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Psychological safety is the feeling that you can feel safe inside of the workplace, that you’re not going to be blamed or shamed for something that happens in the workplace. That is so important to unlock the full potential of the employees around you. If they’re nervous about bringing new ideas to the table because someone’s going to make fun of them, if they’re uncomfortable trying something new because they’re going to get punished if it doesn’t work, you’re not going to be able to get the most out of them because they’re not going to bring those ideas up to you and they’re not going to take risks.
Bringing Psychological Safety to Yourself
Psychological safety really starts with you. How do you bring psychological safety to yourself, right? When you are anxious, when you have pressures beating down on you. And the way to do that is, first of all, to recognize that it’s actually super important to create positive psychological safety for yourself so you can do it for your team. So number one is just recognizing it’s important.
Number two is actually highlighting, recognizing what are the voices in your head which are anxious, which are concerned. And then you can write down what are the worst-case scenarios. Because very often we feel anxious and concerned because we’re afraid something terrible is going to happen. But as I tell all my clients, there are no tigers in the room, right? There’s no loaded gun in this room. So actually a lot of things are much better than you think. In fact, if you do make some small mistakes — in business that happens all the time — you can realize that you probably have more flexibility than you realize when you are trying to motivate your team to do something different.
So first of all, calm yourself down by writing down the worst-case scenarios and also finding other ways to talk to yourself to counteract those anxious voices. So like it could be, “Listen, we’ll try. It might not work, but we’ll learn something.” That can be a positive voice that you use to counteract negative voices. So that’s about psychological safety for yourself.
Then you want to create psychological safety for your team. The way to do that is to have conversations with your team to really share with them the overall vision, right? The overall sense of, “We’re going to try a few things that may not always work. And what I want you to do is work together to try new things, maybe to take some small risks and not worry so much if they don’t always work out. We’ll always be here together to course-correct, and we have your back if you need it.”
The Power of Praise
So now, I’m going to share with you the secret superpower that you can use to create psychological safety in your environment, in your workplace. And here’s what it is: praise. It’s simple, it’s free, and nobody gets enough of it. Okay? So, here’s what I mean about that. What actually motivates people is their sense of making progress. And what people mostly do is they do their thing every single day, and no one says anything. Like they could have delivered the report on time. They could have done a great job on the spreadsheet. They could have planned the meeting, and it went really well. And no one really says, “Hey, great job in that meeting!” or “Hey, great job on that spreadsheet!” Wouldn’t that be refreshing?
Get in the habit of noticing when things are going right. When somebody in your team routinely does something really well, planning the meeting, delivering the reports, or even rallying the troops when you’re not around to do so. And then you can pull that person aside, and you can say, “Hey, Fred, I really notice how regularly you do a great job facilitating this kind of meeting. And I just want you to know, and I may not talk about it every day, but it really makes a difference. And it makes everyone feel much better about coming to this meeting ‘cause you do such a great job at facilitating it.”
Another example might be that you notice that someone always takes an interest in other people’s work and is always willing to mentor and help other people. Now, this person’s an unsung hero, but then no one really thinks about it, but they appreciate the positive attitude. You could pull this person aside and say, “Hey, I really notice that you figure out where people need extra help or mentorship. And you step in, without anyone asking you to, to provide that kind of mentorship. I really appreciate that you do that. And it helps our team tremendously.” That’s the kind of praise that I mean.
Positive Attention
Another tool of psychological safety is to use positive attention. So what does that mean? What that means is taking interest in your people. We always think of chitchat as a waste of time. Chitchat is not a waste of time. Chitchat is sending “I care about you” messages to the people that you work with — as in, “What did you do over the weekend?”, “I care about you,” or “I hope your kid feels better.” All of that says I notice you. I see you. You’re important. I know it sounds small, but when it comes down to leadership, that kind of thing builds a lot of loyalty to you and to the organization.