Trauma-Informed Leadership: “Avoidance Rooted in Trauma”

For leaders seeking to improve their effectiveness by becoming trauma-informed, one of the first steps I suggest is to begin seeing the performance issues of their people through the lens of “avoidance rooted in trauma.” 

Key Concept for Trauma-Informed Leadership: Many performance-based issues that present in the workplace are NOT, in fact, stemming from incompetence, lack of skill, negligent disregard, or willful insubordination. They may be the result of avoidance—in which the individual is attempting to avoid experiencing unpleasant feelings that stem from a traumatic past. 

This is especially the case when a leader is perplexed about the reason for the undesired behavior in an employee and the employee can’t seem to offer an explanation. These circumstances can indicate what I refer to as an “invisible internal impediment.” 

Key Concept for Trauma-Informed Leadership:

Many performance-based issues that present in the workplace are NOT, in fact, stemming from incompetence, lack of skill, negligent disregard, or willful insubordination. They may be the result of avoidance—in which the individual is attempting to avoid experiencing unpleasant feelings that stem from a traumatic past. 

Unexplainable performance issues begin to make sense when understood as fear-based avoidance. It’s also important to understand that the trauma the avoidance stems from doesn’t necessarily need to have been a singular catastrophic event in the individual’s life. It could also have emerged from “micro-traumas” (“small” incidents that, over time and through repetition and reinforcement, act to erode the individual’s belief in their ability to meet the demands of work and life). 

Leaders who are willing to understand performance issues in their people as avoidance rooted in trauma then find themselves in the rewarding position of helping to facilitate growth. As I always love to say, addressing the effects of trauma is an integral part of talent development that is so often overlooked. 

“Leaders who are willing to understand performance issues in their people as avoidance rooted in trauma then find themselves in the rewarding position of helping to facilitate growth. ”

Avoidance Rooted in Trauma Examples

Here I’d like to provide four example scenarios (based on situations similar to those encountered by my leadership clients) where performance-based issues are actually the result of avoidance rooted in trauma. I’ve included the situation, how the avoidance behavior is attributable to trauma, and how the behavior may appear to anyone who is not trauma-informed. 

“Something always comes up”

An employee is asked by their manager to make a necessary presentation to the team on a specific topic. Even though they have agreed to give it, they keep canceling and rescheduling the presentation because things “keep coming up.” 

Avoidance rooted in trauma: The employee would rather avoid the feelings of inadequacy and shame that accompany public presentations due to an event from their past and the recurring performance anxiety (“stage fright”) that appears whenever public speaking is involved. 

COULD be perceived as: Employee is not listening to their manager or not taking the request/directive seriously. 

“Putting off the inevitable”

A manager knows they need to address problematic behavior with an employee but puts off the conversation that is becoming increasingly inevitable as the behavior escalates. 

Avoidance rooted in trauma: The leader is experiencing feelings of dread around approaching this employee as they assume the conversation will be confrontational or hostile in nature.They would rather avoid the feelings of inadequacy or shame that accompany being the object of someone else’s anger. Being the brunt of anger feels fundamentally unsafe as the result of an event from the past.

COULD be perceived as: The manager is a lax or ineffective leader who tolerates unacceptable behavior. 

“I hate doing these every year”

A manager finds themselves in trouble with HR for not completing the annual reviews of their direct reports on time. 

Avoidance rooted in trauma: The leader procrastinates with regard to completing the reviews because they dread awkward conversations around performance issues and the need to determine merit-based raises. They would rather avoid the potential conflict sparked by anger if an employee is under-performing or not receiving a raise. Needing to defend a contentious decision is triggering due to a personal history. 

COULD be perceived as: The manager is incompetent or incapable of performing their duties or is neglecting the review process because they don’t care about their employees and/or company policy. 

“Not up to going in” 

An employee wakes up in the morning feeling not great but not sick, and when they ask themselves “can I face it today?” the answer is “no, not today.” They call in sick yet again. 

Avoidance rooted in trauma: Exhaustion and depletion of internal resources emerge from masking anxiety and vigilance for an extended period of time. They would rather avoid feelings of overwhelm and panic in the workplace when excessive stimulation is paired with depleted internal resources. A history of instances of meltdown occurring in the workplace makes the employee avoid any situation in which they risk becoming dysregulated or uncontrolled. 

COULD be perceived as: The employee is lazy or doesn’t value their job and is therefore unreliable. 

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.