Workplace power dynamics directly affect Psychological Safety, for both good and bad.
When an employer wants you to ‘build resilience’
Having been reworking my own material on resilience recently, I was intrigued when I saw a job post for a senior manager that highlighted a key requirement as the ‘ability to build resilience in your team’. This wasn’t a footnote, but a top line, must-have, key requirement. Without this you…
How to help your people to speak up
Why aren’t your people speaking up? If this is important to you, what can you do to ensure they do? We’ve been getting to this point over a couple of posts, so let me refresh the last two to set the scene. You can skip ahead to Two Critical Factors…
When you stop your people from speaking up
The first time I heard that people in my team didn’t feel they could talk to me was like a punch in the gut.
Psychological Safety and the cost of Belonging
In our last post we talked about the importance of Belonging in Psychological Safety, highlighting how we can enable it through small actions. We also noted that the brain is highly tuned to threat, overemphasises loss, and manages the perception of threat in our amygdala. But that’s actually only part…
Post-Covid Psychological Safety (2 of 2)
In our last post we noted that while Psychological Safety isn’t new, it is certainly trending and, post-Covid, requires some thought. We spent the time working through the differences between emotional safety (more like comfort and security) and Psychological Safety, which is a performance concept defined by Edmonson as a…
Post-Covid Psychological Safety (1 of 2)
Psychological Safety is in the corporate zeitgeist. That’s great for helping the concept spread but not necessarily so great for maintaining the integrity of what it is. In fact it can be terrible for it. As a concept it’s been around for decades but is now flourishing. In the work-from-home…
The most powerful tool in your leader’s toolbox
There is one thing that makes a pivotal difference for leaders. It builds trust, commitment and Psychological Safety, which is a recipe for standout performance. It’s listening.
Stressed by COVID? Cut each other some slack
COVID can cause major stress because we don’t know what will happen. Under the circumstances, maybe we want to cut each other some slack.
Getting empathy right as a leader
Empathy is often touted as a key skill in the modern leader’s tool box, and one which effective leaders deploy easily and smoothly. You could describe it as the power of understanding another person’s feelings, as if you were walking in their shoes. It’s seen to facilitate social interactions, strengthen…