Amy Edmundson has popularized the term Psychological Safety in her book “The Fearless Organization” and defined it as “a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, meaning people can speak up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes without fear of punishment or humiliation”. She goes on to share different examples of how leaders in organizations enable or not a psychologically safe environment and organizational culture.
Today’s workforce is expecting their leaders to care for them. They are looking for happiness, purpose, appreciation, and well-being. And while there are organizations creating these types of environments, there are many that are not. In the growing age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), today’s workforce is looking for more Human Intelligence (HI). They are looking for leaders who are empathic, compassionate, listen to understand, not to respond, and create a safe workplace environment.
In a Harvard Business Review article, The Neuroscience of Trust (2019), the author highlights that in high trust organizations, there is less stress, more energy, higher productivity, few sick days, more engagement, and less burnout among its workforce. This has bottom line implications, because it has been found that disengagement is costing organizations $7 trillion in productivity (Friedmann, 2015).
There are organizations that either have as part of their values or place an emphasis on innovation and creativity in order to maintain a competitive advantage. In order to see this demonstrated by their workforce, they will need to create a psychologically safe environment. When innovation and creativity are being demonstrated, leaders have to be ready for a 50/50 chance of failure since their workforce is trying something for the first time.
Organizations and their workforce are constantly adapting and changing as everything changes around them, and in order to reinvent themselves, in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Yet 66% of change efforts fail. And what leaders might not realize is that significant changes can trigger emotional and physiological responses. Because our brains are wired for routine and predictability. In addition, our brains need a leader to create environments that feel safe and certain, who communicates well, and makes understanding them easy. In other words, a psychologically safe workplace. This is when the term uncertainty has hit an all-time high for the second time in 35 years, second only to the pandemic.
For leaders to set all of this for success, they should remember that their mind determines their choices, their choices determine their actions, and their actions shape their leadership. Perhaps they should consider being an effective BoSS or Behaviors of Smart Supervisors. Because in organizations where things are done right and there is psychological safety with the right leadership behaviors, such as Great Place to Work organizations, their employees outperform their competition 8.5 times more in gaining greater revenue.
Even in the age of AI, leadership is going to require critical thinking and problem solving, skills that will be enhanced by AI, not replaced. Today’s boss serves as a celebrity because everyone is watching what they say and do. They serve as a quasi-psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist, and conductor of an orchestra.
Check out my book below or my website to learn more about these roles. Performing these roles effectively will lead to a psychologically safe workplace and environment. It has a bottom line and mental health implications, since for 70% of today’s workforce, their boss is their biggest stress. For those in management 70% are stressed out and 40% are considering stepping down. Psychological safety and effective leadership have bottom-line implications. Consider the following.
- Are you creating a psychologically safe workplace environment? How do you know?
- So ask yourself, are you an effective boss? How do you know?
- Are you creating a psychologically safe workplace environment?
- Are you taking care of yourself? Really?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edwin Mourin᷁o – Ruiz, Ph.D.
Dr. Edwin Mouriño is an Air Force veteran, author, Human Capital, and DEI practitioner and speaker. As a human capital practitioner, Dr. Mouriño’s focus has been on helping leaders and organizations help themselves. He is an experienced professional with many years of leading and/or supporting key elements of organizational change projects. Dr. Mouriño is an Air Force veteran who began his career in Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) as a graduate of the DOD-Defense Equal Opportunity & Management Institute (DEOMI) and has also been a speaker.
He brings broad industry experience that includes Fortune 100 companies. He is the founder and president of Human Intelligent (HI) Workplace, an organization focused on helping leaders help themselves through leadership, team development, and executive coaching. He has been and continues to serve as a college professor. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Conference Board on the DEI and Leadership Steering Committees.
He has extensive experience and thought leadership on Human Capital issues and supported organizational change efforts through Leadership Development, DEI, Executive Coaching, Team Development, Executive Retreats, Personality Assessments, and Organizational Change. He has spoken at numerous professional venues and written numerous articles on human capital trends impacting organizations, specifically addressing DE, and is the author and co-editor of several books.
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