3 powerful things true leaders do.
This week, I’m finishing my 4-part series on psychological safety. In case you missed the last few weeks, here’s a summary of where we’ve been.
Week 1: psychological safety is when employees are willing to take the interpersonal risk of speaking up about ideas, questions, and concerns. Teams lacking this safety can’t innovate, have high turnover, and are unwilling to give over-and-above effort. More here.
Week 2: the easiest way to measure your team’s psychological safety is conversational turn taking. Higher performing teams have even distribution of contribution by all participants in a meeting. More here.
Week 3: as a leader, what’s possible starts and ends with you. Be careful about the words you use as they can quickly erode trust. More here.
To finish things off, I want to cover three powerful things leaders do to boost psychological safety and accelerate results for their team.
But before I share the list, I want to emphasize: this is not complex management theory. You don’t need an MBA to pull this off. In fact, it’s common sense stuff.
However, what makes common sense powerful is a leader’s uncommon persistence using it. This will take discipline and intentionality, but I promise it’s way easier than leading a dysfunctional team.
The context for this discussion is projects. This is where most work gets done, and the stakes are highest—i.e. where psychological safety is needed most.
After studying hundreds of organizations with quantitative tools, I’ve been able to identify three vital behaviors used by leaders to get amazing project results:
1. Paint a CLEAR picture of desired outcomes. When your team has structure, they’ll feel safe. Clarity does this. And the most powerful clarity you can provide is purpose.
WHY is an initiative or project needed? What are you trying to achieve?
Remember, outcomes and measures are not the same thing. Telling your team, “We need to grow profitability,” is not clear. Profitability is a measure. HOW will you achieve growth? That’s clarity.
As an example, “We need to identify areas of cost savings because we’d like to invest more in our training programs. However, there are two rules I’d like us to use as guardrails. Our decisions can’t hurt our employees or customers, and the cost-savings must be sustainable. Let’s work collaboratively to identify the best options to achieve this.”
Notice how clarity also doesn’t mean micromanagement. You don’t have to be prescriptive about solutions.
2. Give people permission to make it their ONLY priority. The #1 blocker for change is time. I’m always surprised to hear a leader say, “This initiative is the most important thing we’ve ever done!” But then they follow it up by saying, “We can’t drop the ball on anything else.”
People can’t feel safe when they’re stressed and burned out. Nor can they deliver amazing results. It takes courage and intentionality to change your filter for doing projects. Old filter: what’s important. New filter: what’s most important right now?
There’s solid research showing most organizations consume 80% of their capacity with “swirl”—keeping the lights on. That leaves 20% for new projects and initiatives. Leaders who respect this create the space their team needs to succeed.
Using our earlier example of the cost savings effort: “I know that identifying and implementing cost savings requires care and quality, and I want to enable you to do your best work. Therefore, here are a few things I know you’re working on that can be deprioritized…”
3. Be humble about not knowing HOW to solve the problem on your own. When you’re willing to be vulnerable, it gives your team permission to be vulnerable and this nurtures psychological safety.
Returning to point #1, you don’t have to be prescriptive about a solution to be clear. So, invite your team to collaborate and to solve problems together. Teams that solve together evolve together.
Even if you believe you know the best way to move forward, humble yourself and still ask for feedback and input. Psychological safety is earned over time, and it will erode if you position yourself as the smartest person in the room.
As we finish this series, I want to encourage you to not overthink things. It’s literally as “simple” as I outlined above. Create clarity. Prioritize. Be humble.
Onward and upward. If you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Make it a great day!
Chris
