9 Strategies to Create Psychological Safety at Work

9 Strategies to Create Psychological Safety at Work

If you don’t create psychological safety at work, those ambitions will not be possible. In this article, we’ll talk about what psychological safety is, why it matters, and strategies for creating it at work. As a leader, one of your top priorities is to help your team members succeed and feel engaged with their work

Promote Self-Awareness

To create psychological safety in the workplace, start by building self-awareness in your team

Why does psychological safety matter?

Teams that feel empowered to share their perspectives with each other, especially when their opinions differ from the rest of the group, are able to more fully leverage the knowledge and talent that each member brings to the team.

Own up to mistakes

Regularly ask employees what they’ve done that didn’t work out as expected and what they learned from those experiences.

Demonstrate concern for team members as people

Check in with employees regularly to gauge how they are doing

Provide multiple ways for employees to share their thoughts

Encourage team members to share feedback via email or through online collaboration tools (e.g. Slack or Microsoft Teams)

What is psychological safety?

A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes

Benefits of Psychological Safety

Psychological safety improves team performance and enhances employee engagement.

How to measure psychological safety

Traditional psychological safety assessments tend to focus solely on perceptions at the team level

Show Value and Appreciation for Ideas

Thank people for their contributions and show appreciation for their insights.

Promote positive dialogue and discussion

Use affirmative language to inspire honest conversations

Actively solicit questions

As your team is arriving at a decision, pause your meeting to ask for questions, different viewpoints and considerations that have not yet been voiced

Be precise with information, expectations and commitments

To build psychological safety, your team members need to trust you and your word, so be mindful about the information you share and expectations you set.

Explain reasons for change

When expectations change or new information is revealed, be clear about what changed and why and give your team members time to process the change.

Psychological Safety and DE&I

Diverse opinions, experiences, and knowledge can be better leveraged if team members feel comfortable speaking up and are accustomed to considering alternate viewpoints

Source

Get in