* This week’s post is written by Jana Sanchez *
Dear Leader,
You’re asking the right question and there are many ways to answer.
As the world is slowly returning back to working in person, companies are facing a number of questions around safety in the workplace. Masks, social distancing, and client meetings all have safety concerns for your team. Questions of who will be in the office on which days and how comfortable each person is meeting other people in person all are necessary considerations of physical safety.
As the leader of your team there’s also another form of safety you can focus on to help your team work together in this new era.
A Google study of hundreds of their teams found the most important success factor is psychological safety - the ability for people to be able to share their perspective without fear of judgment or repercussions. Psychological safety focuses on the ability to share ideas within the team AND emphasizes knowing thoughts, ideas, and concerns are being heard and are valued - even if they contradict leadership’s perspective.
A formal definition of psychological safety sounds something like this - perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context such as a workplace.
In plain terms, psychological safety done well looks like each member of the team feeling respected and having permission to participate freely within the group.
In the last few months, many people’s routines, capacity, and mental and emotional bandwidth have changed. The way you operated previously may have been enough to fully engage your team in a psychologically safe way.
With the new circumstances of COVID-19 and protests about systemic racism sweeping the globe, you may need to make some shifts moving forward so your team produces the best ideas and decisions to help you reach your goals.
So, how do you prepare your team as they continue to work together in situations that feel tense, scary, and uncertain?
Connect to understand how safe people are
Your first step is to have potentially uncomfortable, private conversations with each member of your team.
Start by framing the conversation as you are getting a pulse on how comfortable people are feeling at work. You’d like to have an open conversation about what is working well and where your organization can be better.
Ask, without judgment, how much each of the following your team member believes are present, right now:
Employees feel what they say can and will be held against them, especially when it involves current or future well-being
Employees have a “story” about how someone will react to their thoughts or situation that will negatively impact their job in some way
Employees experience high stress over making a mistake
Employees don’t feel comfortable asking about things they don’t know or don’t understand
Employees have concerns or reservations about raising difficult issues or opposing viewpoints in team meetings
Employees don’t want to ask team members, or you, for help
Listen to their answers and pay attention to their body language and ability to speak freely. Hesitation is normal, yet if folks can’t share or are defensive, this is an indication there’s something holding people back.
It’s crucial for leaders to learn how to create spaces where everyone feels safe to contribute. Psychological safety allows your team to utilize their strengths and bolster one another’s weaknesses. It creates more overall capacity in your organization and makes reaching your goals easier.
If safety is missing, the tough news is the shifts need to start with you, the leader.
So how do leaders create psychological safety, particularly when you might not be feeling that safe yourself?
Start small and keep going
Here are few ways to get started:
Connect courageously and from your heart. Be real and open. Talk about your own challenges with resilience and capacity in this difficult time. Take small steps with individual members of the team in humble and authentic ways. And be willing to hear the impact of their situation without judgment of whether that perception is real or not. People need to feel heard and that their viewpoint is understood before they can start connecting back. You can show you understand even if you don’t agree.
Challenge the stories. Ask questions around “What do you know for sure?” “What is evidence you have based on what you have personally experienced, and what might you be assuming?” Understand that some of these stories may be about how you might react. Again, be willing to listen without judgement.
Promote healthy conflict where diverse ideas are considered. You may have to push people into playing Devil’s Advocate to get things moving. Assigning a different team member to this role for each staff meeting gives people a chance to raise differing opinions, on purpose, as practice.
Start brainstorming or ideation sessions that cycle from absurd to practical. Be open to reimagining every part of your business. Now is a great time to take a step back and see if everything you’re doing is in service to the mission, values, and goals of your organization.
Make asking for help normal. Many teams do daily check-ins - try adding “What help do you need today?” into the mix of questions. Lead by example and be the first to ask for help on something every day.
These are not simple tasks; creating safe spaces where people can differ takes skill and practice. Everyone on your team impacts psychological safety regardless of position, tenure, or industry. As a leader you set the expectations for how the team will react to ideas, conflict, mistakes and more. Helping your team members feel respected and able to contribute in every way multiplies your ability to be successful.
We’d love to hear what’s already working for you and your team in these areas. Let’s have a quick 20-minute conversation to understand what’s happening and explore possibilities of how you can create psychological safety with your team.
