Do No Harm
Five ways to become a trauma-informed leader who builds a culture of psychological safety
On October 20, 2022, the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General published an impressive framework for workplace mental health and well-being. Its first of five pillars? Protection from harm. The components to ensure that protection? Prioritize psychological and physical safety. Encourage adequate rest. Normalize and support mental health. Put diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs clearly into practice.
How might trauma-informed leadership further contribute to protecting workers from harm?
Read on to find out.
When you think of trauma in the workplace, the most obvious examples come from the front-lines. Police bear witness to accidents and assaults daily. Emergency room staff sacrifice sleep to treat life-threatening injuries. Machinists know that if a part were to malfunction, it might cost a co-worker a limb.
Workplace psychological trauma, however, often happens under the radar. We’ve all heard of sexual harassment cases that take decades to come to light. Racial discrimination pops up at the level of micro-aggressions and unconscious biases. Unreasonable work demands leave employees feeling burnout.
To obfuscate things, many employees feel their job security depends on their willingness to stay silent. If a targets of bullying receive compensation, they usually signs away their right to speak about it. The problem goes underground, and the shame and stigma deepens for those most affected.
In 2021, researchers from the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario, and the Canadian labour Congress reported that 71 percent of Canadians have dealt with at least one form of harassment or abuse in the workplace. When you consider a Human Rights Act dictates that Canadian employers tolerate neither, that number is discouraging.
Why aren’t more leaders proactively protecting their people from workplace trauma? Is it a case of unawareness? A lack of economic incentive? Or an absence of a workable framework to go about it?
What is workplace trauma?
Put simply, workplace trauma is any deeply disturbing or distressing event in the workplace that damages a person’s ability to cope. Resilience and recovery from workplace depend upon how robustly a person can access adequate resources and to what extent she feels cared for by a community.
Since workplaces commonly provide some those resources and support — from a paycheque to healthcare benefits to a familiar community — any individual dealing with workplace trauma may face an impossible choice. Leave the organization and lose access to essential resources? Or stay and suffer the consequences of a hostile environment?
No employee should ever find herself in that situation.
Workplace trauma is any deeply disturbing or distressing event in the workplace that damages a person’s ability to cope.
How can trauma-informed leadership help?
Trauma-informed leaders understand that trauma may cause significant damage to an individual’s ability to cope. They understand that individuals may come to work already dealing with traumatic stress and may be less likely to tolerate certain environmental triggers, so they accommodate different working styles so that employees feel safe.
They take responsibility for any traumatic event or misconduct that has happened in their workplace. If employees are experiencing burnout, they inquire into how demands or expectations may be unreasonable. Are avenues of support and lines of communication clear? Are roles, responsibilities, and relationships straightforward? Can people speak up about feeling tired or overworked? Or will their performance and competency be questioned?
Trauma-informed leaders build cultures that encourage all voices to speak up — however uncomfortable and inconvenient their truths. They treat colleague as friends. They demonstrate authentic care in others’ wellbeing. They never expect people to perform to simply fit into the culture.
They also practice self-inquiry. They question their own subtle forms of discrimination, bias, and preferential treatment. They welcome rather than discourage disagreements as opportunities for growth.
Easy right?
Workplaces that are completely psychologically safe are exceptionally rare. But to those leaders who commit to doing the work, the benefits are substantial. Employees that feel safe in their jobs stay on longer. They’re more likely to enjoy coming to work and feel motivated. Collaboration increases and people feel inspired to take creative risks.
What can I do now to cultivate a psychologically safe workplace?
There are dozens of way to cultivate psychological safety. Watch this space for deeper dives into the practice of both trauma-informed leadership and psychological saftey. Or set up a free discovery call to start a conversation into how mindfulness-based coaching can help you lead for trauma-sensitivity and psychological safety. In the meantime, here’s three easy things you can start doing now.
Use your curiosity to explore problems
Avoid pointing to any single person as the source of any one problem that may be occurring within an organization. Understand that all workplaces are systems. As a leader, it is up to you to treat problems at a systematic level rather than outsource blame to individuals. Get curious about the underlying sources of tensions, doubts, and challenges. Reframe problems as opportunities.
Allow mistakes
To err is human. Your team is human. Turn mistakes into learning opportunities. Admit your own mistakes. Openly. It’s the only path to growth.
Never disparage people’s ideas or their work
The surefire way to create a psychologically unsafe workplace is to make it a habit of depreciating the value of others’ contributions. While you may not roll with every idea and while all work could use a little improvement here and there, make sure that any feedback you give is constructive and helps the person to grow. Always start with encouraging words, if it’s only to say: “I appreciate you.”
Ensure confidentiality when any employee comes to you with a concern
Anytime an employee comes to you with a concern, whether it be with their mental health or a concern about safety in the workplace, respect that person’s privacy and ensure any conversation is confidential. Provide training to human resource specialists to respect employees’ rights to confidentiality. Ensure that employees can choose to a speak to person whom they feel most comfortable.
Work on your listening skills
Put aside your prejudices and your agenda and simply learn to listen. If you want people to feel safe, hold a space for those people to be heard.