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For teams to come together and trust each other and thrive, there has to be a circle of safety. A circle of safety is simply an understanding of the dynamics of the world around us. The world is filled with danger. There is the ups and downs of an economy. There’s the uncertainty of a stock market. There is your competition that’s sometimes trying to put you out of business, sometimes trying to kill you, but at the very minimum, is looking to steal some of your business and frustrate your growth. We have no control over these external dangers. They are a constant. The only variable are the conditions inside the organization. And that’s why we have leaders, because when leaders create an environment inside the organization where people trust each other, when people cooperate, what that means is we will naturally combine our efforts, combine our talents to seize the external opportunities and face the external dangers. And this is what I call the circle of safety. There’s plenty of things in the outside world to fear. We shouldn’t fear the people with whom we work. We shouldn’t fear our own leaders.
Here’s a perfect example. I was at an airport and I witnessed a scene play out of somebody who attempted to board the aircraft before their group number was called, which I believe is a felony. At least that’s how the gate agent treated him. “Step aside, sir, I haven’t called your group yet. Please step aside and wait till I call Your group,” is exactly how she spoke to him. So I spoke up. I said, “Why do you have to talk to us that way? Why can’t you talk to us like we’re human beings?” And she looked me in the eye and said, “Sir, if I don’t follow the rules, I could get in trouble or lose my job.” All she revealed to me is that there is no circle of safety in her business. All she revealed to me is that she does not feel safe in her own job, and her own leaders do not trust her. The reason we love flying Southwest Airlines is not because they have some magical formula to hire great people. It’s because the people who work there feel safe in their jobs and trust their own leaders, and know that their leaders trust them to do their jobs. And guess who benefits? The customer and the company.
For a leader to build a circle of safety, we have to go through a transition. And this is the leadership transition. When we’re junior in our jobs, the only thing we have to do is be good at our jobs. That’s it. The company gives us lots of training, how to use the machine, how to use the computer, how to use the program, how to do the job, and we have to be good at it. Some people even go and get advanced degrees, engineers or accountants. And if you’re really good at your job, they’ll promote you, and eventually they’ll promote you to a position where you’re now responsible for the people who do the job you used to do. But rarely do they teach us how to do that. That’s like putting us in front of a machine and demanding results, except for the fact that we don’t know how to use the machine. And that’s why we get managers and not leaders, because the people who’re put in positions of leadership manage us and micromanage us because they actually do know how to do our jobs better than us ’cause that’s what got them promoted. Leaders, however, are completely different. As I said, we have to go through this transition. There’s not a leader on the planet who’s responsible for the results. Leaders are responsible for the people who’re responsible for the results. Some people make this transition slowly. Some people make it quickly, and unfortunately, some will never make it at all. There’s not a CEO on the planet who’s responsible for the customer. The CEO is responsible for the people who’re responsible for the customer. And as soon as a leader or a person in a leadership position understands that the nature of their job has changed from doing the job and achieving the results, to now taking care of the people who do the job and achieve the results, then we’re on a leadership path, and then a circle of safety can be built. But that mental shift has to take place and it takes hard work and it takes practice. Leadership is a daily practice.
How does a leader demonstrate to people that there is a circle of safety? Well, how do you demonstrate to someone that you love them, or that you’re interested in them and hope that they will eventually love you? It’s lots of little things that we do. It’s not the big stuff. It’s lots and lots of little things. Consistency is way more important than intensity. You know, going to the gym for nine hours doesn’t make you in shape, but working out every single day for 20 minutes does, and leadership is the same. And so there are a few things that a leader must practice consistently for people to believe that they actually care for the people in their charge. Things like being honest. Spin is such a big deal, and we all know it’s spin because we all know what the truth is and we know that someone’s spinning it, and it makes us not trust them. It’s why we don’t trust politicians. It’s because they tell us things that we know that they don’t even believe, right? So, truth and honesty is really, really important. It doesn’t mean be mean, it just means be honest. The willingness to sacrifice the numbers to save people, that’s huge. We now live and work in a day and age where vastly too many companies are much too quick to sacrifice the people to save the numbers. But only the great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people, and that makes us feel safe. I mean, think about that. We’re gonna tell someone to go home and tell their families that I’ve lost my job and can no longer provide for our family because the company missed its projections. Think about that for a second. Forget about the people who lost their jobs. Think about the people who didn’t lose their jobs, who have to come to work the next day, ostensibly being told that they’re not that important. And if this happens again, if we miss our projections again, everyone’s at risk. You think they’re gonna offer you innovative ideas? You think they’re gonna offer you their best? You think trust and cooperation, trusting leadership is where they’re coming from? Of course not.
Another thing that a leader can do to let people know that they are working in a circle of safety is to offer their time and their energy. Money doesn’t work so well. You know, if I told you that I gave a thousand dollars to charity this morning, you’d be like, “Good for you.” But if I told you that last weekend, I gave up my Saturday and went and painted schools in the inner city, you’d be like, “Nice, cool.” In other words, as human beings, we actually put a premium on those who’re willing to sacrifice time and energy. So, we can’t simply pay people to give us their love and their loyalty. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t pay your kids to love you, you know? But offering time and energy, “I believe in you. I think you can do this. I got your back. Good fall, try again. I know it didn’t work out, but I still believe you can do it. Try again.” All of those kinds of things, staying late to show us if we don’t know, taking a risk on us, letting us, giving us a chance, you know, all of these things, the giving of the time and the energy, the giving of the risk, all of these things do dramatic things, are dramatically beneficial to helping us feel like we live and work for someone who takes care of us and cares about our wellbeing.