Leadership Development and the Role of Psychological Safety
Leadership development that supports building psychological safety has become integral to success in today’s marketplace. What is psychological safety and, even more important, how do we cultivate it on our teams? In sum, BlueEQ describes psychological safety as a “shared belief that it is safe to discuss ideas, experiment, take risks, give feedback, and learn from mistakes.” In essence, it promotes healthy company culture and encourages individual accountability. In fact, research shows that psychological safety is the number-one factor at work on strong, profitable teams.
By contrast, when a workplace is not psychologically safe, company culture and strategy suffer. Due to fear of ridicule, teammates tend to keep ideas to themselves. When team members fear for their jobs, they withhold candid, constructive feedback and effectively undermine collaboration. In short, individuals on the team become isolated as they operate in self-preservation mode. This is extremely counterproductive. Unfortunately, we too often see this in one form or another.
How Do You Stack Up?
What happens when we know a few tricks of persuasion but lack the necessary tools for refining perceptive emotional intelligence? How would you rate your ability to create as well as maintain a purposeful climate of psychological safety for your team members? Finally, what kind of specific development plans do you have in place to improve areas that may be lacking? If you find yourself searching for answers, you are not alone. While the concept may seem simple, in practice it often eludes us.
Let’s begin the vital conversation that leads to customized strategies for cultivating a successful, psychologically safe workplace for your people!
Do you still have questions about this topic and its importance for your team?
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