Accelerate Leadership Effectiveness with Psychological Safety

Written by Michael Huff on August 7, 2024

Training leaders to create a psychologically safe environment equips them with the skills to foster trust and open communication, accelerating their leadership effectiveness. When leaders understand and implement the principles of psychological safety, they can build stronger, more cohesive teams. Even though psychological safety has been a well-documented concept for years, we find most participants in our three-day Leadership Fundamentals Training sessions are unaware of the term and its importance in the workplace. This article delves into the concept of psychological safety in the workplace, explores leaders’ crucial role in shaping such an environment, and offers practical strategies for companies to empower their frontline leaders to create high-performing teams.

The Power of Psychological Safety: Unlocking Potential in the Workplace

Fostering a psychologically safe environment is a leader’s responsibility, and it turns out it’s the single most common element among high-performing teams. What is this performance superpower known as psychological safety? Let’s turn to Harvard Business Professor, author, and subject matter expert of psychological safety Amy C. Edmonson. She describes the phenomenon as creating an environment where team members feel comfortable admitting mistakes, asking for help, and voicing concerns without fear of negative consequences. Not an easy task, even for the most seasoned leader.

To put that in perspective, think of a time you made a mistake at work and had to tell your boss about it. How did you feel in the time between the mistake and letting your boss know? How did their response make you feel?

Positive Response: If your boss reacted positively, think about how that influenced your trust and willingness to speak up in the future.

Negative Response: If their reaction was negative, consider how that affected your willingness to admit mistakes and your overall morale.

In his book Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, Simon Sinek warns that the absence of psychological safety, where employees work in fear of humiliation or are afraid to ask questions because it may hurt their careers, can drive mistakes underground, thus eliminating learning opportunities.

Identifying a Psychologically Unsafe Environment

Much like culture, psychological safety isn’t tangible and differs from person to person. This adds another layer of complexity for leaders. Fortunately, there are signs and clues to your organization’s psychological safety levels.

Employees hesitate to speak up or challenge ideas.
Decisions are made by a select few, with little input from the wider team.
Feedback often comes across as critical, unsupportive, or demeaning rather than constructive.
Team members show signs of frustration and defeat as they feel things won’t ever change for the better.

These signs tell you that problems exist regarding trust, value, and motivation. Silence from your teams tells you, for some reason, they are holding back. Most importantly, they tell you that there is work to do.

What Does a Psychologically Safe Environment Look Like?

All team members share ideas and concerns, not just a select few.
Employees are supported when taking calculated risks, with intelligent mistakes seen as learning opportunities.
Leaders are approachable and available, take time to engage with employees, and honor commitments.
Efforts and achievements are regularly acknowledged, boosting morale and work ethic.

It’s not uncommon to see items from both lists in your organization. In one of our recent Leadership Fundamentals training sessions, a participant shared a mistake she made at work requiring extensive cleanup. Her immediate supervisor told her to “figure it out.” However, another leader stepped in, helped her clean up the mess, showed empathy, and discussed what they learned. This support helped rectify the situation and reinforced the importance of a supportive and understanding leadership approach.

Embracing Intelligent Failures

As leaders, we need to reframe mistakes as learning opportunities. In this environment, employees quickly point out safety concerns, innovate, mobilize to help, and hold each other accountable. Edmonson argues that if you’re willing to take risks in new territory, you will face some failures along the way, but those intelligent failures are not only okay but necessary if you want to make progress in your life and work.

Edmondson believes an “intelligent failure” meets the following criteria:

In Pursuit of a Goal: Failure occurs while trying to accomplish something meaningful and improve.
New Territory: It happens when the outcome is uncertain, but the potential reward is great.
Reasonable Hypothesis: The approach includes prior research and an informed hypothesis.
Proportionate Scale: The impact of the failure is minimal but enough to provide valuable learning.

While mistakes aren’t enjoyable and shouldn’t be repeated, ignoring them is counterproductive. Instead, we should use them to foster a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement. Take a breath and recognize that, in most cases, things could be worse.

Strategies for Fostering Psychological Safety

Creating a psychologically safe environment is not a one-time effort but a continuous process. It involves consistent actions and behaviors that build trust, encourage open communication, and promote a culture of learning and growth.

Fortunately, leaders have many opportunities to gauge and foster psychological safety, such as team meetings, one-on-ones, shop floor walks, and other anonymous feedback mechanisms.

Team Meetings or Huddles: Hold consistent team meetings to encourage open dialogue and allow everyone to share their thoughts and ideas.

Follow through with commitments from meetings to build and maintain trust.

One-on-One: Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with direct reports to provide a private setting where they can voice concerns, seek guidance, and focus on development.

The impact of our actions doesn’t always align with our intentions. For instance, when a leader cancels a one-on-one meeting, it can convey that they are too busy, unintentionally making the employee feel undervalued and unimportant.

Feedback Mechanisms: Feedback is a gift, right? Anonymous surveys, suggestion boxes, or hotlines are in place to gather honest employee feedback without fear of repercussions. Leverage existing data on turnover and exit interviews. The data is still extremely valuable as it shows how employees care about meaningful change. They are also a sign that employees may feel unsafe speaking up.

Leverage anonymous employee feedback to address issues promptly, “You Said, We Did” and be transparent to show their voice matters. This will build trust and credibility between the employees, their leader, and the organization.

Admitting Mistakes: Expressing vulnerability about imperfections and showing that you, too, are learning and growing encourages a culture of transparency and trust. This openness makes team members feel safe sharing and learning from their mistakes.

When you admit mistakes, frame them as learning opportunities. Share what you’ve learned and how you plan to move forward, demonstrating that mistakes are part of the growth process.

Ask Questions: Be curious about why employees feel unsafe speaking up. Be specific about your behaviors and whether anything you’ve done or are currently doing might make them feel this way. They could simply not want to let you down, have bad experiences with a previous boss, or have other concerns. These courageous conversations aren’t easy, but they are often much easier than we imagined they would be.

Remain patient and consistent. Employees may not share immediately, but once they see you are authentically looking to make positive changes, they will open up.

Achieving and maintaining a psychologically safe environment requires continuous effort. Leaders must adapt and continuously learn, and with resolve, they can create a supportive and productive workplace culture where employees come together to do their best work.

Empowering Leaders with Psychological Safety

Making the leap from a high-performing individual contributor to a first-time leader is challenging. The focus shifts from personal accountability to influencing others, building relationships, coaching, and managing team responsibilities. It can often feel like being thrown to the wolves while wearing steak-laden business attire. However, by fostering psychological safety, leaders can significantly enhance their own effectiveness and accelerate their development. When leaders create an environment where team members feel safe to express themselves, take risks, and learn from mistakes, they not only build stronger teams but also benefit in the following ways:

Enhanced Team Performance: When teams feel psychologically safe, leaders can drive better performance as team members are more likely to contribute innovative ideas and solutions without fear of criticism.
Increased Trust and Loyalty: Leaders who foster a supportive environment achieve higher levels of trust and loyalty with their team, which leads to higher retention.
Improved Problem-Solving: Working in an environment where it is safe to speak up encourages the team to identify and address issues proactively, leading to more effective problem-solving.
Personal Growth: Leaders develop critical skills such as empathy, active listening, and adaptability, which are essential for long-term success.

Double E Workplace Solutions offers comprehensive training programs designed to foster psychological safety in the workplace. Our interactive sessions engage participants with real-world scenarios and exercises that enhance their ability to build trust, encourage open communication, and create a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Visit Double E Workplace Solutions to empower your leaders with the skills needed to create a safe and thriving work environment.