Creating Trusting Environments: Unapologetic Transformations
This is a continued conversation from 12/15. If you missed the previous pillars, we would encourage you to go back and follow along for our full content on this discussion!
#5). Breed Psychological Safety
Let’s start with a rundown of what psychological safety means. It has become quite the buzzword, but in practice means delivering a few crucial needs to your employees. At the heart of the concept, team members who report feeling psychologically safe in the workplace feel confident they can:
Speak up and share their thoughts or ask questions,
Take Risks,
Make and admit making mistakes or flat out failing…
Without fear of unnecessary negative consequences.
Where most leaders fall short in this space is understanding that negative consequences are relative to everyone and mean much more than losing a job. Simply being talked to in a demoralizing manner or living through past experiences of not being treated with respect can breed an unsafe feeling within your team. If someone was passed up for a project or promotion, depending on the circumstances or how the news was delivered… many seemingly harmless situations could open a possibility for psychological safety to be broken, and distrust to surface. People want to feel supported at work, that their thoughts, feelings, actions, and contributions matter, even if they don’t always evoke the highest results.
Ready for some tough love? We all know that perfection doesn’t exist and have learned that some of the best lessons happen because of failing, so let’s check our egos at the door on this one and really be ready to scrutinize our actions or inactions on this one.
Now let’s talk about why it’s important to foster psychological safety. Although not an exhaustive list, these are the top impacts your department will experience with increased levels of psychological safety:
· Innovation and Creativity – employees need to feel safe expressing unconventional ideas without the fear of judgment.
· Collaboration – with an atmosphere of trust, team members are more likely to share information, and work together most effectively to contribute to shared goals.
· Effective Risk Taking and Decision Making – a culture of safety encourages diverse perspectives, enabling more informed and thoughtful decision making.
· Job Satisfaction and Well-being – when folks feel valued, supported, and heard, retention amongst your top performers increases while their stress levels decrease.
It is the responsibility of people managers and executives to shape a culture of psychological safety, as they set the tone for the entire organization. Your actions and behaviors ultimately influence driving the highest results for your team.
Here's Where Unapologetic Can Elevate Your Results:
Now starts the real work. We’ve talking about what psychological safety is and why it’s important and who’s in charge of driving it…. But how do you cultivate it? How do you keep it alive and well within your organization?
Ensure open communication channels. Contact us to hear about the impacts of our communication workshops!
Develop individual-tailored based feedback mechanisms. This is a cornerstone of what we help you develop in our executive coaching sessions.
Hold team-building activities. We can help ensure the right balance of work and play effectively so your time together is maximized.
Ongoing training. This cannot be a one-time learning module. Allow our Unapologetic Leaders to help show you how to make this be a behavioral approach for the long-term.
