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It took decades, but Rachael Kelly broke the insidious cycle of abuse shed been stuck in since childhood. At the time, she was leading human resources at a restaurant group in 2020. Im new in this job, and my toxic marriage start[ed] to peak, she says. Meanwhile, she was trying to help the employees at her restaurant who were suffering through the trauma and joblessness of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ending her marriage to an abusive husband while helping those workers establish safety nets made her think: How do we package [what Im doing here] and model it forward? Kelly ended up doing just that by first launching her nonprofit HiveStrong, which helps survivors of intimate partner violence and human trafficking. She then translated HiveStrongs principles to the professional sphere with her for-profit consulting arm called HiveSmart. I didnt expect how much trauma there is in the workplace, she says, and how much work around trauma and holding a safe space [could increase] business productivity. HiveSmart Consulting provides HR and coaching services to organizations with anywhere from five to 5,000 employees in industries ranging from hospitality to retail to HR technology in the U.S. It may look like any business consulting firm on the surface, but all its profits go toward Kellys survivor-aiding nonprofit and its methods stem from this workin other words, theyre trauma-informed. For Kelly, that means teaching business clients on how to do things like hold a safe space for their employees and where to draw the line between being compassionate, empathetic, and flexible while maintaining accountability. It also involves helping mediate and improve relationships between bosses and employees, particularly when one or both have experienced traumas that make them wary of each other, or unable to communicate effectively. Kellys particularly equipped to do this given her background as both a trauma survivor and a business leader. Since its August launch, HiveSmart has grown to include 20 consultants and works with four to six active clients at a time, Kelly says. Shes not alone in running a consultancy that fosters trauma-informed work environments; a quick Google will reveal that trauma-informed consultants are active around the country. But its a trend that Kelly says more employers are starting to see the need for, judging by the growing interest in her expertise and greater awareness of just how many people experience trauma. One global 2016 study found 70% of respondents reported experiencing at least one traumatic event in their lives, while the US National Center for PTSD reports roughly 5% of U.S. adults have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in any given year, a condition that might result in employees shutting down or lashing out when theyre triggered by a colleague or managers behavior. Everyone experiences trauma, Kelly says, citing the mass trauma incurred from the pandemic, and there’s a way to make change that’s inclusive, not alienating. The challenge, then, she says, is bringing that message to the C-suite. How trauma affects the workplace Its difficult to trace the exact origins of trauma-informed practice, but many cite its roots in the healthcare field, specifically in how professionals came to work with Vietnam War veterans in the 1970s. With PTSD newly identified among veterans, healthcare providers shifted their approach to address its symptoms. This meant instead of asking patients, What is wrong with you? theyd start by asking, What happened to you? That latter question is still at the root of trauma-informed practices today, which have expanded beyond healthcare into arenas like education and, thanks to consultants like Kelly, the workplace. The U.S. Department of Healths Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration names the six key principles of a trauma-informed approach as safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment aka voice and choice (giving workers agency that they lacked in their traumatic experiences) and cultural, historical, and gender issues. When organizations dont consider those principles in their operations, say trauma-informed practitioners, trauma can manifest at work in myriad ways. It’s hard to [paint] a broad stroke, because trauma responses can look so different across folks, says Shelby Cook, who founded the Ohio-based Cook Counseling and Consulting after getting burnt out as a therapist with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Two prominent examples she sees are absenteeism and presenteeism. (The former happens when employees, for example, repeatedly take sick days for their mental health. Presenteeism means employees physically show up to work but are mentally checked out and underperforming.) That can be a result of trauma, where that shut-down mode [turns] on, Cook says. As a therapist, Cook describes herself as touchy feely but notes this isnt the most common trait across C-suite executives. Kelly points out how many older executives grew up in an era when the common wisdom deemed emotions weak, she says. That can result in bosses and managers, perhaps inadvertently, shaming employees for feeling. When you do that, you make those emotions more acute, she says, training the brain that theyre worse than they are. Eschewing trauma-informed practices also results in communication breakdowns. I would see people talking past each other, Kelly says, because