This month we are sharing FD Consultants experience and knowledge about ‘Psychologically Safe Management’. It is more important, now than ever, for organisations to invest in training their managers in ‘Psychologically Safe Management’. An unsafe working environment increases our stress levels and makes us feel defensive, reactive and more emotional. We are all impacted daily by what is happening directly in our life’s and through watching the news. Living and working through a pandemic is highly stressful. Managers, as much as staff, need to be taken care of during this time, and given the resources and knowledge in how best to support themselves and their staff.
So WHY do we need ‘Psychologically Safe Management’ and WHAT is it?
Let’s start by looking at the why:
- ‘1 in 4 adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any given year’ (Mind).
- * ‘30 per cent of staff report significant symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and increased levels of depression and anxiety’ (Dunkley, 2018).
- ‘85% of staff felt stigma was still an issue when asking for psychological support’ (Dunkley, 2018).
- ‘Only 20% of staff felt their organisation offered sufficient psychosocial support’ (Dunkley, 2018).
- ‘Only 49% of staff felt comfortable speaking to employers about mental health, 39% of which said work had affected their mental health over the past 12 months’ (Deloitte, 2020).
(* Although this percentage relates to humanitarian workers and emergency first responders, due to Covid this is currently more likely to relate to a greater number of the population).
The above statistics clearly show that mental health at work is an issue for a large number of staff. This has significantly increased over the last 12 months due to the global pandemic. Research carried out by FD Consultants highlights several factors that add to an individual’s stress, such as an ‘always-on’ culture, being able to communicate through technology any time of the day and the challenge of remote home working. A study by Myers Briggs found that individuals who are ‘always on’ are usually more engaged at work but are also more at risk of suffering vicarious trauma, stress and anxiety leading to mental exhaustion.
The impact of Covid on staff has been significant in a number of ways:
- Working from home – Having to balance family and work life in the same environment. Possibly needing to take time out for home schooling children.
- Social isolation – The challenge of those living alone and not have a community of support around them. Keep an eye out for anyone who may be isolated and disconnected.
- Saturation levels – Exposure to traumatic material impacts our mental health, including watching the news. Listen to your body to recognise the signs of when to take time out.
- Restriction of movement – Reducing our physical movement leads to a build-up of stress and tension in our body.
- Uncertainty – Questions such as, ‘how long will this last’, ‘how many people will die’, and ‘will I have a job at the end of it all’?
- Lack of resources – We can no longer reach out to our usual resources to make us feel better such as going to a restaurant, concert, theatre and meeting up with friends.
- Everyday triggers – Workload, challenging relationships at work, restructuring, and financial implications.
So WHAT is ‘Psychologically Safe Management’?
Working in an environment that does not feel safe means it is harder to speak up about things, and can result in unequal treatment of staff, individuals being scapegoated, and a bullying culture. A person-centred organisation has people at its heart, both people it serves and people it employs. A Psychologically Safe Workplace creates a safe environment where people can speak up, share mistakes and learn from them.
‘If you want to improve the world, start by making people feel safer’ (Porges, 2001).
Studies on psychological safety point to wide-ranging benefits, including increased confidence, creativity, trust and productivity. Managers need to learn and understand how to create a ‘psychologically safe environment’, which enables staff to:
- improve creativity, productivity, and foster an environment where innovation can thrive, and staff have more freedom to try out new things
- speak up without fear, sharing their feelings and thoughts will not lead to punishment or embarrassment, where they can speak more openly about work-related issues
- admit and learn from mistakes
By implementing a psychologically safe workplace, one report found it makes employees more engaged in their work and can lead to a 12% increase in productivity (2017 Gallup).
‘Psychological safety is being able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career. It can be defined as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected’ (Kahn 1990).
In our workshops we offer a stepped approach to management training. This starts with ‘Personal Resilience’. How do managers role-model good self-care and recognise their own signs of stress? The more we recognise our own stress cycle, the more we are able to recognise the signs in others and appropriately support them. We start our training focusing on wellbeing at the heart, before moving onto management skills. We also train managers to become more confident talking about mental health and provide tools and techniques on how to do this well. This helps to create a common language to talk about mental health and change an organisational culture to promote wellbeing. Additionally, we offer coaching session to help managers when they are supporting staff with mental health issues. Managers learn how to manage healthy boundaries and identify destructive communication patterns.
I often hear organisations state there is no resource or finance for wellbeing training. The risk of not investing in this training results in a much greater cost to organisations due to sick leave, reduction in productivity, and high turnover rate of staff. The research from Deloitte’s report ‘mental health and employers’ (2020) evidenced a strong case for investing in the wellbeing of employees, “every £1 spend on staff wellbeing results in a £5 return” (Deloitte, 2020).
Over the next two weeks we will share techniques and tips on what managers can do to create a psychologically safe environment.
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.
