in the form of mutual aid and other support.
For some, misconception may exist that acknowledging bad news or current events at work isn’t appropriate, so they may be uneasy to be open about effects, but by leading with acknowledgment, your team will see that it’s okay to talk about these challenging moments and their effects.
Create Space to Not be Okay
Once you make acknowledgment part of your cultural response to tragedies, it’s important to take it a step forward and create space within your teams to not be okay.
What does this look like? It can look different on different teams, but it can be mental health days, honest conversations with managers about needing to take an afternoon away, and all the way to checking in with the emotions of your team.
My recommendation is to create space in a way that anyone can take it at any time. This way, if the challenging news is personal, the individual has the choice to disclose details or not. As a leader, consider how you give your team explicit permission to take this space- otherwise, they may not take it. It could be as simple as your team knowing they can tag you in for an afternoon away without having to share the details.
If your immediate question goes to ‘What if they abuse this space?” My answer- most people won’t. If someone is taking a lot of time or space away, it will warrant additional conversations to best support the individual and at the same time ensure the support for the full team.
Flexibility and space aren’t excuses for a lack of accountability. Don’t let that misconception prevent you from extending grace and space to your team.
Be Vulnerable
It can be difficult for people to ask for time and space when there is challenging news or personal issues. The best way to further encourage your team to take the space they need to care for their mental health is to model this behavior yourself and do so vocally.
Positional power can be misused (we’ve talked about that in our article about Collaboration) but this is a moment where you can use your positional power to give permission through your own actions.
When something comes up that affects you, share with your team that you are affected and what you are doing to take space. I recommend offering that space to them directly as well.
Seeing a leader be vulnerable and prioritize their self-care is incredibly powerful. Find the courage to model this behavior and watch the amazing impact you have on yourself and your team.
It’s the right time for a reminder- you cannot create trauma informed cultures for your team when you aren’t taking care of yourself. Self-awareness and responding to your own needs is the starting point for trauma informed leadership.
Reaffirm Safety
Safety is the foundational principle for trauma informed cultures. Without safety, it is hard for us to think about much else. When tragedies occur, often feelings can stir about our own safety and for some, this can create distracting rumination on scenarios where our safety could be jeopardized.
In these moments, make sure to reaffirm the actions your organization takes to ensure your team is safe — physically, psychologically, and financially. Since these feelings may be triggered outside newsworthy events, it is also a good practice to reaffirm these safety protocols and make them easy to access for reassurance.
Provide Resources to Talk through Feelings
For some, being able to talk through their feelings and experiences will be key to processing events. Make sure as part of your benefits offerings, there are resources for therapy or crisis counselors available to your team members to access confidentially.
If you are comfortable offering and holding space for a conversation, you can also listen to your team members’ feelings or tag in an HR professional for support as well. But don’t take it personally if your team prefers a third-party resource- it is normal and has nothing to do with you as a leader.
Offer Community/Peer Support
In certain scenarios, especially in larger organizations, tragic events can be an important opportunity to leverage internal community or peer support, such as ERGs. In these cases, listen to your teams and whether they are seeking this support and levels of discussion and how they’d like to move forward with this support either formally or informally.
Forcing conversations is not the solution here. Instead, focus on creating space and empowering ERGs and other groups within your organization to facilitate conversations and support in a way that works for them.
Recognize not everyone will have the same experience or triggers
Finally, it’s important to remember that everyone will have different reactions to certain events. It is both to be expected and okay. If someone doesn’t appear upset- do not push them or shame them. Everyone processes and reacts to things in a different way.
What’s most important is that you make sure your reactions do not invalidate or trigger the reactions of others as much as possible. A specific watch out here for those of us who may use humor as a coping mechanism- this can be very poorly received and harmful to others who do not cope in the same way.
As you navigate your reactions to events, understand that they may be different than others and that’s okay! But what isn’t okay is harming others with how you cope.
Bad news, tragedies, and personal challenges are universal. By preparing to navigate the impacts as they come up for you and your teams, you are more likely to create a safe and trauma informed culture within your organization. Remember, it’s also okay to not get it right all the time. This is why humility and responsiveness are also principles of trauma informed workplaces. If missteps are made- acknowledge them, take action to rectify and move forward with the learnings from the mistakes.
