Creating Psychological Safety On Teams
Psychological Safety needs to be shaped on a team on an ongoing basis. The best ways to do this are through the questions you ask and the mindset you practice.
Mindset & Focus
Leaders need to work harder than ever to foster psychological safety in this environment. Grace is needed for yourself and your employees. Tensions are high and that impacts focus and productivity.
You may find any past models for leading through change coming up short for you right now. Most change models are based on one change at a time. Those don't work when each day in the past week has been different.
Your employee’s mind is like a tangled plate of spaghetti noodles. The brain is overstimulated and it's hard to make sense of things and focus. The brain perceives the onoing changes as a threat. Your role as a leader is to help create that focus for employees. Help them cut through the noise, figure out what to focus on and ignore the rest. This may need to be done frequently.
Most leadership focuses on being present and visible. Being visible doesn’t mean micromanaging or checking up on employees. Or requiring everyone to work on camera all day through web conferencing. Connect with each employee. Together, define a frequency for checking in. Your goal is to help remove obstacles for the employee and focus them when necessary. Ask open-ended questions that for which you genuinely listen and don’t presume you know the answer:
What is going well?
What is challenging for you?
What do you need help with?
Are there any shifts you need to make to priorities?
What is one thing I don’t know but should?
You don't predict the future, you imagine it.
Leading in uncertainty
People are looking for certainty. They want to know what they can count on, even in an uncertain situation. Fostering psychological safety requires cultivating trust by sharing your perspective on how the future will unfold. When you are facing uncertainty, explore three possible paths to have different strategies you can leverage:
What if this is resolved in 3 months?
What if this current reality continues through the year?
What if we are disrupted and have to follow some form of what we are experiencing today for the next year or more?
Engage your teams in these discussions. Talk through the three scenarios. This will help them navigate the change. Neurologically, talking through uncertainty and fears helps reduce our cortisol, allows us to plan and feel lighter.
Recognize employees may want to know if there will be layoffs or if they might lose their job. Avoiding the topic, even when you don't have answers, will only negatively impact their trust towards you. Leverage prompts like:
Here is what I know...
Here is what I don’t know...
Here are the things I am watching for...
Here is when & how I will keep you updated...
What questions do you have?...
Communications
We filter all communications through a “What does this mean for me?” lens. Ask yourself:
What would employees want to know?
What questions do they have?
What do I want to make sure they know?
Be human and empathize. Share stories of what you, team members, or customers are experiencing. Drop corporate speak, if you wouldn’t read it as an employee, don’t send it. Each person will listen to messages through the following filters and order:
What does this mean for me and my job?
What does this mean for my team and colleagues and projects?
What is the impact to my organization?
How can I help?
Many Leaders are uncomfortable entering conversations they don’t know where they will go, particularly if they may become emotional. Questions are a great way to understand employee mindset and create a safe space for people to respond, contribute and challenge without fear of blame or retribution.
Questions to build empathy up front
Where are areas of untapped potential I/we should leverage?
When are you at your best?
What happens when you are under pressure?
How can I/we best support you when you are under pressure?
What does meaningful recognition look like for you?
How do you prefer to communicate?
What helps you change your mind?
How should we call out undesirable behavior on this team?
Questions to use when nearing a critical decision
What am I/we missing?
What would it look like to disagree with this?
How might this go wrong? Do we need to pause or shift?
What happens if we do this and it goes wrong?
What is something I should know that may be hard for me to hear?
Is everything as safe as you want it to be? What do you want to see different?
Changes may be needed. Where should we pause to consider them? Don't want for those moments if you feel we should pause at any point.
This is an important milestone and it should be done safely. What changes do we need to make to ensure that?
Questions to use for reflection
What has gone well and why did it go well?
What lessons can we leverage for next time?
What mistakes do we have to celebrate?
What did we learn from the mistake to help us next time?
What should we stop doing?
What should we start or continue doing?
What do you value about each person on this team?
How can I help you when you are under pressure?
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