Creating Psychological Safety
Advice from our Executive Coaches on How to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace
This month at The People Side we are exploring the concept of Psychological Safety – why it matters, what it means, the neuroscience behind it, and the behaviors that create it. To help leaders foster more safe workplaces, we asked our Executive Coaches to provide their best advice for putting this topic into practice.
If you want to improve the psychological safety of your team…
1 LISTEN DEEPLY: Practice listening for deeper meaning. During our hectic, overscheduled, multi-tasking work day, most of us listen at a basic level – in coaching, we call it Level 1 listening. We listen to the surface level words and think our own thoughts for the sole purpose of preparing a response. “If only he/she would stop talking, I could respond!”
The next level, Level 2 listening, is about listening for meaning and paying attention to things like tone, body language, and focusing 100% of our attention on the other person, without being distracted by our own thoughts.
But Level 3 listening is where things get really interesting. This is when we listen between the lines – for the things not being said, the pregnant pauses, sensing the pressure or energy in the room shifting, and relating to the emotions of the person talking. Imagine how our workplace would change if leaders listened to their employees at Level 3! People would feel not only heard, but seen.
2 DON’T SEEK BLAME, SEEK UNDERSTANDING: When problems arise, when there is a conflict, or things don’t go exactly as planned, what questions do you ask? Often, our questions suggest we want to assign blame or point fingers. If we ask questions with a point of view already in mind, people become defensive. It is clear you are seeking data to confirm your assumptions.
What would happen if leaders got really, genuinely curious when things go wrong? How would it feel to employees if the questions they were asked helped them think BETTER about what happened and creatively solve the problem themselves, without blame or punishment? Questions like, “What could we have done differently?” or “How do you want to handle it next time?” promote a learning culture, not a shame culture.
3 CELEBRATE YOUR SHORTCOMINGS: This one is a doozy, and probably the hardest one to conquer. As leaders, we can get trapped in our expertise and desire to have it all figured out. But we all make mistakes. To admit it takes strength. But owning our mistakes opens up the door for our employees to do the same. It makes it OK. And it creates a culture where mistake-making is something an employee can recover from.
In some companies, we hear people talking about getting fired for speaking up and they believe even the simplest errors will be “career-ending” mistakes. Dr. Brene Brown’s research suggests, “If you’ve created a work culture where vulnerability isn’t okay, you’ve also created a culture where innovation and creativity aren’t okay.” Leaders can create a psychologically safe workplace by not only allowing employees to make safe mistakes, but actually celebrating them as a measure of learning, innovative thinking and pushing boundaries.
Glen Llopis, contributor to Forbes.com, writes, “When leaders admit to making mistakes – creating an opportunity to earn respect, strengthen their teams and lead by example – it ultimately builds a culture of trust. A workplace culture that promotes trust allows employees to live with an entrepreneurial attitude, which stimulates innovation and initiative.” Read the entire article here.
4 MAKE MORE INCLUSIVE CONNECTIONS: The most critical need we have as human beings is the need to feel connected to other people. Without connection, we are lost. Inclusion, or the feeling of being a part of something, creates feelings of safety. Leaders can drive inclusive behaviors by being aware of their own biases, creating opportunities for all voices to be heard, making sure the right people are included in discussions and decisions, and sharing credit where credit is due.
Why should leaders care about inclusion as it relates to psychological safety? Researchers have confirmed that it increases work performance. According to Juliet Bourke and Andrea Espedido on HBR.com, teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to report that they are high-performing, 20% more likely make high-quality decisions, and 29% more likely to behave collaboratively. They go on to say that inclusive leadership “assures that all team members feel they are treated respectfully and fairly, are valued and sense that they belong, and are confident and inspired.” See the full article here.
5 BREAK BAD HABITS: “It’s not personal, it’s just business.” At some point companies began to accept that a statement like this was not only possible, it was true. Too many people are being asked to check themselves at the door when they go to work and it is affecting their performance and willingness to engage. Because every interaction we have in our life triggers neurological reactions, emotions, and memories, every interaction we have is personal. Pretending otherwise is dangerous business.
So to change your culture, you may need to change your mindset first. Through executive coaching, you experience a psychologically safe relationship where you can wholeheartedly explore your own vulnerability, fears, frustrations and values so you can create the same safe space with your own team. Connecting your personal self to your work self is key. You only have one brain, so understanding why you may not be acting like yourself at work is worth digging into.
At The People Side, we are on a mission to re-humanize the workplace because we understand the impact it would have on engagement and human performance. Our team is ready to help you get to the heart of your business and put this learning into practice.
Every month, our Executive Coaching Team will share our best advice for developing this gamechanger capability. If we were coaching you on this topic, what would we be talking about? What experiements would you be running? What questions would you be asking yourself?
If you are interested in learning more about executive coaching and how it might help you or your leaders build these important leadership competencies, you can learn more here.