they didnt understand where the other was coming from. Context is everything when it comes to successful communication. This stuck out to Kelly when she worked with a CEO whod been traumatized by people having stolen from him and was trying to improve his relationship with an employee whod been abused by an older man when she was younger. Their relationship was sparking [the employees] triggers of controlling, untrustworthy, middle-aged white men, says Kelly, But once she understood what was going on with him, and he understood what was going on with her, they could . . . meet in the middle. That employee, whod been on the verge of quitting, ended up getting promoted and increasing her companys revenue. Implementing trauma-informed practices at work Dawn Emerick, a former CEO who now runs the trauma-informed Dawn Emerick Consulting in Florida, learned how her trauma affected her ability to work when she came up against what she calls a bully boss in her previous job. His authoritative characteristics, she says, elicited the fight or flight responses she didnt realize shed been suppressing since her traumatic childhood. They became so overwhelming that Emerick eventually resigned. Today, Emerick draws on her experience to coach other CEOs on trauma-informed methods. Coaching, she underscores, is not the same as giving advice, which she avoids in favor of executives comng to their own solutions. We talk it through and give scenarios, she says. Sometimes CEOs just need a confidential place [to talk], because it’s lonely at the top. She often uses the elevator metaphor to help clients land on productive responses to workplace problems. If there’s ten floors to their emotional response, and theyre at an eight, she says, they need someone to help them get down to a four so they don’t send that damn email. Strategizing around specific conversations is also a big part of Kellys work, as is ensuring leaders listen to and empower their employees. Having agency and choice is so important for trauma survivors, because its something they were denied as victims. Asking employees for their input, then, is crucial to fostering trauma-informed workplacesand not just asking, but then acting on employees suggestions and requests. This holds for big and small asks. Cook brings up employees requesting she stock decaf coffee in the office kitchen. These small touches show employees that they matter and are being heard. When Kelly started working with LaMonte Jones, whos on the board of directors of the nonprofit Children of Restaurant Employees, the organization struggled with board members operating in silos and cliques, Jones says, keeping their issues hidden. Kelly built connections with individual members to facilitate, Jones says, an environment that allowed everyone to be heard and all their ideas to be considered. The board members realized they had a common goal; they were just disagreeing on how to get there. Once they saw others listening to their ideas, they were able to incorporate more board members perspectives productively. Since Kellys intervention, says Jones, COREs funding is up, and theyve identified staffers to promote to the executive levelthe first time theyve promoted in-house in a long time. At the last board meeting, Jones observed that everyone likes each other, he says. They’ve got more strategic partners than they’ve ever had in the past. . . . They have people working in spaces that highlight their gifts and talents. ‘Empathetic leadership’ doesnt equal ‘trauma-informed’ While Cook calls this work touchy feely, Cook says the approach is essentially rooted in specific actions covered in those six SAMHSA principles, ranging from DEI efforts to other practices like responding sincerely to employee input. Defining it only as empathetic leadership, says Emerick, doesnt do it justice. Being an empathetic leader means being able to put yourself in an employee’s shoes, she adds, while being a trauma-informed leader means acting on that empathy by making employees feel safe at work (like making sure theyre listened to and supported) in such a way that still holds them accountable to their job requirements and deadlines. For example, bosses can act compassionately toward their employees without bending to their every demand. Holding a safe space doesn’t mean you’re saying it’s okay not to perform, Kelly says. Bosses can practice flexibility by, say, letting an employee with a history of trauma leave a little early one day a week to go to therapy while still requiring they meet their deadlines. Kelly looks to the Americans with Disabilities Act for guidance on how to treat employees whove experienced trauma equitably without favoring them: What’s reasonable, she asks, if somebodys going through something, to accommodate in a way that still meets the needs of the business? Employees notice shallow accommodation efforts. Offering snazzy workplace perks like ping pong tables or team-building days arent going to solve employees trauma-rooted problems. Cook brings up a misguided Employee Assistance Program she witnessed at a large Ohio university that offered counseling for its staff and students . . . provided by its own staff, meaning it lacked meaningful confidentiality. Ultimately, says Kelly, trauma-informed practices at work are means to an end. There’s always a business outcome we’re trying to accomplish, she says. For executives, achieving that outcome while holding safe spaces for employees isnt unattainableyou just need the right coaching.
