Some leadership essentials: strengths based, trauma informed and culturally safe
Teams who are strengths based, trauma informed and prioritize cultural-safety create deep levels of trust making them highly effective.
Great leaders I have known bring teams together by paying attention to the whole person, including their values, their culture, history and what drives them. Some of these leaders are social workers, others are coaches, some are business executives, they come from all walks of life. What they have in common though is they knowingly or unknowingly incorporate the social work practice of a Strengths Based, Trauma Informed and Culturally Safe approach. This framework can help you develop a team that trusts and understands one another and communicates effectively in supporting each other. The approach can be used by anyone who leads a team, athletic or otherwise.
Here’s an example of how it works:
Joe is a college basketball player prone to emotional outbursts like throwing chairs or storming out of the gym before the handshake-line when things don’t go his way. We all know players must keep their cool when things don’t go their way. Navigating a foul call or coping with disappointment about not starting a game are situations that frequently send Joe over the edge.
Joe is a character on ‘Last Chance U’, a new series on Netflix that follows a team of college basketball players in LA made up primarily of athletes facing personal hardship. Joe comes from a challenging family and he has grown up measuring his self-worth by how well he plays. He finds comfort by turning to his faith when facing challenges but by his own admission, has trouble controlling his anger. As a coach it would be tempting to respond to Joe’s behaviours with consequences like benching him, a game suspension or shaming him by running extra lines in practice. Joe’s coach chooses a different path. Despite his frustration with Joe’s behaviour and his concern for it’s impact on the team, he chooses an approach that offers Joe and the team a real solution.
For both the coach and the athlete, the identification of strengths (what they do well) as a means of tapping into individual and team resiliency. Using a strengths-based approach doesn’t mean minimizing or ignoring difficult behaviour and the problems it creates rather, responding to problems by investigating the strengths and inner resources of the athlete.
Respect, transparency and focusing on the relationships between team members are all a priority in this approach even in the toughest of circumstances. Asking strength-based questions helps develop resiliency that may not be apparent and gives the person a chance to find solutions to their own problems. Some great strength-based questions are:
You showed up to practice today even though you had a rough game last week. How’d you do that?
On a scale of 1-10 how are you feeling about being on the team right now? What would move you up one point?
What would you say your coach/best friend/teammates admire most about you?
A trauma-informed approach focuses on a person’s background and the ‘why’ of their behaviours.
It means thinking about what might have happened to someone during the course of their life, rather than focusing on current behaviours. Consideration and understanding of cultural, historical and gender issues should be top-of-mind when taking a trauma-informed approach.
After a challenging incident, think about why the team member is exhibiting negative behaviours. With this approach, you may be able to identify triggers behind challenging behaviours. Often people who have experienced trauma have a tough time with unpredictable situations and can react or just shut down. When there is an awareness of how trauma impacts behaviours, coaches are able to build trust and create safety for individuals to work through emotions. Some good trauma-informed techniques are:
Build rapport. Get to know the athlete outside of the game. What drives them? What challenges them?
Silence is golden. Allow time, space and silence to give the person a chance to be ready to talk.
Ask Open Ended Questions: How are you doing? What is happening for you? Tell me more…
Cultural safety on a team considers spiritual, social and emotional safety. It aims to create a space where one’s identity is not challenged or denied and has an outcome of inclusivity on a team.
The concept of cultural safety can be applied to people of different faith groups, ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations and gender expression. An unsafe cultural space is one that allows actions which demean individual cultural identity. This can take the form of micro-aggressions such as jokes involving stereotypes or more blatant behaviours such as cliques that exclude team members based who they are. Cultural safety requires that a team understand and acknowledge history, personal privilege, systemic power imbalances and how these factors can personally affect individuals on a team. Teams who prioritize cultural-safety create deep levels of trust making them highly effective.
A few ways to promote cultural safety on your team:
Develop a list of Team Values through discussion of individual Cultural Values and link them to behaviour.
Have bi-weekly team meetings that involve connection building activities and space to discuss: What's Working Well, Worries and Options.
Create opportunities for connection around culture such as team meals or icebreakers with cultural questions to lead them.
Normalize Conflict. People will make mistakes and say things that are insensitive and hurtful to others. Plan for this and strategize how you will manage these situations so they don't cause pain and sidetrack your team.
Wondering what happened with Joe and his coach?
His coach waited a few days to give Joe the space he needed to calm down. He chose a time that they could have a private conversation to talk about his concerns for Joe. He asked Joe for his own perspective on what happened. In the end, Joe said he wanted to do better.
Then the coach said this:
“I don’t care about anything but the response. I’m hearing about opportunities for you. If you can change things right now the sky’s the limit. The lesson isn’t “are you good enough.” You are good enough. The lesson is your response. This is it. It could go way better than you ever thought.
I’m praying for you. I prayed for you over the weekend.
Thank you Lord for Joe. We pray that you can protect him and help him so that he can get through. We thank you for what he brings to us. Help him to change his response.”
After leaving Joe, the coach turned to the camera and explained his approach:
“I see a young man and I can’t stand his behaviour but I remind myself that’s the one who needs my love at this moment.”
Joe’s coach used a strength-based approach, pointing out how others see Joe and his potential while holding him accountable for his behaviours. He was trauma-informed, understanding Joe’s history and his low self-esteem at the root of his outbursts in times that are unpredictable for him. He created cultural-safety by acknowledging Joe’s faith as his preferred way to find comfort and problem solve. He invited Joe to pray together.
This leadership approach was modelled by the coach for the team and they all embraced it showing Joe kindness and tolerance. They understood the personal trauma that fuelled his behaviour. Whether atheist, agnostic or devout, they all accepted the role that Joe’s beliefs played in helping him and made space for prayer. Finally, they recognized and voiced the strengths that he brings to the team. I am only on Episode 2 but can’t wait to see what happens next.