Creating a Trauma Informed Culture — Where to Start
Creating a trauma informed culture at your organization is not an easy, check-the-box task. It requires ongoing commitment and buy-in. Consider it as more of a journey to maximizing a trauma informed culture than a destination. This will always require work and commitment, but that’s true of any culture worth building and maintaining- they never just ‘happen’.
So, if you want to begin the journey of creating a trauma informed culture in your organization, where should you start? I’m going to give the favorite answer of HR professionals, lawyers, and parents everywhere — it depends.
Your organization’s existing culture will be the biggest determining factor when looking at how to approach shifting to a trauma informed culture or any kind of culture change.
Find a piece or pieces of your culture and values that align with one or more of the principles of trauma informed cultures, this will be a wonderful place to focus. Expand from this versus starting from nothing.
Because each organization is unique and has unique considerations and business needs, the plan to launch and maintain a trauma informed initiative and culture will look a little different in each organization. Nevertheless, I’ll outline some considerations and themes to help you brainstorm places to start or work from in your organization.
The most straightforward place to start is by driving awareness and providing education around the concepts of both trauma and trauma informed workplaces.
It’s hard to make any kind of meaningful progress without a base of understanding among your leaders, managers, and team members. They should have understanding and awareness around trauma, how it can show up at work, its prevalence and how trauma informed workplaces can mitigate the negative impacts of trauma on the workplace.
These trainings and awareness campaigns should cover at a minimum,
Definition of Trauma
What Can Cause Trauma
Individual Nature of Trauma
Secondary/Vicarious Trauma
Common Trauma Responses
How Trauma May Show Up at Work
How to Offer Support to Someone with Traumatic Experiences
Avoiding Labeling, Stereotyping and ‘Diagnosing”
Depending on your organization, there may be varying degrees of readiness for these types of awareness campaigns or training. It is important to be honest with yourself and your team about readiness and avoid launching widespread training or awareness before your organization is ready.
In these scenarios, you may want to work with smaller groups whose buy-in will be important and perhaps easier. It could be working to train your HR or People/Talent teams or leadership first and then working to other groups.
Waiting to target widespread awareness and training until there is a strong probability of buy-in will be helpful so your efforts are most impactful. We will cover how to approach implementation later in the article if your organization is less ready for training and awareness initiatives.
Along with awareness and training, I would encourage transparency about the desire to work towards a trauma informed workplace culture and the steps leadership, managers, and all employees can take to help create this culture. How the organization will measure progress in this area and why it is important.
Think of it like the mission, vision, and values of the organization. Trauma informed cultures should become ingrained in everything you do as an organization and every member of the team should feel and know these parts of the culture.
Once you work through initial training and awareness, work through leveraging the lens of trauma informed as part of all organizational decisions. As well as thoughtful understanding around integrating each of the seven principles (Safety, Trust & Transparency, Community, Collaboration, Empowerment, Humility & Responsiveness, and Cultural, Historical, & Gender issues) into your culture. You may very well be doing trauma informed work already, so make sure to acknowledge and leverage this as part of your work.
Focus as much as possible on changes to processes and programs from a trauma informed lens to incorporate the principles. And call out how these changes support the trauma informed culture efforts to reinforce the objectives. Also, keep the journey in mind- don’t try and tackle everything at once! Focus on making meaningful progress for your team and when things go wrong- that humility & responsiveness principle comes in handy for adjusting as needed.
What if you are concerned about your organization’s ability to accept the concept of trauma informed culture? That’s okay! Lots of folks have a visceral reaction to the word ‘trauma’ and that is likely to show up in this work.
As someone who spent years working in more stereotypically ‘conservative’ industries, I understand wanting to infuse trauma informed processes and principles into the workplace even before you work through the training and awareness.
The great news, you can. The less great news, you will eventually need to get to that training and awareness, but you can with patience! Again- it’s a journey.
The best way to infuse trauma informed principles in this way is to zero in on which principle is either already important or ingrained in the organization’s values or operations. It’s easiest to work through it with an example.
For our purposes, we will imagine a manufacturing organization where safety is a priority in the culture because of the sometimes dangerous nature of the work and the compliance requirements of the industry.