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration and Elon Musk have spent the past several weeks upending the federal government. After essentially shutting down most operations of the nations foreign aid efforts through USAID, the next target appears to be NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Musks team has reportedly infiltrated NOAAs offices, and NOAA staff have been told to stop all contact with foreign nationals, which threatens the very nature of the agency’s work; international cooperation is crucial to both weather and fisheries activity because neither the atmosphere or the ocean are limited to U.S. borders. Employees are anticipating drastic staff and budgeting cuts. Project 2025 specifically noted NOAA as a target, as well. The Heritage Foundations 900-page right-wing playbook called the agency one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and recommended it be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated” and instead privatized. It’s not clear what that would look like, though experts have said it isn’t a good ideaand that private weather companies wouldn’t even want that change because they’d have to bear the cost of collecting weather data that’s currently given to them for free. NOAAs services are far-reaching; most prominently, it houses the National Weather Service, which provides forecasts for the country, and the National Hurricane Center, which issues warnings and forecasts for tropical cyclones. It’s also responsible for marine fisheries and even space weather predictionswhich can affect the GPS that all our phones rely on. Even if you dont live in an area at risk of hurricanes or eat seafood from fisheries managed and inspected by the agency, NOAA plays a huge role in your life. Everyone relies on NOAA, whether you realize it or not, says Jeff Watters, vice president of external affairs with the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. The services that NOAA provides touch basically everyone everyday, in some way or another. Weather forecasts, marine rescues, plastic pollution, and oil spills Because theres no NOAA logo under each local meteorologists forecast or on weather apps, most Americans may not realize that agency is actually providing the data that underpins Accuweather or the Weather Channel or their local news channel’s meteorological reports. But once NOAA’s functions “start to fall apart or degrade, Watters says, we’ll notice them pretty quickly. If our weather forecasting industry were to be entirely privatized, as Project 2025 envisions, it could leave entire areas of the country without proper forecasting and essentially in the dark. What about remote areas in Alaska? Watters asks. Is a [private] company going to invest in multimillion pieces of infrastructure to monitor and understand weather in those locations when theyre serving small-ish numbers of people? Americans needand have come to expectblanket weather forecasting coverage. If you break that system, I almost shudder to think of the ramifications, he says. As another example, the entire tsunami warning system is within NOAA. It’s another function Americans may not notice “until you are facing down a potential tsunami, and don’t have the prediction that a tsunami is going to hit,” Watters says. Multiple scientists reacting to the threats against NOAA have summed up its impact by simply noting that accurate, publicly available weather forecasts save lives. Beyond weather forecasts, NOAA manages the network that responds to stranded marine mammals, like beached whales or dolphins that need rehabilitation. They’re essentially first responders” for sick, injured, or distressed animals from whales and dolphins to seals and sea lions, Watters notes. Its also responsible for the stewardship of nearly everything in the ocean, from managing marine sanctuaries and coral reefs (which are in severe decline) to monitoring marine debris, which includes plastic pollution. Ocean Conservancy does a lot of work on the plastic pollution front, and Watters notes that two recent pieces of legislations to bolster the marine debris programthe Save Our Seas Act and Save Our Seas 2.0were actually signed by Trump during his first term. President Trump should be proud of that part of what NOAA does, he says, and to turn our backs on those important bodies of work would be hugely damaging to the ocean environment. Understanding oil spills also falls under NOAAs purview. Theres a small but mighty team within the agency that works on models to predict the movement of oil, so whenever theres a spill, it can explain how it will spread and calculate how much oil might be in the water. If we don’t have that function and a big oil spill happens, we have no way of figuring out how to deal with it, Watters says. NOAA also helps recover funds from those responsible for oil spills; over the last 30 years, that’s totaled more than $10 billion. Without NOAA, there may not be that retribution, which is crucial for restoring coastal communities. NOAA is bipartisanand stopping it doesnt stop climate change Project 2025 takes aim at NOAA for its role in driving what it calls the climate change alarm industry. The Trump administration has been purging mentions of climate change, and any data associated with it, from government websites. But dismantling NOAA doesnt stop the effects of climate change; it would just limit how prepared we are for them. NOAA also, notably, doesnt have a partisan alliance. Its actually historically had bipartisan support. Watters calls it the impartial eyes and ears and what’s going on in our atmosphere and in our ocean. NOAA doesnt relay this data with any political bias or agenda, it does so from a purely scientific view that information and transparency matters. It is up to the administration to decide whether they want to actually do anything about climate or not, he adds. But to cut off our eyes and ears and say we’re going to face the world blindfolded seems like not a very good idea. All of NOAAs powers and responsibilities have been given to it by Congress over decades, and written ito law. Watters didnt share an opinion on Neil Jacobs, Trumps nominee to head NOAA who was cited for misconduct in an incident known as Sharpiegate in 2019. But Watters emphasized the need, in Jacobs confirmation hearing, for senators to ask about the administrations plans for the agency. (Congress also has jurisdiction over NOAA’s activities, so the threats to the agency are another example of how Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is embarking on illegal actions across government departments. DOGE itself isn’t even a federal agency, as the creation of new cabinet-level departments needs approval from Congress.) Congress has given so much direction and responsibility to this agency, and American people depend on it. If someone has plans for this agency and isn’t saying so, shouldn’t we have a conversation about that? he says. It shouldn’t just be up to someone behind the scene deciding that they want to tear an agency apart. The services that NOAA provides are too important for us to not have a national conversation about the future of the agency.
