Healing Trauma to Lead Others Better

Most leaders are trained to manage strategy, performance, and results.
Very few are taught how unresolved trauma quietly shapes the way they lead.

In this episode of Inner Work, MaryAnn Means-Dufrene sits down with Carol Klocek, CEO of the Center for Transforming Lives, for an honest conversation about the deeper side of leadership development, the inner work that shapes how leaders show up for their teams, families, and communities.

Carol brings more than 35 years of leadership experience in the social sector, along with her own lived experience growing up in poverty and trauma. That perspective has shaped her commitment to trauma-informed leadership, psychological safety, and building systems that create long-term transformation for women and children.

This conversation explores the hidden realities many leaders carry: shame, burnout, survival patterns, and the internal voices formed early in life. Carol shares how working with a trauma-informed executive coach helped her shift from relentless performance to sustainable leadership grounded in self-awareness and resilience.

She also reflects on a defining moment during COVID when her organization was losing $50,000 per week, and how choosing to prioritize people over productivity became a turning point in her leadership.

If you’re a founder, executive, or team leader navigating growth, pressure, and responsibility, this conversation will challenge how you think about leadership development and the personal work that sustains it.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• 00:42 Introduction to Carol Klocek and the Center for Transforming Lives
• 02:42 Trauma-informed leadership and psychological safety
• 04:42 How childhood trauma shapes the brain and behavior
• 11:12 Personal healing as a leadership prerequisite
• 13:12 A career-defining moment: hiding her story early on
• 15:42 Learning to share lived experience with courage
• 18:12 Trauma-informed executive coaching and transformation
• 19:12 Why self-care is essential for sustainable leadership
• 21:42 Reframing negative self-talk and burnout patterns
• 23:42 Parenting, discipline, and raising resilient children
• 27:42 A reluctant healing journey and health wake-up call
• 32:42 Leading through crisis during COVID
• 33:42 The turning point: putting people first as a leader
• 35:42 Recognizing unexamined trauma in leadership
• 38:42 Books, values, and daily practices for inner work

About the Guest:

Carol Klocek is the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Transforming Lives. Having experienced poverty and trauma herself as a child, Carol brings both lived experience and more than 35 years of leadership in the social sector to her work. Under her leadership, the organization applies a two-generation approach, partnering with women and children to disrupt cycles of poverty through housing, counseling, early childhood education, and economic mobility services.

🔗 Connect with Carol: linkedin.com/in/carol-hunter-klocek-2126584

🔗If you’re navigating your own leadership evolution and want support in that journey:

https://collectivegrowthleadership.com/book-call