The team is used to talking about safety and building culture and processes around safety. So, let’s build from that focus to incorporate a holistic, trauma informed view of safety for the organization, going beyond occupational safety and including all of physical, psychological, and financial safety.
By building on what already exists, you will have less work to do in terms of change management and you can use existing behaviors and values to bolster new, trauma informed initiatives.
This is one example; you can work from any of the seven principles, and you don’t even need to call it ‘trauma informed’ if that verbiage doesn’t work for your organization. The key is making it work for your teams and creating workplaces that are safe, trauma informed, and where everyone has an opportunity to be successful.
If you are interested in discussing how you can implement this in your organization or would be interested in exploring a customized change management plan to build a trauma informed culture, reach out at stephanie@stephanielemek.com.
Making Managers’ Jobs Easier & More Rewarding with Trauma Informed Workplaces
What if I told you 70% of your employees are showing up to work with something that makes managers’ jobs even harder?
You’d really want to know what that is and I don’t blame you.
Managers’ jobs are already very difficult. They were difficult before the pandemic, but now with changing expectations from both employees and leaders- often in direct opposition (I’m sure you’ve seen those articles about the ‘battles’ on WFH and Hybrid work), a manager’s job is harder than it’s ever been.
On top of all of that, 70% of US-based adults self-identify as having experienced one or more traumatic events in their lives, according to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. So, your managers are also dealing with the challenges of how trauma shows up at work.
According to the 2023 Gallup State of the Global Workplace report, 56% of managers reported feeling a lot of daily stress and only 34% are thriving at work. Mountains of data point to managers having the greatest impact on an employee’s experience at work, their likelihood to be engaged, and whether they stay or exit the organization. Yet, the data also shows that managers are also struggling.
Managers need better resources and tools to do their jobs supporting their teams and also better tools and resources to better support themselves.
A lot of great resources and training programs already exist to support managers, but they are often focused on specific areas or milestones of the management role rather than being all-encompassing. So managers may have all this disparate training and tools to try to manage and work through to cobble together the best version of manager that they can be.
What is often missing is a foundation to build their management style- to make it their own, but still leverage best practices and tools that make sense for them and their teams. The key to creating this foundation is trauma informed workplace cultures.
What is a Trauma Informed Workplace Culture?
Trauma informed cultures center supportive, informed environments where everyone has the opportunity to be successful. It prioritizes eliminating workplace trauma and actively avoids re-traumatizing survivors.
It is important to note that Trauma Informed Cultures DO NOT seek to diagnose or treat trauma. Nor should there be an expectation that individuals are under any obligation to share their traumatic experiences.
I’ve interpreted the Trauma Informed Care Principles developed by SAMHSA in 2014 to focus on application to all organizations and a focus on internal culture versus a client-focused approached.
At the core of Trauma Informed Culture are seven principles that help ensure supportive environments for all members of the team- regardless of their experience with Trauma.
The Seven Principles of Trauma Informed Workplace Cultures
At a high level, these principles are as follows. You can also learn more about each principle in depth by clicking the article linked to each.
Safety is the foundation of a trauma informed culture; because when we are unsafe, it’s hard to be focused on much else. As we look at Safety in the context of trauma informed workplaces, it is best represented by a three-legged stool. Safety is built by the three legs of physical safety, psychological safety, and financial safety. If any of the three are missing or damaged- your stool won’t work and you won’t be able to build a robust, trauma informed culture on it.
Trust exists within various relationships and to build a trauma informed culture, you must seek to build trust at every level within the organization- peer to peer, within a team, employee to manager, team to leader, among teams, and for the organization as a whole.
Transparency is an excellent tool to build trust. Sharing information in and open, candid and frequent way with your team helps them understand what is going on in the organization and helps them better connect their roles to the company overall.
A strong, supportive community can buffer against the negative effects of trauma. When individuals have access to supportive relationships, such as family, friends, trusted co-workers, or community groups, they are more likely to receive emotional support, understanding, and validation. Connecting with others who have gone through similar experiences can make you feel understood and realize your reactions and emotions are valid. A supportive community can also be pivotal in rebuilding trust.
