DOMAIN 4: SECONDARY TRAUMATIC STRESS–INFORMED LEADERSHIP
Item 3
Strategies for Leaders:
- Practice compassionate leadership, which means to lead with a focus on relationships through listening, understanding, empathizing, and supporting team members and enabling them to feel valued, cared for, and respected. This allows team members to reach their full potential and to do their best work.
- Check in with staff frequently—formally during meetings but also informally when interacting with staff. Asking “how are you doing” shows care and concern for staff well-being.
- Seek to empathize with the challenges faced by your staff in doing trauma work, but also exhibit compassion by taking actions that are supportive.
- Take actions in conjunction with staff so that you are not telling them what to do but rather engaging them in problem-solving and finding solutions together.
Implementation Resources:
Books
- Compassionate Leadership: How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way, book by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter. The four caring steps to becoming a better leader are to have a caring presence, caring courage, caring candor, and caring transparency. Go to the link for summaries of concepts from the book.
Online Learning
- “Compassionate Leadership: Webinar with the Experts” from Tend Academy. In this 60-minute recorded webinar, Françoise Mathieu, Cambria Rose Walsh, and Tamsyn Brennan discuss the key components of compassionate leadership.
Publications
“Compassion in the Workplace: 9+ Examples & Tips for Leaders,” an article from PositivePsychology.com. The benefits of workplace compassion are employee retention, stress reduction, physical well-being, and interpersonal bonds.
Select Action Plan to begin to organize and implement next steps.