Repost from PACES Connection Member, Shenandoah Chefalo (9/30/22):
Trauma-informed leadership is crucial if you want to accomplish trauma-informed change in your organization.
Here’s some expert advice on how you can become a trauma-informed leader.
1. Acknowledge that cultural change is just as important as technical change
Our problem-solving brains often focus on technical change when we talk about organizational change. We ask, “What processes can we put in place to prevent this issue?” when we should ask, “What cultural norms are contributing to this issue, and how can we shift?”
Trauma-informed leaders know that cultural changes are just as—if not more—important as technical changes.
Exploring all the nuanced differences between technical and cultural is a bigger task than we can do here. But the good news is that we already covered how to create lasting change at work by understanding cultural shifts here.
2. Become a catalyst for cultural change through personal development
Trauma-informed leadership is a key piece of trauma-informed implementation because many organizational issues trickle down from leaders who exhibit toxic behaviors as the result of their trauma responses.
When we’re stuck in trauma brain, we cannot access our executive functioning skills. We become stuck in a trauma state where we cannot think about the future, be curious or open-minded, or see the bigger picture.
To get out of the traumatic brain and into the executive functioning mode, we need to do some heavy lifting in our personal development.
Trauma-informed leaders know the science behind trauma, but they also utilize trauma-informed methods and skills in their everyday life to grow as an individual.
So, if you want to become a trauma-informed leader, you must make a conscious decision to prioritize your personal development. When you do, you become a catalyst for cultural change in your organization.
If that resonates, these 7 Tips for Creating Cultural Change at Work could be the next best step on your personal development journey.
3. Put in the work to create paradigm shifts
Cultural change is at the heart of trauma-informed work, and a major part of cultural change involves participating in paradigmatic shifts.
You can think of the current paradigm as “the way things are.” A paradigm comprises collective beliefs, behaviors, and social norms. And, in modern America, our paradigms are toxic (if you haven’t already noticed).
We often fall into the trap of thinking work should be the only thing we care about in life or that our value is based on the quality of work we produce or how much money we make. We have toxic beliefs surrounding failure and criticism, and black-and-white thinking dominates our paradigm.
Well, trauma-informed leaders can identify the existing and desired paradigms and then put in the work to shift the paradigm.
If you want to learn more about paradigm shifts, you can read up on it here.
4. Live trauma-informed values every day
It’s easy to say, “Yeah, I agree with these values. They seem great.” It’s another task to embody those values.
The Sanctuary 7 Commitments and SAMHSA’s 6 Guiding Principles are the building blocks of trauma-informed values. While we often encourage organizations to develop their own trauma-informed value systems, these are a great reference for trauma-informed leaders.
Trauma-informed leaders will embody these values each and every day. Have you heard the phrase how you do anything is how you do everything?
When you start to embed trauma-informed practices into your life, you'll be able to use this lens with everything you do, see, and experience.
For curious leaders, we’ve provided expert advice on 9 Ways to Embody Trauma-Informed Values.
5. Use ritualization as a trauma-informed tool
Ritualization is a useful trauma-informed tool to embed our learning into our life. Through habits and routines, we can make trauma-informed practice second nature. We can live trauma-informed values without making a conscious decision every time.
Ritualization is an extremely powerful tool to hold yourself and your teams accountable throughout the trauma-informed implementation process.
Final Thoughts: Become a Trauma-Informed Leader Today
You don’t need a fancy certificate to call yourself a trauma-informed leader, but expert training and coaching can support you and your organization on your journey from trauma-aware to trauma-informed and beyond.
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