Executive Leadership LLC Takes on PTSD as a Result of Non-Violent Workplace Discrimination and Harassment by Helping Executives Realize It’s Not All In Their Heads
New York, Tri-state (PRWEB) December 19, 2013 -- “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Those words, spoken by Nelson Mandela, the recently departed former South African president and global statesman, are difficult to live by. Whether in civil rights showdowns, political power plays, or in everyday life, enhancing the freedom of others begins with treating people with civility and respect. For Executive Leadership LLC, a global coaching firm for emerging leaders, senior executives, and worldwide organizations seeking leadership/management development and action-oriented growth, the litmus test of Mandela’s words unfolds not on battlefields or in senate chambers, but in the office.
CB Bowman, CEO of Executive Leadership LLC and an African American woman understands how the office place can, too often, be a microcosm of an unsympathetic and cruel world, especially in relationship to non-violent discrimination and harassment, resulting in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Once a psychological term associated exclusively with wartime atrocity, PTSD is the unfortunate result, which continues to undergo definitional expansion. In fact, the 2013 update to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, American Psychiatry’s authoritative text, includes a new PTSD subtype specific to children six years and younger. If preschoolers can succumb to the debilitating effects of PTSD, then so can all non-military adults.
In general, PTSD is the result of an unusual, extreme or repetitive stressor – something that unnerves, frightens or deeply troubles the individual, and it’s a disorder affecting 7 percent of Americans, or about 22 million people. In the office place, discrimination and harassment are leading causes for PTSD.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), nearly 100,000 private sector workplace discrimination charges were reported in 2012. And of those charges, retaliation, race and sexual discrimination, including allegations of sexual harassment and pregnancy, were the most frequently filed.
In light of these troubling statistics, Executive Leadership LLC, under the direction of CB Bowman, has embarked on a mission to work with executives suffering from PTSD brought on by the aftermath of discrimination.
Workplace discrimination refers to when institutions and/or individuals within them enact unfair terms and conditions that systematically impair the ability of members of a group to work. Often times, inferiority beliefs and dominance hierarchies encourage discrimination – very much the same biological motivators found throughout the animal world. It comes down to a socially dominant group subjugating the rights and freedoms of the so-called “out group” or the group being discriminated against. In other words, “playground politics.”
After experiencing this trauma or surrounding events (litigation process) of this magnitude, victims may experience the following common symptoms of PTSD:
• Rehashing the event, which can range from thoughts, memories or even recurrent dreams (to the point of paralyzing forward movement).
• Staying away or isolating themselves from activities, situations, people or conversations associated with the negative experience.
• A sense of detachment, including a loss of interest in his/her surroundings.
• Inability to sleep, overly anxious behavior, easily startled and irritable, and random outbursts of anger.
CB Bowman, an African-American woman who has come up the ranks at a variety of Fortune 500 companies and went on to found Executive Leadership LLC, is exactly the type of leader who knows what it’s like to rise above debilitating symptoms of discrimination and reach success.
“In my over twenty years of experience as a corporate executive coach and my journey as an executive in some of the most well-known organizations in the world, I’ve seen victims of discrimination struggle to get their professional and personal lives in order,” said CB Bowman in a recent interview. “They are often incapable of actively engaging in the job search transition process, fail to regain their self-confidence, struggle with the ability to contribute in the workforce, and are unable to make an upward trajectory or climb the ladder because of psychological interference brought on by discrimination regardless of if there is an ensuing litigation process."
Executive Leadership LLC works with executives to understand the hardship they’ve experienced as a victim of discrimination, recognize individual hindrances to achieving goals, and create an actionable plan for taking the steps towards closing this chapter of their professional experience. Unfortunately, many executives are not aware of or may simply choose to ignore the change in their behavior or emotional patterns. This can be dangerous, especially for executives, who might present the resulting impact of discrimination in a way that retaliates against current colleagues.
“Executives affected by workplace discrimination need to know that there is life after debilitating harassment tactics. They also need to realize that there are coaching professionals, with experiences in the corporate world and who are savvy to office politics, who can help them get back on their feet, even after this traumatic experience,” Bowman added. “It may not be easy, but with the right type of coach, they can get their lives back. They should not try to travel this journey alone.”
To find out more about recovering from PTSD as the result of non-violent discrimination and/or harassment, contact Executive Leadership LLC here.
For additional information, contact:
CB Bowman
(908) 509-1744 12:00pm to 6:00 p.m. EST
cb(at)exec-leadershipllc(dot)com
CB Bowman, Executive Leadership, LLC., http://www.exec-leadershipllc.com, 908-256-9525, [email protected]
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