People need support and understanding from all walks of life. While you have your family and friends to support and understand you, what about at work? Because an average person spends one-third of their life at work, they turn to their coworkers and colleagues for support. But support and understanding alone won’t help when it comes to work. What one needs in a workplace is empathy. And the one person who can provide empathy in a workplace is a leader.
When leaders show empathy towards their employees, a powerful bond is created. This bond encourages the employees, guaranteeing them psychological safety. This, in turn, sustains them in endeavors needed to improve workplace performance. But how can one provide empathy? By psychologically understanding and addressing the employees’ preferences and needs.
This article will explore what psychological safety is, the impact of psychological safety in a workplace, how psychological understanding enhances leadership effectiveness, and how one can attain psychological understanding.
What is Psychological Safety?
Simply put, psychological safety is the shared belief by members of an organization that they won’t be penalized or humiliated if they speak up, share concerns, come up with new ideas, ask questions, or make mistakes. It is also an expression shared by team members that their teammates won’t embarrass, reject, or punish them for taking risks, giving feedback, or sharing ideas that may or may not benefit the team/organization.
You might think that psychological safety means everyone is nice to each other. No, psychological safety is creating an environment that allows its members to think out loud, express themselves, challenge the status quo, share feedback, and work through differences of opinions– knowing their leaders value honesty and raw innovation and that they have their backs.
The Psychological Safety Model:
Now, the only question that remains is how psychological safety operates. We must look at the psychological safety model to understand how psychological safety operates. The psychological safety model is a model that works toward promoting and de-stigmatizing acts of vulnerability in the work environment. The psychological safety model includes four key elements. They are:
- Mutual Respect
- Trust
- Open Communication
- Growth
Mutual Respect
The foundation of the psychological safety model lies in mutual respect. Employers must show the employee that they respect them. Once the employees know they are respected, they will start trusting the organization.
Trust
Once you show the employees that you respect them, they will automatically gain your trust. But to further build trust, you must affirm your trustworthiness by acknowledging and appreciating their work.
Open Communication
Communication is key to establishing psychological safety in the workplace. Employers should encourage employees to be transparent and have open conversations with their colleagues. The organization will foster active listening and empathy within the workplace.
Growth
When an organization promotes the growth of its employees, the organization will automatically be trusted. By promoting growth and encouraging experimentation, the organization will foster continuous improvement.
If your organization looks to impart psychological safety within the organization but is unsure where to start, then maybe look for services that provide psychological safety training for leaders. Services that provide psychological safety training teach an organization psychological safety exercises that can be incorporated into the workplace. By incorporating these exercises regularly, the organization will foster an empathetic environment.
The Stages of Psychological Safety:
Psychological safety comes in four stages. They are:
- Inclusion Safety
- Learner Safety
- Contributor Safety
- Challenger Safety
Inclusion Safety:
It is a basic human desire to feel included. And how does one feel included? When they feel they are approved and validated by the people surrounding them. On the contrary, if you feel like the people around you don’t approve of you, you feel like you have been excluded. This, in turn, makes you think that you are not welcome. When one feels unwelcome, their willingness to participate in groups and confidence plummets.
Thus, it is important to foster an environment that embraces inclusivity. The feeling of belonging brings one a sense of fulfillment. And when one feels welcome, they wouldn’t be embarrassed to share their thoughts and ideas. Thus, when a workplace makes sure that their employees feel included, they develop an environment filled with self-confident, hard-working, and resilient people.
Learner Safety
Most employees look forward to learning and growing in an organization. And to learn and grow, one must make mistakes and learn to correct them. But they wouldn’t be willing to learn if they were scared of making mistakes on the way. This, in turn, limits their potential.
Therefore, it is essential that employees feel safe at every step of their learning process. Learning something new entails that they will be acquainting themselves to new circumstances, possibilities, and blunders. This also includes asking questions and receiving feedback. All this can be intimidating. Fostering an environment where employees feel they can take risks is crucial.
Contributor Safety
Everyone wants to be helpful in some way or the other. While most people would be more than willing to contribute outside the workplace, they won’t feel the same inside. This is because they are afraid of the following happenings:
- Being shot down on the spot
- Their contribution being rejected
- Embarrassing themselves
- Feeling like their contribution is insignificant.
Thus, the workplace must foster an environment that makes employees feel like their contributions are welcome.
Challenger Safety
Most, if not all, employees are scared to stand up to their employers. They believe that stating their beliefs and opinions is unfathomable. This is because they fear facing dire consequences for their actions. This is why challenger safety is one of the most important stages of psychological safety.
Once employers assure their employees that they are free to challenge the status quo, they will dismiss the fear of being called out because of the same. This will not only boost their confidence, but you will also see an increase in innovation and creativity.
Another reason challenger safety is most important is because an organization’s reputation depends on it. If an organization stays stuck in its old ways, it will prove more harm than good. Thus, an organization must encourage innovation and a culture that challenges the norm.
The Benefits of Psychological Safety in a Workplace:
An organization will discover several benefits after incorporating psychological benefits in the workplace. But the five key benefits the employers will experience are as follows.
- Growth in innovation, experimentation, and creativity.
- Improved teamwork, tolerance, and collaboration.
- Higher employee satisfaction and engagement.
- Reduced stress.
- Increased retention rate.
Conclusion:
The late Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Making someone feel safe in a usually stressful environment is of utmost importance. Incorporating psychological safety within the workplace provides employees a safe space while experiencing exponential growth.
More often than not, organizations that prefer leading with psychological safety have a better reputation and are more sought after by the employees. By encouraging open and effective communication, an organization fosters trust and discipline. This, in turn, empowers employees to work hard, innovate, and contribute to the organization.
So, if you plan to incorporate psychological safety within your workplace, don’t think about it. Just do it!
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