+61 9555 7955Intentional Leadership: Three Tips for Cultivating Psychological Safety in the workplace
A Renewed Focus on Psychological Safety and Wellbeing
The concept of psychological safety was first explored as far back as the 1960s, but the recent pandemic has brought psychological health and wellbeing into sharp focus. A recent global review, carried out by the University of Sydney, found “evidence of significant increases in depression and anxiety compared to pre-pandemic levels” and research by HeadsUp, shows that “one in five Australians have taken time off work in the past 12 months because they felt stressed, anxious, depressed or mentally unhealthy”.
According to Comcare Australia, “work demands are among the most common sources of workplace stress and psychological harm” and in recognition of this fact, the Australian government recently announced new health and safety regulations, designed to minimise or eliminate psychosocial hazards in Australian workplaces.
What is a Psychosocial Hazard?
According to Safe Work Australia, “A psychosocial hazard is anything that could cause psychological harm”. The list of common hazards includes factors such as:
- job demands (high or low)
- low job control
- lack of role clarity
- poor organisational change management
- inadequate reward and recognition
- poor support
The Critical Role of Workplace Culture in Minimising Psychosocial Risks
Like other safety issues, psychosocial hazards are often as much about the culture of an organisation or team as they are about policies and procedures. A positive workplace culture can contribute to employee satisfaction, productivity, and mental health, while a negative workplace culture can create stress, burnout, and other psychosocial hazards.
For example, a workplace culture that values work-life balance and provides support for employees' well-being can help to mitigate psychosocial hazards such as stress and burnout. On the other hand, a workplace culture that promotes competition over collaboration, or tolerates bullying and harassment, can exacerbate psychosocial hazards and lead to negative mental health outcomes for employees.
The Most Important Factor for a Positive Workplace Culture
According to Harvard Business School professor, Amy Edmondson, the most important factor in building a positive culture is psychological safety. Psychological safety describes a workplace environment where individuals feel safe to freely express their opinions, thoughts, and emotions, without fear of negative consequences or retaliation. When people feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to be engaged with their work and invested in the future success of their team and organisation.
Creating psychological safety in the workplace requires effort, but 89% of employees agree that Psychological Safety in the workplace is essential and, when organisations actively invest in strengthening their culture, employees are 48% more likely to be loyal to the company.
3 tips for Cultivating Psychological Safety in the workplace
Here are three ways you can create psychological safety with your team:
Work on your own Self-Awareness first.
“To boost psychological safety at work, leaders must first turn inward to understand and integrate their own emotions and fears, and then turn outward to support others.” McKinsey
Self-awareness includes understanding your own strengths and weaknesses and involves monitoring your emotions and reactions in real-time. This enables you to notice your emotional triggers before acting on them. When leaders don’t have the self-awareness to observe how their own behaviour impacts team trust and their ability to curate a safe environment, people leave, or they silently quit.
Do you…
- …role model respectful and inclusive behaviour?
- …encourage employees to view challenges and mistakes as opportunities for growth and learning?
- …acknowledge and reward positive contributions?
- … encourage employees to speak up, share their opinions and listen to others?
- … avoid dismissive or negative responses to new ideas and constructive criticism?
- …ask for and accept feedback well?
Would your employees agree?
How do you get a read on how you are perceived as a leader and the impact you have on others?
If you, or members of your organisation, struggle with self-awareness, coaching can be very beneficial, as can seeking candid 360 feedback from employees, peers and line-managers.
Build your emotional literacy.
In our experience psychological safety is a nuanced concept. As well as building trust, it requires emotional literacy which can often be lacking in organisational contexts.
In a nutshell, emotional literacy is being able to identify, understand and respond to emotions in oneself and others in a healthy manner. It is the ability to use emotional data as information, rather than directives for action. In other words, you notice what you are feeling, why you are feeling it and understand the implications of how you express your emotions.
With emotional literacy, you can articulate your emotions in a way that is mindful of how your expressions (words, tone and body language) will be perceived and received. Emotional literacy also includes responding appropriately to the feelings of others.
Building your emotional literacy enables you to engage in open and productive conversations with people. According to a recent report from Ecsell Institute, when leaders drive openness and transparency, their employees are 3 x more likely to be low risk for turnover, 12 x more likely to discuss difficult issues comfortably and 16 x as likely to trust their leader.
Ask yourself:
- How do your team members feel when you provide them with feedback?
- How approachable do they think you are as a leader?
- How might your leadership style be impacting on your team’s ability to speak openly about what they think or want?
If you would like to build your emotional literacy and that of your team, the Emotional Culture Deck helps to facilitate human-centred conversations in the workplace. This simple but uniquely powerful card-based tool provides a structure for face-to-face conversations that help teams to map and redesign their emotional culture. And it provides you with the ability to build your emotional literacy.
Remember, one size doesn’t fit all!
What might build or undermine trust with one person in your team might not be the same for another. People have different values that underpin their sense of fairness, equity, and of feeling heard. We can all think of someone who “calls a spade a spade” and someone else who might be more diplomatic or considered in their approach. What people believe about communication, and what they feel is appropriate (or not), will have an impact on the level of psychological safety they perceive you are creating as a leader.
Additionally, according to PWC’s what workers want report, 25% of workers say the reason they join an organisation isn’t always why they stay. So, providing ongoing opportunities for your people to articulate their aspirations and day-to-day needs is essential. Psychological safety results from supporting and encouraging people consistently over time.
What is each person in your team currently feeling and what do they need to feel in order to be successful? The Emotional Culture Deck can help you to uncover these insights and maintain an open dialogue.
The takeaway
Taking the time to engage with and intentionally craft the culture of your team or organisation is crucial to better mental health at work.
Work-related psychological harm comes at a high price, but research has shown that “good leader behaviours, e.g., support, trust, and feedback, are linked to higher worker well-being and can help employees to manage stress”, so it is vital that leaders at all levels lead by example, demonstrating behaviours that promote and strengthen psychological safety.
How We Can Help
The Neural Networks team has been assessing, training, and developing emotionally intelligent leaders for over two decades and has extensive experience providing leadership coaching and training to organisations in almost every industry.
We offer a range of options to help leaders improve their self-awareness, emotional literacy and psychological safety. Workshops on how to create cohesive teams, emotional intelligence and using the Emotional Culture Deck are just some of the ways that we have helped our clients build strong team cultures and reduce attrition.
What do you think your organisation needs?
References
https://www.aihw.gov.au/mental-health/monitoring/mental-health-impact-of-covid
https://www.comcare.gov.au/safe-healthy-work/prevent-harm/psychosocial-hazards/job-demands
https://amycedmondson.com/psychological-safety/
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/five-fifty-is-it-safe
https://employmenthero.com/resources/wellness-at-work/
https://ecsellinstitute.com/research-insights/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8561255/
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