010: Breaking new ground with trauma-informed leadership with Michelle Baker

Trauma isn’t a jacket we take off when it’s time to go to work. It stays with us throughout the day and can impact our daily life at unexpected moments. It affects productivity, engagement, absenteeism, turnover and more. Trauma can affect anyone. Living through a pandemic together has raised awareness of mental health issues. We need to treat people with compassion and empathy instead of making assumptions about their feelings or behaviour because we don’t know their lived experiences. Today we talk about how we can achieve trauma-informed leadership and topics such as what trauma is and isn’t, how it can affect anyone, the training resources available to become trauma informed in the workplace and why you shouldn’t make assumptions. 

We discuss:

• How watching the news can lead to burnout and mental health problems.

• What trauma is and what it isn’t and why we should be careful not to use the word too casually

• The difference between empathetic and trauma informed leadership

• How the frontlines of trauma have shifted

• How hardships from someone’s home life show up at work because these traumas trickle through and impact day to day life.

Connect with: Michelle Baker

Website: https://www.ketchum.com/trauma-informed-consultancy/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellembaker/ 

Fast company article mentioned: https://www.fastcompany.com/90836621/we-need-trauma-informed-leadership-in-the-workplace

I hope you enjoyed this episode of Evolve: A New Era of Leadership. To learn more visit my website: www.carolynswora.com or send me an email to [email protected]. I'd love to hear from you.