Three Clues You’re Not Creating Psychological Safety

How can a leader know if they are creating a psychologically safe environment? A psychologically safe environment is an environment where members of your team can say what needs to be said to you or to the team as a whole. 

I attended a talk recently by David Rock, CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute, and he pointed out that this term, psychological safety, is sort of a misnomer -- leaders actually create psychologically safe environments when their team members feel confident in risking that safety by raising issues or ideas that feel courageous, that counter the team norms, or are simply unpopular. The term comes from the fact that they feel safe taking those risks -- they trust that it won't be held against them and they won't otherwise be harmed from doing so.

Do your people take risks during conversations with you or the team as a whole? Here are three signs that you might need to work on psychological safety more intentionally.

1) Your Team Members Don't Own up to their Mistakes

This is evidence that the team culture you have created or inherited isn't welcoming to people's learning process. Mistakes and learning often go hand-in-hand. Do your team members only give voice to only what they already know? Start shifting the culture by encouraging them to give voice to their questions. That will crack open the door to the unknown, where mistakes and learning abound.

2) No One Pokes Holes in Prevailing Ideas, Especially Yours

A high-performing team has a healthy dose of "What about this..." or "My main concern is...." It's not typically blatant disapproval, but more nuanced questions team members essentially to bring themselves into alignment. You may have to explicitly pull out these small skepticisms by asking counter-intuitive questions like, "What holes can you poke in this?" (See this post for more on how to ask.)

3) Things Just Seem Quiet

Now, things being quiet in and of itself may not be a clue, but if a team member isn't sharing information or reaching out to you when your roles are connected in a way that warrants it, pay attention. They may be avoiding you, or minimizing their interactions with you. This doesn't mean you need to reach out to them necessarily but try to increase your perception of what is missing, what might not be getting said, and what outreach should be happening that isn't. Try to Increase your perceptivity without jumping to any conclusions. (People are also just busy sometimes!)

When someone does take a risk with you by sharing something vulnerable, honor that risk, even if you don't like or agree with the message being delivered.

This post isn’t meant to be a deep dive on how to improve psychological safety, it’s meant to help leaders with the first step — humbly recognize that an improvement is needed.