What is psychological safety, and how do you create it?
“Psychological safety means an absence of interpersonal fear. When psychological safety is present, people are able to speak up with work-relevant content.”
- Amy Edmondson
In 1999, Professor Amy Edmondson coined the term ‘psychological safety’ to describe a state where people don’t feel afraid of humiliation or punishment when they speak-up at work.
Since then, a multitude of studies have shown the positive impact psychological safety has on team performance, churn rate and ultimately the business bottom line. The reason for this is quite simple. When employees know their leaders value honesty and fellow team members have each other’s backs, they feel comfortable bringing their full and authentic selves to work, vastly improving resilience, innovation, confidence, diversity of thought and happiness (just to name a few!)
So how do you create a psychologically safe environment as a leader? Here are five tips to get you started:
1. Make psychological safety a priority
Talk about psychological safety with your team so they understand what it means. And most importantly, lead by example demonstrating behaviours you’d like to see from them.
2. Embrace your own imperfections
If you want your team to feel secure sharing their mistakes or gaps in their knowledge, don’t be afraid of sharing your shortcomings. This will help build a culture that recognises that failures are opportunities for growth, and also allow team members to comfortable with not knowing everything.
3. Encourage open dialogue
It’s brave when someone raises an idea, challenges the status quo or owns up to a mistake, so show genuine curiosity and empathy to encourage honesty and openness amongst your team. Over time they will feel more comfortable speaking what is on their mind.
4. Praise the messenger
Offer a productive response when your team members share an idea, offer feedback or come to you with negative news. Productive responses are appreciative and forward-focused, and could include “thank you for offering your insights”, “I’m grateful for your honestly” or “I’m glad you’ve felt comfortable to bring this to my attention”. Remember that your initial reaction will set the tone for future interactions, especially if a team member comes to you with negative news.
5. Embrace constructive conflict
A psychologically safe work environment does not preclude it from conflict. Instead it encourages conflict to be resolved in a respectful and constructive manner. When conflict arises, use open questions that allow team members to communicate their concerns and be cognisant of how you manage different perspectives to come to a resolution.
Finally, like a lot of leadership skills practice makes perfect. But is well worth it for happier and more engaged teams.
