Handwritten name "Elizabeth Vahey Smith"

Building Capacity – so Your Team Can Enjoy a Challenge Again

Both you and your team deserve to thrive at work

Elizabeth Vahey Smith

“So what do you do?”

Leading teams isn’t hard when it’s easy.
But when it gets hard, I help make it feel easy again.

I once had an executive try to make me lead more like him and less like me. It didn’t work.

Leadership gets hard when our strategies aren’t working. That’s when leaders get pressed to have “hard” conversations. They feel hard, because they don’t feel aligned – they feel they have to say things they don’t want to say.
I help leaders pinpoint what they do want to say, so they can walk into that conversation with a script that feels aligned – creating safety and accountability simultaneously.

It does no good to throw around terms like psychological safety if no one teaches you HOW to create psychological safety. That’s what I do.

I focus on the practical things – tiny things – that build and erode safety, so that leaders can create it, without a huge expensive initiative, without sacrificing accountability.

Often people managers try to be supportive & understanding (thinking that’s psychological safety), until they can no longer tolerate the behavior.
And then they switch to accountability.

That whiplash erodes psychological safety.

I teach managers how to blend accountability into support, so that the performance change that you needs starts in the first conversation. This approach solves problems faster, decreases stress, and keeps culture strong.

Sometimes the hard part isn’t an individual’s performance, but a circumstance that you’re leading through, whether it’s a general high-stress environment or a unique complication putting pressure on your team.

If your team doesn’t understand how to manage the unique stressors of your workplace, their performance will decline, impacting production and retention.

I help leaders gain tools to lower stress without removing the stress. This builds your teams’ capacity, so they can RISE to the challenges your company faces.

I’m building a library of tools – one step at a time.
Here’s what’s currently available:

Through my trauma and resilience education and independent qualitative research, I developed the RISE Capacity Model as an acronym for 4 factors that, when in place, reduce the experience of stress even in potentially traumatic situations.

When leaders ensure these factors are in place for their team, what was debilitating workplace stress, suddenly feels like “crazy day, but we handled it.”

Learn More

Too often, people managers get stuck in a cycle of repeating themselves as if saying it again will finally make the difference.

I help leaders break this cycle by understanding why it’s really happening and addressing the actual core issue. This can solve the agonizing problem in as little as one conversation.

The Broken Record Fix systematically addresses each barrier, becoming a tool leaders can return to any time they find themselves repeating themselves.

Learn More

When you just need an action plan, the Manage Teams Better Program is the perfect place.

I designed this for the busy leader who doesn’t have time, but needs help. There’s no homework here. We have group coaching calls every other week for one hour.

Leaders bring their problems, and I help them design action plans they can use in the next two weeks to get results fast.

Learn More
Schedule a Free Consult
  • Elizabeth has a knack for making complicated things seem simple and feel actionable.
Elizabeth Vahey Smith

“How’d you even learn to do this?”

My expertise is cultivated from a myriad of formal study, independent study, field research, and lived experience. This conglomeration provides me a unique perspective with rich insight.

Words are powerful and we need to be strategic in how we use them.
– When we destigmatizing miscommunication, we can better focus on team dynamics.
– When we understand how language builds and erodes trust, we can create psychological safety.

My background in linguistics empowers me to tease apart intricate concepts and simply systematically explain their composition.

I also value comprehensible input, where – instead of a deluge of information – we start with where you are, and we build from there, never leaving you feeling lost along the way.

I’ve been leading teams my whole life, from grade school through college and into the workplace.

I have professional experience in the non-profit sector leading in a directorate level, managing both cross-cultural and inter-generational teams.

I wasn’t always a trauma-informed leader, though, so I have firsthand experience on how the trauma-informed leadership approach is a game changer.

I’ve been working as Chief Operating Officer of TCK Training since 2021.

2026 – Develop & Presented – Crisis Care Training Level 1 & 2
2026 – Certification – Trauma Research Foundation’s Certificate in Traumatic Stress
2026 – Independent Research – Capacity through Traumatic Stress
2025 – White Paper – Protective Factors that Improve Long-Term Wellness in TCKs
2025 – Independent Research – Trauma & the Workplace
2025 – Published – Trauma-Informed Leadership: Navigating through Trauma and Triggers to build Resilient and Successful Teams
2024 – Independent Research – Understanding the Erosion of Psychological Safety In the Workplace
2023 – White Paper – Sources of Trauma in International Childhoods
2023 – Certification – Trauma-Informed Care Practitioner
2022 – White Paper – TCKs at Risk: Risk Factors and Risk Mitigation for Globally Mobile Families.
2022 – Published – The Practice of Processing: Exploring our emotions to chart an intentional course
2022 – Certification – Forensic Child Interview Training
2022 – Certification – Group Crisis Intervention Training
2021 – Certification – Debrief Certification Training
2021 – Certification – Response Team Training

My family has been on a global adventure for a while now. My first-born had his first birthday in Papua New Guinea and my daughter was born in Australia. Nearly nine years later, we’ve visited 25+ countries and counting.

The most important lesson that I’ve learned in traveling the world is that under all the trappings of how and what – all people are doing the best they can to seek safety, beauty, and connection. It looks different and sounds different for different people in different places. But this fundamental human motivation empowers leaders to start on common ground with anyone they’re trying to lead. And move from there.

Worldschooling adventure

“Wait, you travel full-time?”

As much of my work is done remotely, we homeschool our kids with the world as our classroom. While traveling for the sheer enjoyment of exploring the world, I also get the opportunity to speak, lead trainings, and have coaching sessions across the globe.

  • Keynote Speaker in Ecuador
  • Keynote Speaker in Orlando, FL
  • Training Facilitator in South Africa
  • Keynote Speaker in Thailand

Where should I speak next?

Inquire for availability
Elizabeth presenting content on Trauma-Informed Leadership.
  • Elizabeth presenting research
  • Elizabeth speaking
  • Elizabeth presenting research