Attachment Styles in the Workplace

Attachment styles shape how we relate to coworkers and leaders. This 60-minute attachment styles in the workplace webinar explains the four styles, anxious-insecure, anxious-avoidant, disorganized and secure, and how each one forms in childhood.

Drawing on John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation study, you'll learn the main traits of each style, how they appear in workplace settings and in meeting work expectations, and the pros and cons of each.

The session also looks at how unhealed attachment behaviors, especially in leaders, can harm culture and productivity, and how trauma-informed leadership principles help build a workplace that increases safety and reduces harm for everyone.

• Explain how attachment styles develop in childhood
• Distinguish the four attachment styles as they appear in adults at work
• Name at least three characteristics of each attachment style
• Identify at least one pro and one con of each style at work
• Reflect on your work relationships and steps toward attachment healing
• Assess how a leader's attachment behaviors may affect the people they supervise
• Explain why recognizing attachment styles supports a healthier culture and the bottom line

• How attachment styles form: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation study
• Differences between anxious-insecure, anxious-avoidant, disorganized and secure styles and the main traits of each
• Pros and cons of each style's core behaviors at work
• How unhealed attachment behaviors, especially in leaders, harm workplace culture and productivity
• Why understanding and healing insecure attachment matters for leadership
• Becoming more self-aware of your own attachment behaviors and their effect on others
• How trauma-informed leadership skills increase safety and reduce harm at work

When people work together, patterns from their attachment styles surface. Research links attachment styles with leadership, trust, satisfaction, performance and engagement, and one study found more articles on attachment in organizations in the past five years than in the previous 25.

Recognizing the styles helps you see who views work negatively, who helps in a crisis, who prefers independence or regular feedback, and which behaviors cause conflict. Leaders, managers, executives, HR and team leads benefit.

• Leaders
• managers
• supervisors
• C-Suite Executives
• directors
• sales executives
• IT managers
• IT support
• Customer service
• Social media, Marketing, Human resources, and team leads.

Sarah Fargo O’Brien (she/her) is a dynamic and innovative trauma-informed leader and strategist. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW, LCSW-C), and has been a practicing psychotherapist specializing in Anxiety Disorders, Substance Use Disorders, and Relational/Betrayal Trauma reactions and responses for over 15 years. She has had many diverse and enriching experiences as a therapist that inform her work as a Trauma-Informed Consultant. She has been pivoting her clinical skills into other areas to reach wider audiences for impacting social change. Sarah also writes, speaks, and creates audio & video media content in efforts to reduce the stigma around mental health disorders & treatment, and to increase understanding of and accessibility to trauma-informed practices for all people and all businesses, as trauma informed care is the way of the future.