Psychological Safety: How Leading Managers Drive Success
Use this manager’s guide to psychological safety and get a head start!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
What exactly is Job Crafting? (with examples)
Why Do People Craft Their Jobs
Types of Job Crafting
Benefits of Job Crafting
Job Crafting Strategies
Additional Resources on Job Crafting
Frequently Asked Questions
Imagine walking into a team meeting, and the atmosphere is so taut a tightrope walker can walk on it. Everyone's on edge, afraid to say anything.
It's like a hush-a-thon where everyone's vying for the title of the Silent Champion.
Now, flip the script. Imagine stepping into another team meet where the vibe is electric, buzzing with excitement. People freely express their thoughts, take risks, and support each other like a family.
It's like stepping into an idea wonderland, where trust reigns supreme and creativity runs wild.
Which team would you rather be a leader of?
A no-brainer. Right?
Providing psychological safety to your people can breathe real oomph into your team.
In this article, we're diving deep into the magical realm of psychological safety in the workplace.
Managers like you have the power to create an environment where your team feels safe, heard, and ready to unleash their full potential. Let's make it happen!
What is Psychological Safety at Workplace (PSW)?
Let’s start with the basics. Although the term seems self-explanatory but let’s hear from an expert.
In her HBR article, Amy Gallo defined team psychological safety as “A shared belief held by members of a team that it’s OK to take risks, to express their ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences.”
PSW is the environment, the culture of your team that makes every one of your team members feel safe and empowered.
And guess whose responsibility is it to create this culture?
Yep, that's right. It's all on you, the head honcho of the team.
If you’re wondering, “What’s the big deal and why would I need to add another annoying task to my never-ending to-do list?”
You’re right. You’re already swamped with managing your team’s work.
Just wait and see the kind of miracles that can come to life when psychological safety takes center stage in your team.
It's going to sound downright magical.
Benefits of Psychological Safety in Your Team
The list of advantages can run too long so let me handpick only a few relevant ones for you, as a manager of the team.
High Engagement - When your people feel safe, naturally their engagement at work goes up and they start thinking of ways to make the team win.
Continuous Improvement - When everyone speaks without fear of consequences, great ideas start flowing seamlessly. The team starts having more creative solutions than there are problems.
Creativity and Innovation - I once picked up a really handy tip while attending a training session. When discussing a topic, try tapping your subconscious. That’s where the cool beans are hiding. To do that, start writing down everyone’s obvious ideas and keep asking for more even after everyone’s done chipping in. The second round of ideas will force them to pull ideas out from their hidden shelves.
All this is just not possible if your team culture requires weighing everything before sharing for fear of consequences.
Improved Team Performance - If all these pieces fall into their right places, guess what’ll happen? Yes. Your team will start outpacing itself in every way. And you, the team leader, will get all the perks of being the best manager.
How Can You Create Psychological Safety in the Workplace?
Here’s the most important part.
What exactly you can do to create a cocoon of safety in which your people can freely share their ideas?
Let me share a few research-backed actions to help you enhance the psychological safety score of your team.
These tips have been adapted from Amy C. Edmondson’s renowned book on the topic titled, “The Fearless Organization”.
1. Encourage ‘Intelligent Failures’
We’re talking about failures of the higher order. Not mere careless deviations from well-defined procedures. Appreciate the one responsible for an intelligent failure and celebrate it within the team. It will encourage your people to tackle bigger problems without the fear of messing it up.
If Steve Jobs had believed in punishing people for failing to bring their ideas to life, we’d still be stuck with those clunky buttons phones, with those mesmerizing monotone ringtones. (I still use one by the way 🤫)
But luckily, that ain't how it went down. Steve Jobs understood the power of embracing failure and letting those wild ideas roam free. And look where it got us – a world transformed by amazing inventions like that button-less wonder we call a smartphone.
2. Invite and Ensure Participation by ALL
Your invitation to everyone for participating in collective discussions should be “compelling and genuine”. To convey this vibe, do two things:
a. Lower the bar of appropriateness - If you set a high standard for what is considered acceptable participation, people will fall into self-doubt and will never speak. Show them through your actions that they are welcome to participate with whatever ideas they’ve got.
b. Show humility - Tell your people that you are not chatGPT and you don’t have all the right answers. Managers aren’t superheroes - they can make mistakes too. Accept your mistakes. This will keep your air of leadership away and people will be happy to help to make the team win.
c. Ask genuine questions - Listen to your team members’ ideas intently. This will help you come up with real questions. Ask those questions and see how the discussion’s quality keeps rising leading you to unconventional solutions.
3. Set Appropriate Metrics to Strengthen this Culture
To deepen the culture of psychological safety in your team, develop a few yardsticks that encourage befitting behaviors. Let me give you a few ideas to get you going.
a. Measure your people on the number of shots taken rather than evaluating them only on their correctness. It’ll spur spontaneous activity that’ll eventually tap their subconscious powers.
b. Create an environment of healthy competition between team members on the number of intelligent failures in a quarter or year. Again, it’ll make them think deeper to generate ideas that are bigger and better.
c. Recognize your people whenever they go against you or take a detour from ‘that’s how it’s done’ and they win. Let everyone know that they won against the odds. It’ll bump up their psychological safety and encourage them to do the same.
Summing It Up
In short, psychological safety is your assurance to the entire team that they can take risks, speak up, and share their ideas without fear of negative consequences. When team members feel safe, they are more likely to be engaged, creative, and innovative.
Managers who can create a safe environment are the ones who will grow exponentially and stand out for getting bigger challenges.
Others will wait for their turn.
Which one do you want to become?
Ps. To help you take constant steps toward a psychologically safer culture, I’ve spent an extra hour creating a PSW chart for you. It is based on Amy’s renowned questionnaire she developed to measure PSW.
Want a copy?
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter at Win Your People and drop me a line at syed@winyourpeople.com with the Subject “PSW Chart”.
Want to embark on a Job Crafting endeavor for your team? Not sure where to start?
Drop me a line at syed@winyourpeople.com to have me in your corner and we’ll work together to get you a winning Job Crafting Strategy.
Additional Resources
▶ Building a psychologically safe workplace
📝 5 Proven Practices to Boost Psychological Safety
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is psychological safety at work?
It’s the element of team culture that allows everyone to openly share ideas, listen to others’ ideas, take risks, and help each other to achieve collective results.
What are the benefits of providing psychological safety in your team?
The list is long the top benefits include: High Employee Engagement, Continuous Improvement, Enhanced Creativity and Innovation, and as a result Improved Team Performance.
What is an example of psychological safety in the workplace?
A practical example of psychological safety in the workplace is the mood boards offered by Haier in China. Workers are encouraged to share their moods using emoji faces. This simple expression makes them feel valued and heard in the workplace.
How do you ensure psychological safety in the workplace?
Here are three great ways to make your team feel psychologically safe: Encourage ‘Intelligent Failures’, Invite and Ensure Participation by every member, and Set Appropriate Metrics to Strengthen this Culture.