In our last blog we explored what is ‘Psychological Safe Management’ and why it is important particularly during the pandemic. This week we are exploring how managers can create a ‘Psychologically Safe Environment’ for their staff, which in turn promotes confidence, creativity, trust and productivity.
Simon Sinek talks about a ‘Golden Circle’ of communication. He proposes that organisations which communicate from the ‘inside out’ create better leaders and are more inspiring. What he means by this is that most organisations talk about ‘what’ they do, ‘how’ they do it, and some organisations add the ‘why’ they do it. This is ‘outside in’ thinking. Whereas ‘inside out’ thinking starts with the why, what does the organisation believe in, why do they do what they do. Inspiring leaders often speak from their purpose and their ‘gut intuition’. We connect to individuals when we see their vulnerability, their dream, what they believe in and the struggles they’ve taken to get there. We follow those who lead because we want to, not because we have to. These individuals communicate from ‘inside out’ thinking.
Psychological Safety Works promote six components to a psychologically safe working environment. These include:
- Courage – Being able to speak up and take risks. Taking accountability when mistakes are made and willing to have the challenging conversations to put things right.
- Openness – Being open to giving and receiving feedback. Include team members in decision making and explain the rationale behind decisions once they are made.
- Flexibility – Presently, due to the pandemic, our work environment is constantly changing. Being flexible allows us to adapt during uncertain times. There are three factors to resilience: adaptability, accepting reality, and being able to make new meaning from challenging situations.
- Resilience – This is often referred to as the ability to bounce back. Resilience is fluid, if we are going through a relationship separation or caring for someone who is ill, our resilience will feel depleted. Resilience is prioritising our own self-care.
- Engagement – Get to know your staff’s personal circumstances. This can be achieved through good listening skills and being fully present when talking to staff.
- Learning – Self-awareness equates to good leadership. Daniel Coyle in his book Culture Code highlights the power of asking one question to staff, ‘Name one thing you would like me to stop doing, and one thing you want me to continue doing.’ Become psychologically informed by attending mental health awareness workshops and personal resilience training.
Additionally, Deepak Chopra shares a model of leadership, that aligns with the above psychologically safe components. His model refers to the acronym LEADERS:
- Look and Listen – Ask questions and be curious about the staff you manage. Get to know their struggles, hopes and motivations. Create a space for everyone’s voice to be heard.
- Emotional Bonding – Good leaders help people reach their potential, but more than that they form emotional bonds with others, this creates loyalty and motivation.
- Awareness – Become self-aware. Know the impact your behaviour has on others. What are your strengths, limitations and beliefs?
- Doing – Be action-orientated. Manage head-on and follow up with solid actions.
- Empowerment – Believe in others’ abilities and give them opportunities to develop and make their own mistakes. Micro-management does not enable staff to develop and grow.
- Responsibility – Take responsibility for the development of others and self. If mistakes are made take accountability and take time to learn and reflect on future actions to put things right.
- Synchronicity – This term was introduced by Carl Yung and takes place when things start to align, which can validate actions and motivations.
Leadership is a relationship-intensive endeavour. To build psychologically safe management we need to create space for reflection & learning, develop psychologically informed managers, and connect with others from the core of our being (inside out thinking). Now, more than ever, there is a need for psychologically safe management and a need to build connection between staff and teams in organisations.
“We all have the capacity to inspire and empower others. But we must first be willing to devote ourselves to our personal growth and development as leaders.” (Deloitte, 2020)
If you would like further information about training managers to create psychologically safe working environments please contact FD Consultants at [email protected]. We offer various wellbeing workshops for all staff. Additionally, we create bespoke trainings to support organisations and individuals.
If you are interested in learning more about this topic you can listen to FD Consultants webinar on ‘Psychologically Safe Management’ please click here.
For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly.
