3 Ways To Foster A Psychologically Safe Workplace Culture

When creating world-class cultures where extraordinary teams can thrive, great leaders foster a key component, psychological safety. A supportive environment in which all team members feel safe to take risks, voice their opinions, and ask judgment-free questions. A culture where managers provide air cover and create safe zones so employees feel protected and comfortable letting down their guard. 

Research shows that teams operating with psychological safety have employees who are less likely to leave, more likely to harness the power of diversity, and ultimately, who are more productive and successful. If you’re interested in fostering this type of culture, which is even more critical in this wild, new world of working from home via video calls and collaborating virtually, begin by engaging more in these three ways. 

Be Accessible

Leadership accessibility provides reassurance to team members that you have their back. 

This involves meeting regularly one-on-one with your direct reports and asking questions like—What’s working well? Do you have what you need to be successful in your remote work environment? How can I best support you? Who are the people we should be highlighting for excellent work? What suggestions for improvement do you have? When you respond to their feedback, they see their concerns and comments are being heard and addressed, rather than shot down or dismissed. Seeking employee feedback on your leadership capability signals that their views and experiences are valued. Importantly, acknowledging gaps in your knowledge, or mistakes you’ve made, and admitting you don’t have all the answers, creates room for others to speak up to fill the gaps, as well as to own and share learnings from their own mistakes. 

Being accessible also includes conducting brief meetings where groups come together to quickly share information, and people are encouraged to speak up. Initially, you may want to ask specific people to bring up issues so that other team members can see it’s okay to suggest ideas and provide constructive criticism. Once team members realize that feedback and input are welcome, it will become more natural.

Get Curious

Rather than believe you have all the facts, or already know what the other person is thinking, get curious. Listen with the intent to understand, rather than just respond. 

First, state the problematic behavior or outcome as an observation, and use factual, neutral language. For example, “In the past two months there’s been a noticeable drop in your participation during meetings and progress appears to be slowing on your project.” Second, engage them in an open-minded way that encourages exploration and discovery. For example, “I imagine there are multiple factors at play. Perhaps we could uncover what they are together?”

Third, ask for suggested solutions. The people who are responsible for creating a problem often hold the keys to solving it. That’s why a positive outcome typically depends on their input and buy-in. Ask directly, “What do you think needs to happen here?” Or, “What would be your ideal scenario?” Listen with compassion and genuinely try and put yourself in that person’s shoes. Acknowledge and validate their concerns and fears. Then go and work together, identifying an appropriate path forward and asking how you can best support them. 

Recognize that blame and criticism lead to conflict, defensiveness, and, eventually, disengagement. Instead, show gratitude for quality work and committed effort, regardless of the result. 

Provide Air Cover

Great leaders aren’t afraid of using their political clout or organizational credibility to cover a subordinate long enough for them to get through a tough period, turn things around, or move an initiative far enough along for them to be able to stand on their own. 

While some air cover must be provided behind closed doors using one-on-one meetings to ensure broader corporate support is not withdrawn, the best air cover should be done openly to demonstrate your full support. This sends a clear message to all that you’re behind the individual and want to see them succeed. Importantly, be sure that the individual knows you trust them with the mandate and that you have full confidence in their ability to achieve the desired outcome. 

There is a qualitative difference in the level of employee morale and performance when bosses provide air cover. Employees who feel that they have support and protection are better able to grow and develop. Importantly, it creates a feeling that managers are on their side and looking out for them, their goals, and their career.

Greater Productivity, Creativity, and Collaboration

While it may not seem like any one of these steps could individually change a culture and positively impact an entire organization, when combined, and rolled out from the top down, these three shifts in perspective and engagement can be the difference between a thriving team of invested professionals working collaboratively to accomplish something extraordinary and a dysfunctional group, riddled with toxic infighting and disruptive turf wars. Focusing on psychological safety increases the likelihood that you’ll have more engaged, productive, and resilient team members, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If you’d like help walking through this process with your team, shoot me an email and we can talk.

WHO IS REMM CURTIS?

REMM CURTIS is an executive coach working with NYC and beyond's best and brightest leaders stay at the top of their game. If you would like to talk about what the best version of you could look like, get in touch.