Trauma-Informed Management: Create Safety and Resilience
The Insight:
Trauma isn't just major life events - it includes everyday wounds from unmet needs, workplace discrimination, authoritarian leadership, or being forced to act against personal values.
Research shows 75% experience stress-related absences, yet most managers operate as if everyone arrives unaffected.
Trauma-informed management means creating environments that acknowledge human complexity and build in flexibility. This benefits everyone by reducing energy spent hiding struggles and redirecting it toward productive work.
The Tool: Resilience Builder
4 steps to try now
01.
Build Choice and Autonomy Into Work Design
Peronalise
Recognise that trauma can make certain conditions feel unsafe.
Provide options: flexible work hours, different communication methods, various meeting contribution styles, or workspace choices. Focus on outcomes rather than monitoring processes.
When making decisions affecting your team, involve them rather than announcing changes. This prevents re-traumatisation through powerlessness while building trust.
02.
Listen Without Fixing When People Share Struggles
Listen
When team members disclose difficult situations, resist immediately solving, minimising, or rushing past their experience.
Your role is acknowledgment, not therapy. Say: "That sounds incredibly difficult" and "I'm glad you felt safe telling me." Ask: "What would be most helpful at work right now?" rather than assuming.
Offer practical support like flexibility, workload adjustments, or time off, but don't try to fix their personal situation.
03.
Communicate with Clarity and Consistency
Clarify
Unclear communication can trigger anxiety.
Be direct about expectations, deadlines, and feedback. Provide context for decisions and changes.
When giving feedback, be specific about behaviours and impacts rather than character judgments.
Consistency builds trust and reduces mental energy.
04.
Prepare Systems for Human Reality
Plan
Accept that people cannot perform at peak levels consistently.
Create mechanisms for work distribution that account for varying capacity. Document projects clearly so work can be transferred if necessary.
Develop coverage plans for unexpected absences.
Have resources ready: employee assistance programs, mental health benefits, or local support services.
Why it works
Trauma-informed practices reduce the energy people spend masking difficulties and redirect it toward productive contribution. When people feel safe to be human at work, engagement and performance improve naturally.
Use it when
Someone shares personal struggles, you notice unexplained performance changes, team stress levels seem high, or you want to build a more psychologically safe work environment proactively.
Bonus tip
Share this approach with your team by discussing how you want to support human resilience, not by asking people to disclose trauma. Frame it as: "I want our team to be a place where people can do their best work, even during difficult life circumstances."
