Psychological Safety & Leadership

Psychological Safety: “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”Amy Edmondson, Harvard Professor

Maslow’s hierarchy highlights safety as a basic human need. Psychological safety is a critical (but often overlooked) element within leadership. Without this workplace safety, creativity and innovation suffers thus impacting the businesses overall success. In psychologically unsafe environments, any mistake made will be held against the individual which perpetuates a hostile environment.

If you make a mistake on this team, will it is be held against you?

Are members of this team able to bring up problems and tough issues?

Do people on this team sometimes reject others for being different.

Is it safe to take risk on this team?

Is it difficult to ask other members of this team for help?

Would anyone on the team deliberately act in a way that undermines efforts?

Working with members of this team, are unique skills and talents are valued and utilized?Questions developed by Amy Edmondson, Harvard Professor

How to identify the psychological safety of your team

“For a team to discover gaps in its plan and make changes accordingly, team members must test assumptions and discuss differences of opinion openly rather than privately or outside the group.” – Amy Edmondson

Team Psychological

SafetyTeam

Learning Behaviours

Team Performance

Adapted from Amy Edmondson, Psychological Safety and Learning Behaviour in Work Teams

In psychologically safe environments, people easily engage in important growth discussion; such as sharing controversial ideas, speaking up, asking questions, admitting mistakes, seeking feedback, asking for help and raising concerns.It is important for leaders to ensure safety and become a team member.