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E-Commerce
Appointing a chief of staff is a critical first step for any CEO looking to make impactful leadership decisions. But an executive who merely utilizes their chief of staff as an administrative extra set of hands risks missing out on meaningful transformation opportunities. The critical decision to position a chief of staff as a true executive partner, when executed well, can be a bold investment that impacts a CEOs legacy. Based on my own experience as a chief of staff for a Series A unicorn-to-be and my current work coaching and placing these professionals, Ive seen firsthand that todays chiefs of staff act as leadership amplifiers. They occupy a unique position at the top of the organizational chart, where they can operate across teams without being burdened by the direct management of a department. This freedom allows them to shield their CEOs from distractions and ensure they focus on the work that truly matterstheir unique strengths, vision, and decision-making. An open secret and unfair advantage Understanding and defining the role remains a challenge. As a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz put it, appointing a CEO-whispering talent as one of the firms inaugural chiefs of staff made sense because nobody knew what that meant. I’ve seen this asymmetry of understanding first-hand in hundreds of conversations with executives. For Jamie Hodari, CEO and cofounder of Industrious, a chief of staff is a clear necessity. Who wouldnt want to be in two places at once? The best chief of staff relationship enables exactly that. Sitting alongside his sixth chief of staff since founding his company, Hodari told me, Ive never encountered a hard problem at work where two smart people trying to think through it wasnt preferable to one. But Ive also spoken with CEOs who have been given the misguided view that this position is merely an administrative role with a fancy title. Bridging this executive knowledge gap promises so much upside that McKinsey and BCG have intensified their thought leadership around this role in recent white papers and podcasts. Christie Horvath, CEO of pet healthcare company Wagmo, says that she views her chief of staff as an extension of her own brain. The chief of staff on her team takes on tasks that can be delegated to other departmentstheyre often CEO-led initiatives where the chief of staff must operate as a true strategic partner, not just a project manager. Unleashing emerging leaders Ive seen chief of staffs being tasked with all sorts of significant initiatives by savvy CEOs. These might include projects like: Spearheading the hiring process for other C-Level roles Company-wide Rhythm of Business and Stakeholder Management Plans Standing in and speaking for the CEO in high-stakes meetings . . . all with little to no guidance. Their often-uncommon career trajectoriesspanning disciplines like consulting, law, and product developmentalso equip chiefs of staff to bring fresh, outsider perspectives that might not otherwise appear in executive leadership meetings. And while 75% of chiefs of staff support CEOs, many others work with CFOs, CHROs, or department heads, tailoring their expertise to the leaders scope. Hire for a partner, not a position A trusted right hand can create new value that even the CEO or board of directors might not see. While the position is usually leveled as a middle-management role, the chief of staff is one-of-one in the corporate hierarchy, reporting directly to a boss several levels more senior. These individuals command competitive salaries even in a challenging job market, reflecting the rigors of the position. We see this in the data from our most recent Ask a Chief of Staff compensation reportcompared to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average chief of staff salaries across industries are approximately 49% higher than the latest median salary figures for general and operations managers. Taking on the $150 billion pet care industry as a leadership duo with her chief of staff, Horvath shared with me that, a huge part of what makes this partnership successful is the “chemistry”how easily my chief of staff can anticipate what I envision. The key is to hire someone who complements your skill set and shores up areas where youre less effective, rather than duplicating your strengths. The most important takeaway for CEOs is that this role is not merely a positionits a partnership. Empowering a chief of staff as a true C-suite partner is a bold future-focused move, requiring the highest degree of self-awareness, trust, and adaptability from a chief executive.
Category:
E-Commerce
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