26 Jul Time to build a culture of psychological safety in your business…
As a business owner, leader or manager, you know that the engagement, enthusiasm and overall happiness of your team as regards the work they do is down to you.
You also know that a happy and enthusiastic team will help ensure your business is more successful and a nicer place to work for everyone.
When you look around at your team, how happy do you think they are? How engaged in their work are they and how enthusiastic are they about the work they are doing?
You might think that you have all of these things sorted and that everything is fine.
Now let me ask you another question – how safe do you think your team feel?
This might be a strange question and you might not fully understand what I mean…
Here is a scenario – if you and your team are sitting in a meeting or gathered together, and someone shares an idea, asks a question or raises a concern, how do the rest of the team respond?
Do they take the idea on board and share additional ideas? Do they answer the question, openly and honestly? Do they respond to a concern with solutions and ideas? Does the environment within which your team operate promote a free-flowing, honest, open, judgment-free conversation?
Or is this idea, question or concern met with criticism, judgment, negativity, mocking or even blatant ridicule? And if this is the case, what is the likelihood of this person, or anyone else at the meeting who might have thought of sharing something, speaking up in future?
How many times in your team meetings have questions, ideas or concerns been greeted with silence?
When you create a psychologically safe environment in your business, you allow your team to share, free from fear and judgment. You create a positive and thriving work environment that promotes open communication, collaboration, innovation and employee well-being, all of which contribute to the long-term success of your team and your business. For you, creating and nurturing this environment is a win–win.