Written by: Suki Collins, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
What is psychological safety?
Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as “a shared belief that I can bring my full self to work, that I will not be humiliated or made to feel less good about myself if I speak up with ideas, with questions, with concerns, and yes, even with mistakes”
As the world is changing, becoming more uncertain, I believe that Psychological safety becomes even more critical. Google’s People Operations team conducted an internal study of more than 180 Google teams. They found the number one driver of successful teams is psychological safety, “feeling safe to take risks and be vulnerable at work.”
I believe that psychological safety is more important than ever in 2021, we have had more than eighteen months into a global pandemic, we have been working from home and how these are affecting our employees. I heard employees telling me that they have experienced burnout during the Covid-19 pandemic, within the last week felt lonely during the week and elevated stress levels.
Why does psychological safety matter?
According to an article I read in Gallup, moving the needle up on psychological safety can lead to:
Edmondson says that nearly all of the work we do today is knowledge work and that when people lack a sense of psychological safety, they will be reluctant to share, use, and integrate their knowledge so it is mission-critical to build a healthy and effective team.
For me when I was leading teams psychological safety was paramount, I found it led to high-quality decision making, healthy group dynamics and good interpersonal relationships, greater innovation, and more effective execution of our outcomes. We were also attuned to the changes taking place in the organisation and to work as one super team. This made a difference in how much money we were bringing into the organisation.
Can we keep doing what we have been doing?
I do not think we can keep doing what we have been doing and expect our employees to keep performing at their best. In the past, managers have kept conversations boxed into work and non-work categories, During the past year, many managers had to have conversations which were off-limit topics like childcare, health-related concerns and caring for other family members.
I do not think we can return to the old normal if we want to remain competitive and allow our employees the choice of where they want to work. I think we need to look at hybrid working if we fail to do this as organisations we are going to struggle.
Hybrid working arrangements are presenting their challenges and managers need to become flexible to deal with the same workload with added complications.
How Managers can create a psychological safety environment
Going forward the managers must create an environment where the employees are encouraged to share aspects of their situations that affect their work scheduling or to encourage their employees to make the right choices for themselves and their families, balanced against the needs of their families.
Managers should take responsibility to create an environment where these issues can be discussed openly. Psychological safety is needed more than ever to enable constructive conversations in the new and potentially fraught and challenging environment.
I am going to take you through the steps which I believe are needed to get this right in your organisation, these have worked for me and I am hoping will help you on your journey.
Step 1 – Set the Scene.
I found it helpful if I was open about my challenges, this helped my team to be open and for us to share ownership of the problem. Your team needs to recognise that everyone must be clear and transparent about the needs of the work and of the team and jointly own responsibility for succeeding, despite the many hurdles that lie ahead.
Step 2 - Say “thank you” – more often
Recent data reveals that psychological safety is highest for employees recognised within the last month and lowest for those never recognised. Make gratitude a habit, set aside each week to think about which of your colleagues stepped up to deliver for the business. Then take time to tell that person you appreciate them and be specific about what you appreciate. I found this also helps with reducing stress in the employees.
Step 3 – Check in with your employees regularly
I found that in a hybrid work situation this became even more important. Our priorities are constantly changing and most of us need that connection. Psychological safety is highest for employees who check in with their managers at least once per week and lower for those who check in less frequently.
In summary, psychological safety takes time to build but moments to destroy. The default behaviour is for us to hold back, to fail to share even the most relevant thoughts at work especially if they are not sure these will be well received. When your employees do take the risk of speaking up but get shot down, they and their colleagues will be less likely to do it next time.
As a manager, it is important to be vigilant and push back when you feel your employees are letting their teammates down. At its core, psychological safety is about feeling comfortable bringing my whole human self to work. For employers it is about empowering your staff, you feel that you can trust your employees to do the jobs they have been employed to do. These three simple steps, setting the scene, saying thank you and checking up with your employees regularly can take you a long way in creating an inclusive and psychologically safe environment for your employees and increasing their engagement.
Suki Collins, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Suki Collins is a leading Business Coach and an accredited Executive Coach. She has had over 20 years of experience at the senior HR management level. She practices a coaching style of management and has seen the difference coaching can make to an individual, a team, and the organization. On an organization level, she was responsible for establishing a Medical School in the United Kingdom. Currently, the School is in the top 5 Medical Schools in the UK. She coached senior leadership to utilize HR tools for ensuring performance and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity (EDI), and belonging are at the heart of everything Suki does.
Suki is the Founder/Director of Pebbles Coaching and Wellbeing Consultancy, established in 2020. Her company aims to provide coaching to individuals, teams, and organizations, leveraging the insight of over two decades’ senior management experience within two top Universities and extensive executive coaching experience.
Suki is passionate about new challenges, has a positive outlook on life, and this is carried through everything she does. She strongly believes that a positive mindset can take her through any challenges she faces in life.
Suki’s mission: spread the word about the positive impact of coaching.