In the context of the workplace, community refers to a sense of belonging, connection, and mutual support among employees within the organization. It is a collective identity that extends beyond individual roles and departments, and many communities exist within a single organization.
Collaboration is key to a trauma informed culture, tackling the challenge of power imbalances and how those imbalances can be misused to harm or traumatize others. By acknowledging and addressing power, you create a much better environment for everyone on your team.
Because a feeling of lack of control or helplessness can be so tied to trauma, empowerment is one of the most important principles in creating a trauma informed workplace culture.
Empowerment in the context of a trauma informed workplace is about more than choice, it is also about environments where individuals feel valued and that they are making a meaningful contribution. For that reason, we examine the concept of empowerment in a trauma informed culture in four distinct parts- choice, strengths leveraged, recognition, and growth.
Imperfection is unavoidable, in trauma informed cultures, the key is to recognize this with humility and respond in a meaningful way — both to repair potential harm and to help the organization learn and grow more inclusively.
Cultural, Historical, & Gender Issues
There is of course an intersection of the work of trauma informed workplaces and DEI initiatives. These organizational priorities should exist both independently and interdependently to ensure they are leveraged to address both DEI efforts and trauma informed efforts fully. But make no mistake, to address the lived experiences of all employees, organizations should have robust and thoughtful diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
How to Create Trauma Informed Managers in your Organization
Trauma informed organizations and managers realize a host of benefits in terms of engagement, retention, productivity, and overall improved work environments.
Trauma informed cultures are also specifically cultures, not programs. It is a way of approaching how you conduct every aspect of your business and work environment. Creating an environment and culture will help managers naturally gravitate towards the right actions, behaviors and resources versus having to scramble to find the right tool or resource out of hundreds in any given moment.
Start with Awareness and Education
To start your journey building trauma informed managers in your organization, and building a trauma informed organization as well, begin with awareness and education.
Trauma can be a loaded word, and many people have many different things come to mind when you bring up the idea of talking about trauma in the workplace. Some may even have concerns about sharing private details of their own traumatic experience (as a very important side note, that should never be an expectation at any workplace).
Starting from a place of shared understanding of what trauma is, how prevalent it is in our community, and how it may show up at work is an excellent place to start this journey.
Showcase what Trauma Informed Management Looks Like
Draw direct connections between each of the principles and what that looks like in terms of management in your organization and showcase those as best practices for your managers to leverage.
Trauma informed cultures rely on processes, programs, and systems around the seven principles, make sure management and leadership processes follow these same standards. If the standards are already ingrained, it is much easier for your managers to make the right choices and move forward in a trauma informed way.
Create Peer Support Systems for Managers
Just like everyone, managers need support! Create formal or informal support systems for managers to provide each other with support and community in their roles. Management roles can be complex and challenging, having someone to talk to who can relate to what you’ve been through and can relate can make all the difference.
And remember, your managers are your employees too- so they deserve that community support that’s identified in the third principle of trauma informed workplaces too!
Acknowledge and Learn from Imperfections
You and your managers are never going to be perfect. As the principle of humility and responsiveness teaches us, the key is making sure you acknowledge your mistakes, take action to correct them, and learn from them. Create safe spaces for managers to both offer and receive feedback on their management style and team performance overall.
Trauma informed workplace cultures benefit the entire organization and give managers the much-needed support and resources needed to reach their full potential. Managers can also become your greatest advocates in instilling trauma informed principles in your culture — make sure to give them the support they need.
Compassion Fatigue & Secondary Trauma- How Other’s Trauma Can Affect Us at Work
Our focus has been on how workplace cultures can support how trauma employees experience outside the workplace can be supported and honored.
However, today, we will be focusing on a common way trauma is experienced at work — secondary trauma and compassion fatigue.
Because this type of trauma is often associated with work, the effects can be much more pronounced with the individual’s work and engagement, so understanding is key in creating a trauma informed workplace culture.
Before beginning my journey to learn more about trauma, I was not familiar with the terms secondary or vicarious trauma. So, starting with an understanding of both is important for the discussion of the impacts on the workplace.
Secondary Trauma
Secondary trauma also referred to as vicarious trauma, is the emotional and psychological impact that results from indirectly witnessing or hearing about the traumatic experiences of others. It arises when individuals are exposed to others’ trauma narratives, graphic details, or traumatic events through stories, media, or their job duties.
