%20copy.png)
Psychological Safety for Leaders
As a leader, your role goes beyond holding your team accountable for performance metrics. You also need to create an environment where employees feel safe to take risks, express ideas, and admit mistakes without fear of negative consequences. Here are eight strategies to build psychological safety for leaders at work:
1. Demonstrate Engagement
Show your team that you are fully engaged during meetings. This means making eye contact, closing your laptop, and avoiding distractions like emails or messages. Practice active listening by asking questions and paraphrasing what you hear to ensure understanding. Your active participation signals to your team that their input is valued.
2. Show Understanding
When team members know that you genuinely understand their perspectives, they feel psychologically safe. Use language such as, “What I heard you say is…” to confirm you’ve understood their points. Displaying understanding through positive body language—like nodding and maintaining eye contact—reinforces this message.
3. Focus on Solutions, Not Blame
Avoid the blame game when something goes wrong. Instead, use a collaborative approach to problem-solving. Ask, “How can we improve this for next time?” to shift the focus from blame to collective learning and improvement. This is all about using an open (learning) mindset.
4. Encourage Self-Awareness
Promote self-awareness by sharing your work preferences and encouraging your team to do the same. Behavioral assessments can help team members understand each other’s working styles, fostering a more harmonious and productive environment. Utilizing personality profiles (At Coherent Culture we like the Enneagram), and our Trust Blueprint Process is a powerful way of building self awareness and increasing collaborative competencies across the team.
5. Address Negativity Immediately
Don’t let negativity fester. Address it promptly by having a candid conversation with the concerned individual. Make it clear that negativity is unacceptable and emphasize the importance of teamwork and mutual respect. We teach a process called the 24/7 Reboot.
6. Involve Your Team in Decisions
Involve your team in decision-making processes to make them feel valued and respected. Seek their input and feedback, and be transparent about how decisions are made. Highlight how their contributions influenced the final decisions to reinforce their importance.
7. Be Open to Feedback
Encourage an open-door policy for feedback, ensuring that team members feel safe to share their thoughts. Demonstrate that you value their input by actively seeking their perspectives and being receptive to their ideas. Feedback is a gift, our Feedback is a Gift workshop is a great way to help teams level up their ability to get past the awkward and communicate effectively.
8. Advocate for Your Team
Support your team by promoting their achievements and providing opportunities for growth. Advocate for their personal and professional development and recognize their contributions publicly. This is a all about recognition.
How Coherent Culture Can Help
At Coherent Culture, we integrate principles of neuroplasticity and psychological safety into our training programs. Our workshops are designed to help leaders create environments where employees feel secure, valued, and motivated. By leveraging our expertise, you can build a resilient and high-performing team rooted in trust and collaboration.
Creating a psychologically safe workplace requires ongoing effort, but the benefits in terms of increased performance, engagement, and retention are invaluable. Implement these strategies to start seeing positive changes in your team dynamics today.
For more information on how to build a culture of Psychological Safety for Leaders or our resilience training workshops, contact Coherent Culture and discover how we can help transform your workplace.
Comments