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The need for psychological safety in the workplace – Mary T. O’Sullivan
By Mary T. O’Sullivan, MSOL
“…at its core, psychological safety is about feeling valued.” – Wiley
Have you ever feared speaking up in a meeting or overtly disagreeing with your boss or colleagues? Fear generated in a workplace stifles teamwork, growth, and productivity. How motivated do you feel once you’ve voiced an opinion different from others at work, only to be shunned later? Multiple studies have shown that workplace diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are critical for developing a healthy culture. A healthy, non-toxic workplace engenders employee wellbeing, better mental health, and the feeling of being valued.
Yet, most leaders are oblivious to the concept of psychological wellbeing. Research from Wiley indicates that leaders overestimate how safe people feel in the work environment. In their study, Wiley found that 76% of executives felt safe to take a risk, compared to 68% of employees. What does it mean to take a risk at work? Ask any whistleblower who has reported wrongdoing on the job, only to face retribution or retaliation. Once people witness the consequences of speaking up, fear overtakes them, and discourages any comfort with further reporting.
What if a supervisor constantly uses foul language, shouts, storms through the building, and deliberately sabotages someone’s work? The boss hears the complaints but does nothing about it. The person making the complaints pays the price at performance evaluation time, and the consequence to the offender are minimal. He is moved to a different office, and a better one than he had before. This type of retaliation for reporting a wrongdoing finds its way into many organizations. It leads to cynicism and undermines trust among employees. Without trust, people don’t feel safe enough to tell the truth and have open and honest conversations with leaders.
How to close the gap between the real experiences of employees with the false perceptions many leaders cling to? In his groundbreaking book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, management consultant Patrick Lencioni outlines in detail what steps to take to develop psychological safety in the workplace. According to his theories, the five dysfunctions that need to be eliminated are:
DYSFUNCTION #1: ABSENCE OF TRUST
The fear of being vulnerable prevents team members from building trust with each other.
DYSFUNCTION #2: FEAR OF CONFLICT
The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles productive ideological conflict within the team.
DYSFUNCTION #3: LACK OF COMMITMENT
The lack of clarity and/or buy-in prevents team members from making decisions they stick to.
DYSFUNCTION #4: AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding each other accountable for their behaviors and performance.
DYSFUNCTION #5: INATTENTION TO RESULTS
The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the team’s focus on collective success.
With these dysfunctions penetrating a workplace culture, employees can’t feel free to openly offer alternative opinions, even when they can be proven to be correct.
As an example, many years ago, I dealt with a supplier in Spain. My management insisted on accepting only handwritten pen and ink signatures as legal, even though as of the year 1994, electronic signatures became legal substitutes for handwritten pen and ink signatures. Enforcing an old policy caused the contract to be delayed since it had to be sent via overnight delivery to Spain, during the month of August, when all of Europe is on vacation. When I received the contract back from the Spanish supplier, the paperwork had been translated into Spanish. Like it or not, we had to accept the Spanish version if we wanted the contract to start on time. This example is one of many events that undermines trust and destroys psychological safety.
Teams that want to innovate and transform the culture need psychological safety just as they need basic survival requirements, water, food, and shelter, the lowest rung on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Research by the management consulting firm, LeaderFactor, showed that senior leaders who learned to instill psychological safety are more able to “engage in practical everyday behaviors that increase psychological safety at work and personal lives to create more meaningful relationships and connections”. Wiley suggests that if teams are to innovate, people need “to feel included and safe to learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo.” This idea is why inclusion and belonging are such important factors in establishing psychological safety in the workplace. People don’t feel they belong if they are new on the job, and they are ignored for the first three months of employment. They don’t feel included if they receive derogatory comments to the effect of “we don’t care what you did in your last job.” And they certainly don’t feel as if they belong or included if they are ignored when they speak up or disagree in meetings.
Although the data is clear that psychological safety is critical in team performance, a disconnect exists between what leaders believe and the facts among the employees. Leaders have more power than employees do, and that power often blinds them to the lack of psychological safety in their organizations.
Since numbers don’t lie, it makes sense to institute a psychologically safe workplace. It encourages people to stay on the job, be more productive, and contribute positively to the organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Leaders need to take cues from their environment. Is there bullying, poor communication, fear, and lack of trust? Is there high turnover? Do people seem happy? Is morale high? Leaders need to connect better with their teams to understand the workplace environment. Only then can there be true psychological safety.
“Brave leaders know psychological safety is a competitive advantage in a tight labor market. Start by assuming your team does not have psychological safety and work to build it with them.” – Forbes
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www.encoreexecutivecoaching.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marytosullivan/
Read all Mary’s columns here: https://rinewstoday.com/mary-t-osullivan-msol-pcc-shrm-scp/
Mary T. O’Sullivan, Master of Science, Organizational Leadership, International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach, Society of Human Resource Management, “Senior Certified Professional. Graduate Certificate in Executive and Professional Career Coaching, University of Texas at Dallas. Member, Beta Gamma Sigma, the International Honor Society. Advanced Studies in Education from Montclair University, SUNY Oswego and Syracuse University. Mary is also a certified Six Sigma Specialist, Contract Specialist, IPT Leader and holds a Certificate in Essentials of Human Resource Management from SHRM.