Hello Trauma-Informed Innovators! Welcome to my corner of the internet and the Trauma-Informed Leadership blog. I’m glad you’re here. In case we haven’t met yet, my name is Lisa Conradi and I’m a licensed clinical psychologist, trauma expert, and leader with more than 20 years of experience supporting diverse teams in a trauma-focused organization through really challenging circumstances (COVID-19 anyone?). This blog is for you if you have experienced any of the following situations:
· You were recently promoted to a leadership position for a small team, but you are in over your head without any official leadership training
· You are a mid-level or senior leader and you’re struggling with recruiting and retaining talented team members who are engaged in and committed to your work
· You are struggling with balancing between a compassionate leader while still holding your team members accountable to meet business needs
· Your team members don’t trust each other, don’t trust you, or both
· Your team members keep talking about “feeling safe” and you are trying to figure out what that really means and how to create true safety for your team
· You are feeling overwhelmed dealing with challenging team members who are calling out sick all the time, quiet quitting, or challenging every decision that you make
· You are struggling with trying to balance effectively supporting your teams and taking care of yourself
If you have experienced any of these challenges, or ones like them, this blog is for you!
I came to this work as a struggling leader myself. When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in March 2020, I was working with an organization that had recently undergone several leadership changes and we were struggling. Suddenly and unexpectedly, I was promoted to the role of Executive Director where I was responsible for the success (or failure) of the organization. No pressure at all! While I tried to put on a brave and professional face, I felt like I was drowning. Like many leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was struggling to support, engage, and retain my team while trying to balance the needs of my organization and trying to take care of myself. As a result, I started to dig into leadership classes and books and realized that my expertise in trauma and trauma-informed care could help me be a better leader.
Gratefully, we no longer live in an era where leaders can rely on an authoritarian leadership style in which leaders give directives and team members blindly follow them, just grateful to have a job. While this change is a good thing, it can still be challenging to lead with care and compassion while also maintaining a culture of accountability and equity on your team. Team members demand flexibility and strong, caring, and compassionate leadership. And, if they don’t get it, they are prepared to move on. It’s a huge task, yet I’ve found that very few of us have been given the tools and resources to balance these requirements effectively. I started this blog to fill that gap.
I’ve spent most of my career helping individuals and organizations figure out how they can become “trauma-informed” in their practices. If you haven’t yet heard of this term, I promise you will hear about it soon. Essentially, to be trauma-informed means understanding that many individuals have experienced trauma in our society and those experiences frame how we make sense of the world. While this is a critical framework, in my experience, the term “trauma-informed” has become a catchall that seems to cover everything. As a result, it often becomes meaningless. I’m here to talk about what it really means to be trauma-informed, applying best practices in the field of trauma to organizational leadership
Over the past 5 years, which saw a global pandemic and a racial reckoning, we have all experienced a collective trauma that has fundamentally changed the way in which we relate to our organizations and to our team members. To be better leaders, we need to understand trauma and how it impacts how we and our team members engage in and relate to our world. This includes how we show up at work, no matter what our role and level. I believe it’s the missing piece to help us understand, on a deeper level, how we can all support each other – whether it’s leaders with their team or in our own self-reflection practices. When leaders understand the critical role they play in supporting their team in a trauma-informed manner, and pair that with the implementation of sustainable strategies, the entire organization benefits.
This blog is designed to support leaders at every level of their respective organizations in employing a trauma-informed approach to their work, whether it is a frontline supervisor to the CEO of a large company. Each week, we will dive into a specific topic around trauma-informed leadership. Some weeks we will talk about topics such as psychological safety and boundaries. Other weeks we will talk about leadership self-care and improving organizational cultures. Every week, I’ll share practical applications for all leaders (and those interested in becoming leaders) to help improve employee morale, engagement, and retention across all departments and units. I’ll also share links to great resources to help deepen the work. For those who are new to the world of trauma and trauma-informed care, every month or so, we’ll do a “bonus” blog that will do a deeper dive into a specific area related to the field of trauma. These trauma concepts will be directly applicable to helping you support your team members and yourself while doing this work.
Come join me on our trauma-informed leadership journey. Here’s a sneak peek at my first blog post, An Introduction to Trauma-Informed Leadership.
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, let’s stay in touch!
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