The Key to High-Performing Teams: Psychological Safety

While it takes many important elements to build high-performing teams, there’s one that is the cornerstone of them all and that’s building psychological safety.This freedom to express opinions and offer feedback without the fear of reprisal is the single most essential thing to establish in your workplace if you want to build thriving, resilient and high-performing teams.

What is Psychological Safety?

Psychological safety describes a situation where a person feels calm and confident in their ability to express their opinions and feelings. It is a relatively new consideration when it comes to workplace safety, which has traditionally been more concerned with physical or mental wellbeing, but one that offers a huge amount of insight into building more resilient teams and individuals.The phrase ‘team psychological safety’ was coined by Amy C. Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School who found a link between safety, learning behaviour and high-performing teams.Establishing psychological safety isn’t a question of avoiding all distressing situations and ensuring that no one talks about negative things. Instead, it is about building trust around communication and expression by showing that all feedback is welcome and that there is no punishment for sharing an opinion.

Why is Psychological Safety Important for My Organisation?

If you’re hoping to build high-performing teams and a flourishing organisation, then psychological safety is very important. It is an environment that encourages a lot of the behaviour that is associated with high-performing teams: independence, honesty and reasonable risk-taking.Psychological safety can help improve the way teams interact and collaborate and can also help with employee engagement and retention, with Accenture reporting that workplaces with high psychological safety enjoy 76% more engagement and 50% more productivity.

How Can Leaders Create Psychological Safety?

There are plenty of things you can do to encourage an atmosphere of psychological safety in your organisation. Help your teams feel psychologically safe to perform to the highest of their abilities by:

1. Show Vulnerability

One of the best ways to create feelings of psychological safety at work is to lead by example – and that means allowing yourself to be vulnerable in front of your team. By opening up about your own hopes and fears, you develop psychological safety and you make space for others to do the same.The CIPD found that if you want to build psychological safety, it’s important for teams to feel they can speak up or take action without being embarrassed, rejected or punished.Empathetic leaders who are curious, willing to ask questions and happy to share are well-placed to help their teams expand their scope.

2. Demonstrate Empathy and Active Listening:

Show genuine concern for other team members’ well-being and actively listen to their concerns and ideas. Empathy creates a supportive and understanding team environment.

3. Invest in Learning and Experimentation

Set your high-performing team up for growth by making it easy for them to access employee development opportunities. Whether through mentioning, coaching, formalised education or online courses, the ability to expand skill sets and improve talents not only helps improve psychological safety but also tends to accelerate alongside it.It’s also smart to allow space for practising those new skills and to experiment with new ideas. This encourages an innovative mindset and ensures there’s space to play.

4. Make Room for Mistakes

If you want people to be able to grow and innovate, you need to make it clear that there is room for experimentation – and that they won’t be reprimanded for making mistakes.Mistakes happen; the important thing is how you come together to get over them. You may even be able to learn valuable lessons and you’ll have more knowledge than you would in an environment where everyone feels as though they have to follow strict rules.

5. Promote Collaboration Over Criticism

For a high-performing team that knows its power and potential, be sure to put plenty of work into creating real collaboration – especially when things go wrong.Yes, it’s good fun to share in successes, but it’s also very beneficial to avoid directing criticism at any one particular person or part of a team. Instead, invite collaboration on how you can all do better and make improvements for the future.

6. Communicate on a Human Level

Avoid creating distance or alienating your team with jargon or overly officious language and lean into communicating on a more human level. This means recognising the various personalities and preferences of your team members and treating each with respect.Communicating as a leader means being able to inspire and reassure, especially if you want to be able to promote psychological safety and make space for improved performance.

7. Publicly Recognise Change

Show a team that their efforts are appreciated and that they will be rewarded, by making sure to recognise achievements and a willingness to change. This means celebrating behaviours as well as bottom lines.For example, you might want to take to an employee communication platform to let everyone know how impressed you are by someone’s willingness to learn or their ability to share their skills.

8. Encourage Open and Honest Feedback

Effective feedback is a cornerstone of psychological safety. To create psychological safety and encourage open and honest feedback, consider implementing the following practices:

Create feedback channels: Establish multiple channels for team members to provide feedback, such as regular one-on-one meetings, team retros, or anonymous suggestion boxes. Different team members may feel more comfortable using different channels.
Regular feedback sessions: Schedule regular feedback sessions to discuss team dynamics, communication, and areas for improvement. Emphasise that these sessions are a safe space for open discussions and that all feedback will be received constructively.
Emphasise both positive and constructive feedback: Encourage team members to not only share areas that need improvement but also recognise and appreciate each other’s strengths and contributions. Celebrating successes boosts team morale and reinforces positive behaviour.

9. Ask Your Team How Safe They Feel

It doesn’t matter how hard you’re trying to create a space of psychological safety for your team, there’s a chance it might not be working and the only way to know for sure is to ask them.It’s a good idea to use personal one-to-ones to open up a dialogue but beware that some team members may be wary of sharing every detail. An anonymous survey that asks the tough questions and offers space for suggestions can be a handy addition.

Mo is an employee recognition and engagement platform that can help leaders improve collaboration and morale, reduce employee churn and drive change.Our platform creates a vibrant culture by developing team habits, encouraging people to celebrate success, recognise results and appreciate colleagues. Your complete toolkit for connecting and motivating teams in the new world of work. Book a demo with our team today.