The Most Important — and Most Overlooked — People in Your State's System

By Julia & Nathan | Your Elevated Edge | Leadership & Team Development

There is a group of professionals working inside state systems, universities, healthcare organizations, and government agencies who carry an extraordinary weight. They are the people others come to when something has gone wrong. When a complaint needs a neutral ear. When someone feels unheard, unsafe, or unsure where to turn.

They are ombudsman teams — and in most organizations, they are simultaneously the most relied upon and the least invested in.

They are expected to remain neutral under pressure. To hold space for deeply emotional conversations without losing themselves in them. To navigate complex institutional politics while maintaining impartiality. To absorb the pain, frustration, and fear of the people they serve — day after day — without adequate support for what that actually costs them.

And then they are sent to a one-day compliance training and told that's their professional development for the year.

At Your Elevated Edge, Julia and Nathan have made it their mission to change that — and to help state systems, institutions, and organizations understand that investing in their ombudsman teams isn't just a people decision. It's a performance, liability, and culture decision that pays dividends across the entire organization.

What Ombudsman Teams Actually Do — and Why It Matters More Than Ever

The role of an ombudsman is, at its core, to provide a confidential, neutral, and independent resource for people navigating conflict, concern, or injustice within a system. Whether embedded in a state agency, a university, a healthcare network, or a government structure, ombudsman professionals serve as the bridge between individuals and institutions — helping people be heard and helping organizations course-correct before small problems become catastrophic ones.

The demand for this work is growing. Workplace conflict costs U.S. employers an estimated $359 billion annually in lost productivity (CPP Global Human Capital Report). Organizations with formal conflict resolution mechanisms — including ombudsman offices — reduce formal grievance filings by up to 80% and see measurable reductions in litigation costs and turnover. The ombudsman function, when properly supported, is one of the highest-ROI investments an organization can make.

And yet, the professionals doing this work are often underdeveloped, under-supported, and quietly burning out — precisely because their role requires them to always be the calm in someone else's storm.

The Unique Burden of Being the Neutral Party

Most people in organizations can, to some degree, take sides. They can advocate, align, and express their perspective. Ombudsman professionals cannot. They hold the middle ground as a professional obligation — and that neutrality, while essential, comes at a significant personal cost.

Consider what a typical ombudsman team member navigates in a single week: a harassment complaint involving a senior leader. A whistleblower situation with serious legal implications. A grievance from someone who is genuinely frightened. An employee in crisis. A situation where institutional pressure is pushing for a particular outcome — and the ombudsperson's job is to resist that pressure while remaining effective and employed.

This is emotionally and psychologically demanding work. Research on secondary traumatic stress shows that those in helping and advocacy roles are at significantly elevated risk of burnout, compassion fatigue, and emotional exhaustion. And yet the ombudsman team — the very people whose job is to support everyone else — are often the last to receive support themselves.

"This training was my kind of training — good length, gave you tools, and was backed by science. The science part is what always gets my attention... It's important to know people's top needs because it helps us understand each other better instead of just getting frustrated with them." — Ombudsman Team Member, North Dakota

What Deep Development Actually Looks Like for Ombudsman Teams

At Your Elevated Edge, Julia and Nathan bring a fundamentally different model to ombudsman team development — one that goes far beyond skills training and addresses the whole person doing the work. The work happens on two levels simultaneously:

1. The Individual Level — Julia's Work

Julia works one-on-one with each ombudsman team member at the identity level. This is the deep inner work that most professional development never touches — identifying and releasing the beliefs, emotional patterns, and old programming that shape how someone shows up in high-stakes, emotionally charged situations.

Think of it as upgrading your internal software. An ombudsperson who carries an unconscious need to fix things will struggle with the neutrality their role requires. One whose own experience with injustice hasn't been processed may find certain cases trigger disproportionate emotional responses. One who derives their sense of worth from being needed may have difficulty maintaining healthy boundaries with the people they serve.

This isn't about weakness; it's about precision. The most effective ombudsman professionals are the ones who know themselves deeply enough to recognize when they're being activated — and who have the inner resources to stay grounded when they are.