When an individual empathetically engages with the trauma narratives of others, it can create a deep and lasting change in beliefs, worldview, and/or emotional well-being due to repeated exposure to the trauma experiences of others.
Symptoms of secondary trauma can include intrusive thoughts, nightmares, hypervigilance, emotional distress, and difficulty concentrating- similar to personal experiences of trauma.
Compassion Fatigue
You may be more familiar with the concept of compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue, empathic strain or caregiver burnout, pertains to the physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion that can arise from prolonged exposure to the suffering and distress of others.
It develops when individuals consistently and empathetically engage with people who are experiencing trauma or emotional pain. Compassion fatigue is characterized by symptoms such as emotional exhaustion, reduced empathy, apathy, and a decline in motivation.
Secondary trauma and compassion fatigue can overlap and coexist, and individuals may experience varying degrees of each depending on their specific circumstances and the nature of their work or role. The biggest difference is that secondary trauma focuses on the profound transformation of the inner experience and lasting emotional and psychological effects. Compassion fatigue emphasizes the exhaustion and decline in empathy from continuous engagement.
It’s easy to connect secondary trauma and compassion fatigue to helping professions- social workers, first responders, doctors, nurses, etc. The discourse and urgency around compassion fatigue were amplified by the impacts of the pandemic on many of these professions.
The potential impacts of compassion fatigue and secondary trauma are hard to ignore when we look at recent events. Statistics on healthcare professionals during and following the pandemic. include high rates of burnout, stress, turnover, exiting the profession and PTSD.
The impacts can be significant, including some of these major impacts of secondary trauma and compassion fatigue at work-
Decreased job satisfaction and morale: Employees may become emotionally drained and dissatisfied with their work. This can lead to decreased motivation, lower productivity, and a negative impact on overall workplace morale.
Increased turnover: The emotional toll can contribute to high turnover rates within organizations. When employees feel overwhelmed and unsupported in dealing with the impacts of their work, they may be more likely to seek employment elsewhere or leave the industry altogether.
Reduced empathy and compassion: Secondary trauma and compassion fatigue can both diminish individuals’ ability to empathize and connect with others. Over time, this can affect the quality of care or support provided to clients or individuals, as well as overall interpersonal relationships within the workplace.
Burnout and absenteeism: The cumulative effects can contribute to burnout among employees, leading to increased absenteeism or presenteeism. This can further strain the workload of the remaining staff and impact the overall functioning of the workplace, potentially exacerbating and spreading the issue further among the team.
Secondary trauma and compassion fatigue may be most common or at least most discussed, in first responder, medical, social work and other helping positions, it can show up in any profession.
For example, as a career HR professional, helping others work through medical emergencies or engaging in difficult investigations into complaints could become a scenario where the potential for compassion fatigue or secondary trauma is heightened.
Another example- is a customer service representative repeatedly exposed to the volatile behavior of others. There are, of course, types of roles and industries where this is more common, but it should be considered and understood more as there are larger impacts that others may initially expect.
It is important to note, the increasing numbers of caregivers within the talent pool. With this shift, the challenges of compassion fatigue and secondary trauma from outside the workplace may have impacts on your team and how they show up at work as well.
This may seem like a stand-alone issue to address as it relates to trauma or traumatic experiences at work, understanding and consideration of secondary trauma is key to creating a trauma informed workplace culture.
A key aspect of trauma informed cultures is avoiding retraumatizing survivors and creating any new traumatic experiences. Ignoring the impacts of secondary trauma and compassion fatigue misses both these goals. Individuals with prior experiences of trauma may be triggered by the traumatic experiences of others in addition to the risk of secondary trauma.
Compassion fatigue and secondary trauma can both be supported by a trauma informed workplace and the seven principles- (read more here) all support individuals with these experiences. However, we should call out how we can support these unique experiences within trauma informed cultures and systems.
Acknowledgment and education around secondary trauma and compassion fatigue are vital. Because someone has not personally had a traumatic experience and is perhaps frequently supporting those who have, it may become far too easy to minimize the effects their work and support are having on their mental health and well-being.
