Trauma-Informed Leadership: A Letter to Leaders
Dear Leader,
Thank you for your interest in trauma-informed leadership. If you’re reading this, I already know you are a dedicated and gifted leader because your interest in the development of your people speaks for itself. You’re also going above and beyond what many leaders feel the need to do because you’re interested in understanding and helping your people AS PEOPLE. Perhaps you have already seen how individuals who work for you can be affected by adverse experiences in their past. Perhaps you have already found yourself noticing the role you can play in helping them move toward a bright future by better accessing their talents and making greater positive impacts. You’re exactly the kind of leader I admire and enjoy working with.
If you’re reading this, I already know you are a dedicated and gifted leader because your interest in the development of your people speaks for itself.
Do you know what is the best preparation for helping your people overcome the limits imposed by the past and find themselves performing at their best?
By doing it for yourself!
By practicing trauma-informed talent development techniques yourself, you will gain the perspectives, skills, and intuitive insights that you can then make available to those who need your help. In this sense, you become less of a boss and more of a teacher. “Leadership is teachership” has become my signature phrase, but recently I’m finding myself adding another piece to that mantra: “Leadership is teachership AND leadership is learnership.”
By embarking on a path of exploration into trauma-informed leadership, you are also embarking on a journey of trauma-informed self-discovery, self-development, and “learnership.”
YOU have so much to gain by being a trauma-informed leader. First and foremost, the benefits begin with you. You may find that the development of your talents has been hindered by unpleasant echoes of past events. Imagine the liberating and empowering feeling of dropping those burdens, letting go of that baggage, and embracing the full benefits of the positive experiences you’ve been fortunate enough to have along the way. Now, imagine being in a position to inspire that same growth in someone else. And further imagine how your organization can benefit from being populated by high-performing individuals held back by nothing!
Understanding and addressing performance-related trauma is an often overlooked key to accessing untapped talent and really soaring as a result of what you’re able to develop—both for yourself and for others.
Please stay in touch as we learn together to notice, navigate, and negotiate the effects of trauma in the workplace from a leadership perspective that sees trauma as a critical factor in talent development and views personal development as essential to professional development.
After all, “Leadership is teachership AND leadership is learnership.”
Your colleague and friend,
Jesse
Jesse Katen is a leadership coach and consultant at his firm, Jesse Katen Leadership Consultancy, based in Binghamton, New York. Visit his website at www.jessekaten.com or email him at jesse@jessekaten.com.