Bringing it all together
Trauma-informed management benefits everyone, seen or unseen. These ideas offer a starting point for supporting your team and promoting a trauma-aware approach organisation-wide, boosting retention, engagement, and impact.
When I began my career within People and Culture, I was surprised (and honoured!) that people came to me a lot just to talk.
I was regularly floored by what my colleagues were carrying - grief, housing instability, debt, pregnancy loss, the pain of having relatives in conflict zones, caring responsibilities and much more.
Since I first started having these conversations, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with how we can make our workplaces more human, for everyone’s benefit.
In today’s complex and chaotic world, this feels more urgent than ever. So whilst it’s important to say that I am not a mental health practitioner, in this article, I want to share some strategies for managing in a more trauma-informed way.
He points to the origin of the word as being Greek for ‘wound’, but adds that ‘trauma ‘is not what happens to you; it is what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you’.
He also highlights both "capital T-traumatic events”, which include things like the incarceration of a loved one or a life-threatening illness and “small-T traumas” which are more about unmet needs.
This expansive and compassionate definition goes some way to explaining why different people have different responses to difficult life events. If we are unable to make sense of our experiences and access healing, all ‘wounds’ can impact our sense of self and our worth.
Sometimes, a trauma response might cause us to react in ways that are disproportionate to the situation at hand. Importantly, we are not always aware or able to articulate why we have the response we have.
It’s important to recognise that work itself can also be a site of trauma - and not just for those who work as first responders or with vulnerable populations. Authoritarian leadership, repeated exposure to discrimination and microaggressions and the ‘moral injury’ that can come from being compelled to act in a way that does not align with our personal values are all examples of things that can wound us deeply.
At an individual level, it’s sometimes difficult to understand trauma responses without context and respond appropriately - i.e. in a way that does not excuse poor behaviour, but also seeks to understand the root causes.
At an organisational level, when harmful behaviour or bad working practices are condoned or ignored, it can create a toxic culture, compounding harm and impacting the mental health of the team.
The last major survey by the CIPD on wellbeing found that 75% of people had some sort of stress-related absence, something which is disruptive and costly for employers - and shows that we have a long way to go to create mentally healthy workplaces.
In particular, if you work in a team that cares for others or is exposed to vicarious trauma on a regular basis, it’s important to understand and acknowledge the impact. We also recommend looking for specialist training providers which can offer tailored advice on how to support your team.
Here are some additional tips for managing in a trauma informed way:
Provide choice and autonomy: throughout every person's career, they acquire not just new skills, but increasing awareness of the ways of working that allow them to thrive. Trauma-informed managers encourage curiosity around this process of discovery and provide flexibility to accommodate different ways of working, focusing on outcomes rather than hours worked.
Good managers also go out of their way to ensure their team has a voice when it comes to decisions which materially impact their work, making co-creation a core part of their toolkit.
Listen, don’t fix: when team members choose to be open about traumatic events (and it should always, to be clear, be a choice), it's human nature to want to soothe their pain, gloss over it quickly or jump to offering fixes. However, this impulse is self-serving.
Whilst reasonable adjustments to work should be discussed with the team member you’re speaking to - the first response should always be acknowledging your team members pain without equivocation, followed by curiosity about what they need.
Be real: clear, consistent and direct communication builds relational trust and increases team members' sense of safety. Those in a position of leadership should focus on setting clear expectations, providing abundant context for work and acknowledging challenges and setbacks rather than embracing unconditional positivity.
Signpost to support: as a manager, having clear resources to signpost team members to when they’re distressed is crucial. If this isn’t something you currently have access to, it’s important to add to your People team’s priority list. Depending on your organisation’s budget, resources could include access to company-sponsored coaching or therapy or a list of free or low cost mental health providers.
Investing in peer support can also be powerful, as not everyone wants to disclose what they’re experiencing to those with authority. This could include funding Mental Health First Aid courses or setting up affinity groups.
Prepare for humans to be humans: trauma-informed managers recognise that no-one can perform at their best all of the time and create mechanisms for team resilience that account for this. This includes thinking carefully about delegation and distributing work equitably according not just skill, but current capacity.
Whilst unscheduled time off such as emergency caring responsibilities or compassionate leave can be difficult to plan for, it’s also important to accept this as normal and inevitable and think about ways to help people to drop out and ease back in when they need to - this could include documenting team projects clearly so they can be handed over between team members with context.
Trauma-informed management benefits everyone, seen or unseen. These ideas offer a starting point for supporting your team and promoting a trauma-aware approach organisation-wide, boosting retention, engagement, and impact.
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