Make sure your team understands what secondary trauma and compassion fatigue is and how to spot early signs.
Prevention is paramount. Ensure your team has the support in place to avoid and prevent both compassion fatigue and secondary trauma. This will likely vary in action depending on your industry, culture, and organizational needs. The key concept is varying exposure to traumatic events or retellings. This could look like rotations, enhanced time off following challenges or even availability of compassion fatigue leave. It may also look like resources to talk through feelings and experiences to process — like counseling or mental health services.
Professionals focusing on helping others so often face challenging but rewarding work, but without the right support, they can burn out quickly and face significant personal impacts. Organizations also face the challenge of maintaining a qualified, engaged workforce and without addressing the impacts of trauma- whether direct or vicarious, risk losing out on many talented team members.
The Relationship Between Trauma & Burnout
Burnout is a hot topic and for good reason. More than half of managers’ report feeling burnt out (53%) (Workplace Trends Index) and according to Gallup, 76% of employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes, and 28% say they are burned out “very often” or “always” at work.
The impacts of burnout on organizations and teams are real, with many attributing the Great Resignation, at least in part, to widespread burnout during the pandemic. Data shows that-
Employees who are burned out report 22x worse stress and anxiety at work compared with employees who are not.
Burnout is associated with degraded employee performance, including 32% worse productivity and 60% worse ability to focus.
People who are burned out feel far less connected. They are 2x more likely to feel disconnected from company values, direct managers, immediate team, and executive leadership.
Burnout is a major driver of attrition. People who are burned out report being 3x more “likely” or “very likely” to search for a new job in the coming year.
Despite reaching the end of the pandemic and the Great Resignation, burnout is still prevalent, even increasing among many demographics.
Burnout rose to 40% this quarter globally — an 8% rise from May — with the most significant increase in the U.S., where 43% of desk workers report feeling burned out.
There’s a notable gender gap between women and men on the issue of burnout, with female workers showing 32% more burnout than their male counterparts.
Younger workers are more likely to experience burnout, with 49% of 18-to-29-year-olds saying they feel burned out compared with just 38% of workers aged 30 and older.
What is Burnout?
According to the World Health Organization, burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress; characterized by three dimensions:
feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
reduced professional efficacy.
It’s also important to understand that burnout can come on quite quickly, but the recovery takes much longer- on average from six months to several years. So, prevention is key when it comes to mitigating both the personal and organizational impacts of burnout.
How are burnout and trauma connected?
Both trauma and burnout involve experiencing elevated levels of chronic stress. Traumatic events have a much broader scope, while burnout, as defined above, is strictly focused on work and workplace experience. While similar, trauma and burnout are different and can occur in tandem- or on their own. One may experience a traumatic event at work and could also be experiencing burnout or not, for example.
Individuals who experience trauma are at a higher risk of developing burnout, but it’s important to note that while not everyone who experiences trauma will develop burnout, burnout can also occur in the absence of trauma. It’s a complex interaction influenced by individual factors, workplace conditions, and available support systems.
Why would prior experiences of Trauma lead to a higher risk of Burnout?
Prior experiences of trauma can leave individuals with psychological vulnerabilities, such as increased sensitivity to stress and reduced resilience. These vulnerabilities can make it more challenging for individuals to cope with subsequent stressors, including work-related stress. Leaving them more susceptible to developing burnout.
Trauma survivors can often experience heightened emotional exhaustion due to the lingering impacts of trauma. Emotional exhaustion is a core component of burnout. Any existing emotional exhaustion can compound the effects of work-related stress and burnout.
Traumatic experiences can also lead to hypervigilance, a state of heightened alertness and constant scanning of the environment for potential threats. This hypervigilance can persist in non-traumatic contexts, including the workplace.
Sometimes, this can present to others as being empathetic, predicting the needs of others, being steps ahead, or an ability to read the room which can often be positive and rewarded traits in the workplace.
Constantly being on high alert and feeling hyper aroused can contribute to chronic stress and exhaustion, increasing the risk of burnout. A person who cannot manage this vigilance can quickly experience or exacerbate burnout.
