Attachment Styles in the Workplace

Are you aware of the energy you are spending on navigating work relationships rather than work tasks? Is it difficult for you to hear feedback?  Do your employees interact with each other? Do team members get along easily? Are your staff accepting or dismissive of feedback?
The workplace is a microcosm of the bigger system in which we live and operate. When people interact regularly with other people, there is a high likelihood that behavioral patterns, as a result of our attachment styles, will surface, including in workplace settings.
Attachment styles can be predictors of the needed effort a person must spend to do well at work. There is also the relationship between attachment and engagement with others, including co-workers, other staff, leaders, and managers, and how this engagement affects productivity.
A recent study has found the influence of attachment theory on organizations expanding as more articles have been published on this subject in the past 5 years than in the previous 25 years, indicating attachment styles play a significant role in workplace culture, productivity, employee retention, and ultimately the bottom line for the organization. Understanding, and learning to recognize, different attachment styles can inform which employees view work and leaders negatively; which employees are helpful in a crisis; which employees work better independently; which employees work better with consistent and regular feedback; which attachment behaviors lead to conflict and mistrust; and which attachment behaviors lead to less friction amongst a team or department.
Attachment styles are a practical way to understand why and how we relate to our coworkers and leaders the way we do. In addition to having a greater understanding of how we relate to one another at work, current research has actually demonstrated a link between attachment styles and leadership, trust, satisfaction, performance, and other outcomes.
Sarah encourages her audience to understand the importance of how attachment styles show up at work, how each style impacts an employee’s experience and behaviors, and how a lack of understanding about attachment styles leads to greater employee stress and subsequently negative impact on their mental, emotional, cognitive, and physical health, and how these negative impacts not only impact the bottom line but also affects the level of difficulty leaders will have in creating a culture of trust and effectively engage with and motivate their staff.

Topic Background
As a Trauma Informed Provider, Sarah E. F. O’Brien both sees and understands the effects of early childhood development on adult social behaviors and interactions. As she coaches and trains on leadership strategy, she has found that many workplaces are struggling to function well. The issue is that leaders lack awareness about their own attachment style, as well as, the attachment styles of others. Without this awareness, and then application of this knowledge to the workplace setting, toxic and unsafe cultures are running rampant…and causing more harm and damage to people, which further complicates and exacerbates any employee’s ability to perform well at work.
In this webinar, Sarah E. F. O’Brien explains what attachment styles are, how we develop them, and why it’s important to know this information for more optimal workplace functioning. When we can identify our own attachment style, and learn to recognize classic signs of the other attachment styles, it’s more likely we can personally be more successful and satisfied at work, as well as, assist co-workers and employees to be more successful and satisfied at work.