"One of the most surprising things I learned was that wanting to help 'fix' a situation when someone is in Survival Mode won't help with resolution. Julia made it clear and gave very practical steps on what will help." — Ombudsman Team Member, North Dakota

2. The Team Level — Nathan's Work

Nathan works with the team as a unit — using TTI Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and the 12 Driving Forces framework to give every team member a complete picture of their inner operating system and a shared language for how the team functions together.

• TTI Emotional Intelligence (EQ): This measures how well each person recognizes, understands, and manages emotions in themselves and others. For ombudsman professionals, EQ isn't a soft skill; it's a core competency. The ability to read emotional undercurrents in a conversation, regulate your own reactions under pressure, and respond with empathy without losing objectivity — this is EQ in action.

  
  

• The 12 Driving Forces: This framework reveals the core motivators that drive each team member's behavior and decisions. For ombudsman teams, this helps each individual understand what sustains and depletes them in this work, and it helps the team understand each other well enough to provide genuine peer support. A team member driven by altruism experiences the work differently than one driven by a need for structure. Understanding those differences builds real cohesion.

  
  

"Learning self-regulation is huge for us in preventing burnout with a high emotional weight role. It has been great to see the strengths each member brings — to utilize for the benefit of our team and those we serve." — Ombudsman Team Member, Kansas

Why This Matters for Your State — and Your System

For state agencies and systems that house ombudsman offices — whether in long-term care, higher education, juvenile justice, child welfare, corrections, or any other sector — the performance of your ombudsman team has direct downstream consequences for the entire system:

• Fewer formal complaints and litigation. When ombudsman professionals are skilled, grounded, and effective, issues get resolved at the informal level before escalating into formal grievances, litigation, or public controversy — saving the state significant legal and reputational cost.

  
  

• Higher trust in the system. When citizens, residents, students, or employees have access to a well-trained, emotionally intelligent ombudsman team, their trust in the institution increases. That trust is foundational to the legitimacy of any state system.

  
  

• Better outcomes for vulnerable populations. Many state ombudsman offices serve people who are among the most vulnerable — elderly residents in care facilities, students navigating institutional power, or individuals involved in the justice system. The quality of the ombudsman team's work directly affects the quality of those people's lives and rights.

  
  

• Retained institutional knowledge. Ombudsman professionals who feel developed, supported, and valued stay. Those who don't leave — taking years of institutional knowledge, relationships, and expertise with them.

  
  

• A culture signal that echoes across the organization. How an institution treats the people responsible for protecting others says everything about that institution's values. States that invest meaningfully in their ombudsman teams send a signal that they are serious about accountability, fairness, and human dignity.

  
  

In Their Own Words: What Teams Have Experienced

The ombudsman teams Julia and Nathan have worked with share a common experience: they came in feeling isolated, under-resourced, and unsure whether the weight they were carrying was just "part of the job." They left with a vocabulary for their own inner experience, a team dynamic built on genuine trust, and a renewed sense of purpose.

"This training has helped me to work on myself. I always put everyone else's needs before my own. I am actively using tools to make me feel better so I can help others." — Ombudsman Team Member, Kansas

"The workshop was very engaging and enjoyable. I especially appreciated the 'Acknowledge, Hold, Direct' approach and plan to incorporate it more intentionally into my day-to-day interactions." — Ombudsman Team Member, North Dakota

These aren't comments from people who attended a feel-good workshop. These are trained professionals — social workers, certified clinical trauma specialists, and conflict resolution experts — evaluating a development experience against high standards and finding it immediately applicable to the most challenging moments in their work.

An Invitation to State Leaders and Ombudsman Directors

If you lead an ombudsman office — or if you oversee one as part of a larger state system or institution — we'd like to ask you one question:

When did your ombudsman team last receive development that truly met the depth of the work they do?

Not a compliance training. Not a conference presentation. Something that actually went inside — that helped each person understand themselves more deeply, supported the team as a whole, and sent them back to the work with more capacity than they came in with.

If the answer is "a long time" or "never" — that's not a criticism. It's an opportunity. And Julia and Nathan are ready to help you take it. The people your ombudsman team serves deserve the best possible version of that team. And your team deserves the investment that makes that possible.

Let's talk about your ombudsman team.

Your Elevated Edge works with ombudsman offices and state systems nationwide to provide identity-level development, TTI EQ and 12 Driving Forces assessments, team cohesion work, and ongoing coaching support.

Reach out to Julia and Nathan today to start the conversation.