Note: This article is an extension of a LinkedIn article that we published in 2022. Consider these two companion pieces that very much exist side-by-side.
The World Health Organisation estimates that one in three women will experience some kind of physical or emotional abuse in their lifetime. Shockingly, the culprit is most often the intimate partner, but there are countless stories of women facing harassment from colleagues at work and total strangers in everyday life as well.
In South Africa, this is a particular problem, and when incidents do occur, they often go unreported. Or, if the incident is reported, little is done about it.
With statistics like these, there’s very little chance that some of your colleagues or staff have not experienced trauma. What’s more, emotional and physical abuse stays with the victim, following them in their personal life and into the office too. It’s not simply something they can shrug off. As such, we’re going to use this article to unpack why - and how - you can be trauma informed, and what it means in practical terms.
1. Harassment is going on all the time
We worked with a woman recently who we’ll refer to as Patricia. Late one night, after a busy day at the office, Patricia was on her way home in a taxi. Before she knew it, she felt someone’s hand on her leg. At first she believed it must be a mistake. But then the harassment intensified.
No one else in the taxi could see what was happening because it was dark. So Patricia froze, and waited for it to end. And when it continued, she found the courage to shout.
At that moment, everyone in the taxi turned around to see what was going on and the man took the opportunity to disembark. Though Patricia was now safe, this incident stayed with her. It affected her performance. Any time she was asked to work late, and darknesses descended, she felt the same telltale signs of fear returning. She was worrying about what might happen rather than processing what did happen.
This is not an isolated example. In the work we do, we hear countless tales of both casual and targeted harassment that affects how the traumatised person shows up at work.
2. An organisation gives cues as to whether it’s trauma-informed or not
Patricia never told her work about what had happened because she didn’t trust the system in place. Instead she told her friends. Then, by chance, we were working with her firm and she opened up to us. On our recommendation, she started speaking to someone professionally to get the help she needed.
The point is this: trauma-informed leaders give cues to their staff that they’ll be a good person to speak to as an initial point-of-call. Leaders who are not trauma informed, and appear insensitive or indifferent, will push staff away.
You don’t need to be a therapist, but you do need a degree of sensitivity and a willingness to discuss issues beyond the next client deliverable.
3. Trauma often manifests itself in strange ways
The worst thing you can say to someone is: “Just get over it.” Trauma is not simply rooted in the mind. It’s in the nervous system, and it puts the victim in a hyper-vigilant flight or fight state.
Children who have suffered from trauma often act out and become impossible to control at school. In these cases, a knowledgeable and wise teacher will know to de-escalate the situation and slowly get to the root of the problem. An unwise or untrained teacher will make the problem worse by punishing the child unreasonably.
As a leader, it’s important to understand your staff well enough that when they begin behaving differently, you know something is going on. In these cases, you can have a quiet word, offer reassurance and let them know that you’re there if they want to talk. It doesn’t need to be a grand gesture. All the person needs to know is that you’ll listen when the time is right.
It’s also a good idea to change up the environment from time to time. A victim of gender-based violence might feel hypervigilant as the only female in the meeting, or meeting with a male manager behind closed doors. Similarly, someone like Patricia might start to act differently if she’s asked to work late. When you notice these situations, try to remedy them through action. Perhaps 1:1 meetings take place in a coffee shop, for instance, and after-hours work can be done at home.
4. Marginalised groups are most often affected
In our experience, women and members of the LGTBQI community are most commonly affected. That’s not to say men don’t experience trauma too - there are famous cases of soldiers returning from war with unseen scars they’re unable to properly heal. But in all these cases, people need the space to be able to talk about what is bothering them. Left unchecked, trauma can wreak havoc and become an indelible part of someone’s identity.
5. Treat people like individuals - and consider their circumstances
The best leaders recognise that no one team member is the same, and that no one team member has the same set of circumstances. There might be a Patricia, who has to take the taxi every day, and a Simon, who owns his own car.
In short, you can be more relational by:
Managing with empathy. If staff know your door is always open, they’ll be far more willing to come to you with personal problems that are affecting their performance at work. The benefit of this knowledge is that you can then make better decisions; decisions that’ll be in the best interests of the team - and the company - as a whole.
Giving constructive feedback. If you get to know your staff, you’ll get to know their work, and if you notice a dip in performance, it’s important to be constructive and encouraging in the way you respond to this decline. You can’t be sure that the mistakes are not the result of a traumatic event that occurred weeks prior. So instead of saying, “This is not good”, be specific about what you like and what you don’t like when reviewing the work.
Offering flexible working. Flexible working is not just a nice-to-have. Post-COVID, it’s considered a hygiene factor. If your WFH policies are lagging behind, or are becoming unnecessarily rigid, review this part of the business. Staff will appreciate the extra flexibility and will reward you in kind.
Staying abreast of power dynamics. If you notice that inappropriate relationships are forming, it’s always a good idea to step in. When we say inappropriate, we mean that there’s an inherent power imbalance. For instance, Person A is in a senior leadership position and Person B is very much a junior, and therefore B feels compelled to keep A happy. Relationships at work can of course occur naturally, but they’re healthiest when there is no power imbalance at play.
Ultimately, a diverse and equitable workplace does not work if there is an absence of empathy. You cannot be a good leader if you don’t see the humanity in the person you’re leading. If all they are to you is a name on a task management spreadsheet, you’re failing at the first hurdle.
The best leaders understand their staff and get the most out of them by listening to their stories. The old adage that we should leave our worries at the door is a fallacy: no one does this in practice, and you’ll notice a sharp uptick in productivity if you give colleagues the due care and time they deserve.
Life is difficult, and we all have individual issues that we are grappling with: all the more reason to make time to listen to a subordinate and offer them advice.
At 54TwentyFour, we’re passionate about this approach to working, which is why we’ve been helping businesses become more people-centric for the last five years and counting. To see more of what we offer, refer to our brochures on Leadership Development and the Employee Experience. And for everything else, stay tuned to our LinkedIn page.
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