Trauma can also disrupt an individual’s ability to effectively cope with stressors. Survivors may have learned maladaptive coping strategies or developed negative beliefs about themselves and the world. These impaired coping mechanisms can make it more challenging for individuals to manage work-related stress.
An individual’s ability to trust others and form healthy relationships can also be affected by prior experiences of trauma, potentially leading to challenges in seeking support and establishing positive social connections in the workplace. A lack of social support and interpersonal difficulties can inhibit a sense of belonging and peer support, contributing to experiences of burnout.
Work environments may contain triggers that remind trauma survivors of their past traumatic experiences. These triggers can reawaken distressing emotions, memories, or physical sensations associated with trauma, amplifying their stress levels and vulnerability to burnout.
An individual may not always recognize their triggers or that their trauma response is triggered in these scenarios, which could render them more upsetting because they are unable to understand their response.
How Trauma Informed Workplace Cultures Support Burnout Prevention
A significant amount of research shows that workplace culture and organizational environment are key factors leading to burnout. So, while experience with trauma may increase an individual’s likelihood for experience burnout, organizations have the greatest ability to prevent burnout for all of their employees, regardless of prior traumatic experiences.
Let’s review a few examples of the organizational factors that contribute to burnout and how the principles of trauma informed culture can help counteract or prevent them. Note, that many of these factors are impacted by multiple principles, one is listed to provide an example.
Burnout Factor -Lack of Control and Autonomy: Limited decision-making authority or control over one’s work can contribute to burnout. Employees feeling powerless, micromanaged, or unable to influence their work environment or processes, can lead to feelings of frustration and exhaustion.
Trauma Informed Culture Principle — Empowerment: Powerlessness is at the core of experiences of trauma and feeling like you have no say in your work life can exacerbate feelings of powerlessness and lead to frustration and burnout.
By leveraging the principle of empowerment, you can create choice and autonomy for your team to ensure they have a sense of control over at least some of their workplace experiences.
Burnout Factor — Role Ambiguity and Conflict: Unclear job expectations, conflicting roles or responsibilities, and lack of role clarity can contribute to burnout. Employees facing conflicting demands, are uncertain about their responsibilities, or experience a mismatch between their values and organizational expectations, it can increase stress and contribute to burnout.
Trauma Informed Culture Principle — Collaboration: The principle of collaboration seeks to minimize the negative impacts of positional power through systems and structures. It also prioritizes empathetic leaders that understand the importance of creating clear and attainable goals for their teams.
Burnout Factor — Lack of Support and Recognition: Insufficient support from supervisors or colleagues, lack of feedback or recognition, and a dearth of social support within the organization can contribute to burnout. Individuals feeling isolated, unappreciated, or unsupported, can impact their motivation and well-being.
Trauma Informed Principle — Community: Social support and peer networks are key aspects of the principle of community. Feelings of belonging and support help work through challenges and provide various avenues for individuals to seek support or even commiseration.
Burnout Factor — Poor Work-Life Balance: An inability to maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life can lead to chronic stress and burnout. Organizations that do not support flexible work arrangements or encourage overworking without breaks contribute to an imbalance that can increase burnout risk.
Trauma Informed Principle- Humility & Responsiveness: An individual experiencing overwork and a lack of boundaries, should have safe avenues to voice their concerns and needs and have the organization take meaningful action to create change. Sometimes workloads balloon without thought, so the key is for mechanisms to be in place to correct them.
Burnout Factor — Lack of Growth and Development Opportunities: A lack of opportunities for learning, growth, and career advancement can contribute to burnout. When employees feel stuck in their roles without opportunities for skill development or progression, it can lead to feelings of stagnation and disengagement.
Trauma Informed Principle — Empowerment: The principle of empowerment recognizes the need for each person to have room to grow and learn in their work environment- whether it is to advance them up the career ladder (or jungle gym) or if it is to enrich their knowledge and skills for their current role.
While trauma and burnout are separate issues, they are deeply interconnected, and trauma informed workplace cultures are a key for organizations looking to tackle the crisis of burnout facing their leaders and teams. If you are looking to learn more about your own experiences or if you think you may be burnt out use this brief assessment as a place to start.
Next week, we will continue our discussion on burnout and trauma, specifically looking at the topic of Secondary/Vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue. Make sure and follow so you don’t miss out!