The Trauma-Informed Leader

What to do to Keep Your Best People from Going Silent
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-83358-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 206 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Giving Voice to Values

This book is for organizational leaders who recognize the growing impact of stress and trauma on workforce performance and employee capacity. It provides a clear understanding of trauma, the extent of it in the workforce, and how to address it in the context of work, without needing anyone to share stories or past trauma. It enables leaders to confidently approach this topic without worrying about making things worse or taking on the role of therapist. The book explains how to create workplaces where people can perform at their best rather than manage around what they are carrying. Leaders who apply the principles not only lead better but can build more resilient, productive, and high-performing organizations.

Unresolved trauma can present as reduced voice, absenteeism, disengagement, conflict avoidance, overwork and over-accommodation, underperformance, and other observable workplace behaviors that most leaders currently misattribute to motivation or character. Grounded in the latest organizational research and evidence-based trauma-informed practice, the book is actionable, practical, and encouraging. It incorporates real-world examples, practical exercises, and case studies specific to leadership contexts. It guides leaders through a reflective and sometimes challenging process, helping them apply the framework's principles to support their teams without clinical training or therapeutic expertise. Mini-cases, tips, steps, and examples are part of each chapter. The book also addresses the connection between values-driven leadership, organizational culture, and the conditions that allow people to do their best work.

This book is written for business leaders and a management audience and is also highly relevant to those from executive coaching, leadership development, and the therapy and counseling fields.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Professional Practice & Development

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jones Christensen, Lisa

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmensethik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Management: Führung & Motivation
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologische Disziplinen Wirtschafts-, Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmenskultur, Corporate Governance
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaft: Sachbuch, Ratgeber
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Kognitionspsychologie Emotion, Motivation, Handlung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction  1. A Book About Trauma That Barely Discusses Trauma  2. The Nervous System Is in Charge and That Means You Have Options  3. What "Trauma-Informed" Really Means at Work (and Why Leaders Care)  4. Safety Is Necessary but Not Sufficient: What Leaders Miss Under Pressure  5. Awareness: Detect Signals Before Harm Accumulates 6. Flexibility: A Characteristic of People and Systems  7. Empathy Under Pressure: How Leaders Lower Threat Without Lowering Standards  8. Regulation: How Not to Lose the Room  9. Rupture, Repair, and Leadership Under Pressure  10. Launching SAFER Safely: A Quick Start Guide and Encouragement

Über Autor(innen)

Lisa Jones Christensen, Ph.D. is an organizational psychologist, management professor at the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University, and executive coach. Before academia, she spent a decade in Silicon Valley and co-founded an international nonprofit serving entrepreneurs in seven countries. Her research focuses on what stress and trauma do to people's capacity to think, speak, and perform under pressure, and what leaders can do about it. She brings to that research both organizational science and firsthand knowledge of high-performing stress responses: the overwork, hyper-productivity, and over-accommodation that can silence voice and constrain performance as surely as withdrawal does. She is a seventeen-year cancer survivor and the mother of one son.