Identifying, Supporting & Working with Trauma – 04/15 2:00 pm

As our country exploded with a dual health and race pandemic, how were staff with various positional power supported to navigate a turbulent context? What are the expectations for employee performance and deliverables when one is dealing with personal, systemic, or societal trauma? In this session, we will discuss brain science on how the presence of the stress hormone cortisol- impacts one's cognitive functioning ability. We will then unpack supervision strategies to see a trauma shape impacting a staff member, name it with compassion versus pathology, and develop a plan for support and performance.

As our country exploded with a dual health and race pandemic, how were staff with various positional power supported to navigate a turbulent context? What are the expectations for employee performance and deliverables when one is dealing with personal, systemic, or societal trauma? In this session, we will discuss brain science on how the presence of the stress hormone cortisol- impacts one's cognitive functioning ability. We will then unpack supervision strategies to see a trauma shape impacting a staff member, name it with compassion versus pathology, and develop a plan for support and performance.

Because most organizations are patterned against dominant culture belief-systems, those that work fast, write well, show up on time, prep intensely, and speak in bullet points will often be elevated as successful, while those with different learning and working styles will be critiqued and left behind. When dominant culture is de-centered, room can be made for other gifts and strengths that our organizations need.
In this session, supervisors will reflect on ways to dismantle dominant beliefs about “high performing vs low-performing employees” and translate our Supervision for Equitable Employee Development Framework into practical strategies to integrate culturally responsive techniques such as:

  • Relational Trust in the supervisor-supervisee relationship
  • Consistently celebrating success through concrete descriptive feedback
  • Drilling into challenge areas to identify a skill to grow/develop, and designing creative interventions to build and practise new skills.
  • Transparently visibilizing ones thinking about success using a matrix system - to get feedback on where dominant culture has taken over, as well as to visibilize current and desired states for an employee.

Because most organizations are patterned against dominant culture belief-systems, those that work fast, write well, show up on time, prep intensely, and speak in bullet points will often be elevated as successful, while those with different learning and working styles will be critiqued and left behind. When dominant culture is de-centered, room can be made for other gifts and strengths that our organizations need.
In this session, supervisors will reflect on ways to dismantle dominant beliefs about “high performing vs low-performing employees” and translate our Supervision for Equitable Employee Development Framework into practical strategies to integrate culturally responsive techniques such as:

  • Relational Trust in the supervisor-supervisee relationship
  • Consistently celebrating success through concrete descriptive feedback
  • Drilling into challenge areas to identify a skill to grow/develop, and designing creative interventions to build and practise new skills.
  • Transparently visibilizing ones thinking about success using a matrix system - to get feedback on where dominant culture has taken over, as well as to visibilize current and desired states for an employee.

80% of your budget pays for staff time—staff development is a must! How do we encourage performance, attention to timelines, and results-based thinking without replicating the extractive qualities of dominant culture?
Through the right combination of guidance and relational support a supervisor can develop the natural talents of their team, serve as inspiration when the going gets tough, and set high expectations for those around them to achieve transformational results using an Equity-based Framework for Staff Development. Developing these super-qualities takes dedication and a passion to invest in those around you.

80% of your budget pays for staff time—staff development is a must! How do we encourage performance, attention to timelines, and results-based thinking without replicating the extractive qualities of the dominant culture?
Through the right combination of guidance and relational support, a supervisor can develop the natural talents of their team, serve as inspiration when the going gets tough, and set high expectations for those around them to achieve transformational results using an Equity-based Framework for Staff Development. Developing these super-qualities takes dedication and a passion to invest in those around you.

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