Building a Safe Space Starts With The Leader’s Role in Co-Creating Psychological Safety
- Brainz Magazine
- Apr 15
- 4 min read
Sandra is renowned for her insightful approach to coaching leaders and leadership teams. With years of experience as an organisational psychologist and master coach, she brings breadth and depth to her work. She combines robust psychological theory with a practical approach to individual and team development.
In today’s fast-paced, complex business world, innovation, agility, and collaboration aren’t just nice to have, they are a prerequisite. These essential qualities don’t thrive in just any environment. They require something deeper and more foundational: psychological safety.
The term psychological safety, coined by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, refers to a shared belief that the team dynamic is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It’s the sense that you can speak up, say what is on your mind, ask a question, offer a dissenting view, or admit a mistake without fear of embarrassment, retribution, or marginalisation.
In psychologically safe teams, members feel able to bring their whole selves to work. They feel accepted, heard, and valued. In a psychologically safe environment, creativity soars, learning accelerates, and the level of engagement deepens. This kind of environment doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional effort, and it starts with leadership.
Leaders are not the architects of organisational culture. At its core, culture is the coalescence of human dynamics, the cumulative result of how individuals think, feel, behave, and influence each other over time. It forms through everyday moments, how feedback is given, how decisions are made, how risk is handled, and how success and failure are interpreted. Leaders are, however, required to be role models and to invite the co-creation of a psychologically safe environment. Leaders set the tone and support team members to play their role in co-creating the culture.
There are ways in which leaders can shape a culture where psychological safety takes root and flourishes.
Model vulnerability
Psychological safety begins at the top. Leaders must be willing to take the lead in admitting what they don’t know, owning up to mistakes, and asking for, and acting on, feedback. This creates permission for others to do the same. Vulnerability isn’t weakness; it’s an act of courage that signals trust.
Reflection: When was the last time you acknowledged uncertainty in front of your team? What message do you think that sends?
Listen from a place of curiosity rather than judgment
When team members speak their truth, what happens next matters. If ideas are dismissed, criticism is met with defensiveness, or questions are brushed off, silence becomes the safer option. Leaders must listen with curiosity rather than judgment, responding in ways that encourage continued dialogue.
Practice: When a team member shares something unexpected or challenging, pause. Thank them. Ask follow-up questions that show interest and reinforce their contribution.
Reward the risk-takers
In traditional cultures, rewards go to those with the right answers. But in psychologically safe cultures, leaders also recognise those who ask the tough questions, challenge groupthink, or raise early flags on potential issues. Celebrating these moments shifts the incentive structure.
Try this: In team meetings, spotlight contributions that showed courage, not just perceived correctness.
Be aware of power dynamics
Leadership roles come with power, whether it’s acknowledged or not. Leaders must be conscious of how their words and actions carry weight. A sigh, a glance, or a quick dismissal can shut down conversation unintentionally. Being aware of this dynamic and actively working to create space for others is critical.
Tool to use: Regular “round robins” in meetings, where every voice is heard before moving on, help level the playing field.
Build structures that reinforce safety
Beyond interpersonal behaviors, leaders can design team rituals and systems that embed psychological safety into the workflow. These might include after-action reviews that focus on learning rather than blame, anonymous input mechanisms, or regular team check-ins to gauge emotional tone.
Ask your team: What would help you feel safer speaking up? Then, act on what you hear.
Psychological safety is not soft
Some equate psychological safety with being “nice” or avoiding hard truths. In reality, it’s the opposite. A psychologically safe environment enables constructive conflict, radical candor, and real accountability, because people feel secure enough to challenge each other with the shared goal of improvement.
As Edmondson puts it, psychological safety is “not about being comfortable all the time, it’s about being able to be yourself without fear.”
Final thought
The most innovative teams are not the ones with the flashiest résumés or the most impressive technology. They’re the ones where people feel free to speak, think, and challenge convention. As a leader, your role is not to have all the answers, but to create the space where the best answers can emerge, from anywhere in the room.
In co-creating psychological safety, you don’t just build better teams. You build a better culture, one conversation, one choice, one act of courage at a time.
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Read more from Dr. Sandra Wilson
Dr. Sandra Wilson, Business Coach, Mentor and Consultant
With over 35 years experience in organisation development, Sandra is a dedicated researcher of human behaviour both at an individual and systemic level. She defines her work as helping people get out of their own way, passionately believing in the untapped potential and limitless resources within every individual. Her mission is to support people in living richer, more fulfulling lives, both professionally and personally. Sandra works internationally as a consultant, teacher, coach, mentor and supervisor advocating for rigourouse development processes without rigid formulas.
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