As a leader, you cannot avoid having heard about psychological safety. Many of us have experienced when psychological safety abounds in the workplace and when it does not. Perhaps you already "practice" psychological safety today in your way of collaborating and in your way of leading your employees?
Many authors have written books on psychological safety. It is a topic that is far from new.
In her award-winning book The Fearless Organization*, Amy C. Edmondson has collected many years of theory and research on the subject. It is based on her considerations and my own experiences that I answer the following questions:
- Why is psychological safety important?
- What is psychological safety and what is it not?
- What can be your next step to strengthen psychological safety?
Why is psychological safety important?
Both accidental discoveries and deliberate investigations in countless companies come to the same conclusion, repeatedly. In a workplace where there is psychological safety, there are more employees that are:
- Innovative
Employees feel comfortable sharing both mistakes and successes. The result can be quality improvements of core services and products. It also becomes easier to ask a colleague for help because you are not afraid to share your vulnerability. At the same time, relations between employees are strengthened. Since a task or project is no longer seen as dependent on a single individual, it is a team of colleagues who together find the best solution.
- Engaged
Employees feel listened to when they air new ideas or criticism. In other words, employees can sense that their contribution is important and decisive, as input influences their own and others' performance of work. Therefore, it automatically affects employee motivation. Employees become more engaged.
- Productive
When employees both become more engaged and create more ideas, which in one way or another create improvements, then the employees also become more productive for the company.
- Honest
In such a workplace, continuous feedback between colleagues is natural. Criticism is welcome and is seen as constructive and necessary input to find the best solutions to current challenges. It also means that as a leader you can be sure that you are surrounded by honest employees. The atmosphere creates resilience among employees, as they know they are safe. Silence during a meeting therefore rarely exists.
What is psychological safety and what is it not?
Psychological security means that an employee: Can share all their opinions, can openly talk about current challenges that can affect their own performance, share career plans, etc.
Therefore, the leader has a decisive role. Changing the leader of a team therefore has a direct impact and consequence on the psychological safety of employees.
Psychological safety is NOT a workplace where all employees and leaders are eternally in agreement and happy.
Psychological security does NOT mean that employees are flawless. Quite the contrary. Employees often dare to take greater risks to try out new ideas, as they know that this will not have decisive consequences for their employment.
What can your next step as a manager be to strengthen psychological safety?
It is of course very different what your next step as a leader may be. My suggestion is the following: Over the next 2 weeks, try to observe your employees by asking yourself the following questions; and if you have several teams working independently of each other, do this for each team:
- Do your employees share both mistakes and successes?
- Is there an ongoing feedback culture?
- When you ask your employees questions, does it usually result in silence (or the same ones who answer) or in a lively debate?
- Does ONE employee influence changes/shifts in the working climate?
If you would like sparring or advice, book here.
* Source: The fearless organization – create psychological safety in the workplace and strengthen learning, innovation and growth. Translated to Danish by Annemette Goldberg, professional editor Christian Ørsted, 1. Edition by Djøf Forlag 2020.
