Feeling safe to think big

Prof. John Weeks: In psychology and leadership studies, the term dates back to 1999, although the underlying concepts are much older. We distinguish four kinds: first of all, “learning safety,” or feeling safe enough to admit that there is something you are not doing as well as you could. The second one is “challenging safety”: is it safe to raise a different point of view in this team? There are connections between psychological safety in a team and trust, as they mutually increase each other.

Next is “being me safety”: is it okay to be my true self, or do I have to pretend to be somebody I am not? Will my peers, my boss, my reports, accept who I am and see my potential to grow? Finally, “collaborating safety”: are there repercussions for offering or asking for help?

Research shows that psychologically safe teams perform better, across cultures and regions of the world. If you scale that up to the entire organization, it’s a powerful advantage. When people are willing to learn, try new paths, stretch themselves to reach an even higher level of performance, imagine where they can get. If you want them to think big, having that safety is key. Also, if leaders do more “caring,” they can expect more “daring” from their teams.

As a leader, part of your job is to build a caring and supportive environment, where people feel acknowledged and trusted. Another part is to challenge, inspire and dare your people to take risks and reach higher. If someone feels unsafe working with you and you know it, you’ll both behave defensively and will fail to take a step forward.

Peers are the ones who play the biggest role in making you feel safe. However, it has to start at the top, otherwise it won’t happen across the rest of the organization. Senior leaders should model the behavior they wish to see in their teams. All employees can influence and shape the level of trust and safety in their part of the company.

Here‘s a tip: Teams with high levels of psychological safety tend to have roughly balanced conversational turn-taking, which means that over the course of a month of meetings, everyone on the team spoke about the same amount. If that’s not the case, ask yourself what you need to do to balance it out. Do you need to talk less and listen more? Or do you need to speak more and let others hear your views and ideas?

The goal is to enable people to give their best, empower them to take calculated risks, explore and seek change. Helping them to meet their potential is what pushes everyone else forward.