How Leaders Can Build Psychological Safety in Their Teams
Psychological safety is essential for employees to feel safe and comfortable in a team. A team improves in performance when they can afford to take risks and make mistakes and still be assured that they will be accepted. Studies have shown that when there is no fear of negative consequences the creative idea flows. It creates a supportive environment for individuals to share their ideas and challenge the norms.
A recent study shows that the behavior of the leaders on psychological safety has impacted 72% of workers positively and encouraged team growth. Psychological safety eliminates the fear of getting rejected or facing negative consequences which will be a huge barrier to communication and growth.
Psychological safety enables the teams to thrive by helping the leader to encourage individuals to contribute, share their ideas, and seek help. This makes the team innovative, diverse, and resilient and navigates through uncertainty with confidence.
This article will give you an overview of how leaders can build psychological safety in their teams and create a learning environment, unlock the member’s potential, and succeed in an ever-changing world.
Contents
The Role of Leaders in Psychological Safety at Work
The role of leaders in creating psychological safety within their teams is crucial. Their emotions as leaders can have an intense impact on their teams and organizations. A leader should be careful not to display impatience, fear, or frustration as it can stir commotion, and brings a sense of uncertainty to the team which can block the team members from being creative or learning. On the other hand, leaders who exhibit calmness, hope, and curiosity encourage their teams to tackle challenges more effectively.
Psychological safety training for leaders helps leaders understand that mistakes do not define what an individual is in a psychologically safe environment. Psychological safety brings a shift in the mindset and encourages people to embrace failures and take it as an opportunity for learning. The leaders who thrive to create a workspace with psychological safety help the team members to acknowledge and learn from their mistakes despite the stress. Encouraging challenges shows that the team is aiming high and continuously adapting and improving by embracing failures and learning from them in a safe environment.
When leaders establish this kind of trust, support, and psychological safety, it enables them to push their team beyond their limits. Team members feel more comfortable in being creative, feel empowered to make changes, and be supportive of each other.
How Leaders Can Build Psychological Safety in Their Teams – 8 Simple Yet Effective Steps
1. Prioritizing Psychological Safety
Establishing psychological safety at work within a team is important for a leader to make the team contribute to innovation, engage as a team, and give them a sense of inclusion within the organization. When leaders create a safer work environment, it allows everyone to freely ask for help when needed and offer assistance whenever the request is raised. Leaders who prioritize psychological safety lead by example and demonstrate the behaviors they want to see. Leaders should also practice inclusive leadership, and ensure that everyone feels valued and included.
2. Freedom of Speech
As a leader who is willing to create a psychologically safe environment, you should approach conversations with genuine concern and value honesty. As a leader, you should be open-minded and compassionate so that you will be patient to listen when someone brings up ideas that challenge the standards of the organization.
The team members are more likely to have the courage to speak their minds truthfully in organizations that foster a coaching culture. So it is the responsibility of a leader to create an environment where speaking up is encouraged, valued, and respected. These qualities need to be embraced at any point and in every organization so that they can cultivate a culture of truthfulness, trust, and transparency within the team.
3. Attitude Towards Failure
An organization that encourages and not punishes people for trying new things or giving ideas that challenge the standard process of the workplace improves a lot in the aspect of creativity and benefits from taking reasonable risks to move toward success.
Encouraging team members to learn from failures and disappointments, and to share their lessons openly with others gives them the assurance that it is fine to try their best but still fail as they can take it as a learning opportunity and take more responsibility for it. This leads to the employees being more innovative and exploring as they can consider the workspace as a place where their experimentation is valued, and mistakes are seen as stepping stones to success.
4. Space For New Ideas
As a leader, you should be ready to offer support when you are presenting the team with challenges. You can decide beforehand if you prefer ideas that are already tested so that the challenge can be safely handled or if you are open to more challenging ideas that are creative, out-of-the-box that are still in the early stages.
It is okay to ask tough questions but make sure that you always maintain a supportive approach. Take your time to explore other alternative ways you can solve the challenges and encourage innovative minds in your team to use the opportunity. You need to build a workspace where new ideas are welcomed and supported, to promote a culture of creativity and growth.
5. Supporting Productive Conflicts
Encourage open and constructive dialogue within the team to resolve conflicts in a productive manner. You also need to create a foundation for incremental changes by setting clear team expectations that also contribute to psychological safety. Conduct a team discussion around questions like how can team members effectively communicate their concerns about a process that is not working. What are some respectful ways to share doubts with colleagues? How do leaders manage conflicting perspectives and establish norms around them?
By addressing these questions together as a team, a leader can establish guidelines and norms that promote a safe and respectful environment for sharing concerts, managing conflicts, and driving positive change within the team.
6. Identifying Patterns
It all depends on how the individual team members perceive psychological safety, not just the overall level. Ask yourself if there are significant differences in the level of psychological safety experienced by different team members, or is it relatively consistent across the team?
By having an understanding and addressing these perceptions of the psychological safety of the individuals, recognizing its impact on performance, and customizing our strategies accordingly, you can improve your team environment where everyone feels safe, valued, and empowered to contribute their best.
7. Strengthening Communication
A leader should create a safe space for people to freely express their concerns, and voice out their opinions so that the team can learn and grow with the feedback skills. Ask questions that are thought-provoking that allow the team members to share their thoughts and feelings, and actively listen to understand their perspectives.
8. Acknowledging Improvements
Always take note and appreciate the things that are going well. Positive interactions and conversations are built on trust and respect between team members. So acknowledge and celebrate even the small successes and contributions of the team members.
Showing appreciation for the contributions the individuals have made to the organization motivates them to express more of their ideas and values to move toward success. When the team members take risks, ask for help, or admit and take responsibility for their mistakes, give them the benefit of the doubt and support them to the end. The same trust will be extended to you in return.
Conclusion
In conclusion, creating a safe and supportive environment within teams is crucial for leaders. By encouraging open communication, listening actively, and valuing everyone’s ideas and concerns, leaders can foster psychological safety. It’s important for leaders to lead by example, showing vulnerability and admitting their own mistakes. As a leader implementing these strategies, you can nurture psychological safety, enabling your team to thrive and achieve success together.
