Psychological safety?

Psychological safety comes up in conversation, in journal articles and posts increasingly frequently these days. Almost (but not quite) as much as AI.

Quite rightly so. We all know we need to have psychological safety to ensure our leadership teams and people are performing at their best, to promote positive mental health and to create pleasant, creative and productive work environments.

It's not as easy as it sounds though, it's hard to make this kind of change if you don't have it already and like all change needs to be approached in a holistic way.

So where do you start? Your own behaviour as a leader can make all the difference.

Is there trust? Do your colleagues trust you, do you trust your colleagues?

To start to create the environment where people feel safe ask yourself the following questions:

Do you admit your mistakes?
Do you acknowledge your weaknesses to others?
Do you ask for help without hesitation?
Do you acknowledge other's strengths?
Are you quick to apologise?
& my personal favourite
Do you do what you say you were going to do?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, then I would suggest that you are not working in or promoting a psychologically safe culture.