In short, you don’t feel psychologically safe in your job.
Oh, no, what are the Gen Zers whining about now? I can hear you thinking.
But not so fast. Harvard professor Amy Edmondson introduced the concept of psychological safety in the workplace in 1999, when the first cohort of Zers were infants. In fact, Edmondson’s studies found that psychological safety significantly impacts an organization’s productivity. When employees experience psychological safety, she found, they are more engaged, more satisfied and more loyal. They feel more secure, supported and valued. By creating psychologically safe workplaces, organizations go a long way toward developing a motivated, dedicated and productive workforce.
Unfortunately, many workers believe psychological safety is a fantasy, and many employers argue that it’s soft-skill nonsense. Joyce Patrick-Bai, Executive Director for the IP firm Schmeiser, Olsen & Watts, maintains that both groups are baffled, because the concept of psychological safety is not well understood.
“The nontangible aspects of psychological safety are scary to employees and leaders and can cause stress. Leaders can’t address psychological safety if they don’t understand it,” says Patrick-Bai. Without knowing it, both groups are creating the opposite: a psychologically unsafe workplace.
What does a psychologically unsafe workplace look like? It doesn’t have to be blatantly toxic. If your workplace exhibits any of the following, it may be psychologically unsafe.
1. Workers Are Afraid to Use Their Leave
The United States is one of the few countries that doesn’t mandate paid sick leave for all workers by federal law. Vacation time is not a federal requirement either, nor is parental leave for small businesses. Only companies with more than 49 employees are required to offer parental leave.
Still, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 78% of the private sector workforce is offered paid sick time. According to a 2023 Pew Research survey, however, fewer than half use their time off.
I interviewed 10 employees in the Phoenix area who requested anonymity. All agreed they rarely use sick time unless absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, they reserve vacation leave for family trips, not to decompress. Indeed, all 10 employees admitted to stress, fear and guilt when taking time off. When I asked about parental leave, 100% of the interviewees said they fear being judged, penalized or discriminated against if they use those benefits.
Creating an office where employees are not afraid to ask for what they need (and have earned!) is a great way to introduce psychological safety into your culture.
“The nontangible aspects of psychological safety are scary to employees and leaders and can cause stress. Leaders can’t address psychological safety if they don’t understand it.”
“Businesses need to create a business culture that makes it easy for employees to use their paid time off,” says Patrick-Bai. To encourage employees to take leave, she created a user-friendly system for requesting time off.
Her system is simple. “The time-off calendar is visible to everyone. To request time-off, employees simply fill out a form and submit it.” With this nonconfrontational format, employees are more apt to take leave. “Employees come back refreshed, which benefits everyone involved.”
Andi Paus, Partner at Arizona Mediation Institute in Phoenix, monitors her employees’ time off banks. If she notices they haven’t taken time off in a while, she encourages them to do so. “A long weekend can do a lot to refresh someone’s mind, attitude and work ethic. It doesn’t need to be a long vacation. An extra day gives them the breathing room to come back stronger than ever,” says Paus.
Patrick-Bai agrees but notes that her high-performing employees don’t want anyone else to touch their workload and for this reason, refuse time off. Instead of forcing a single long patch of time off, Patrick-Bai suggests that they, for example, take every Friday off for a month. “Be creative in how to get your high-producing people to take PTO. You can see when they are in high gear for too long. Everyone needs a break.”
2. Perfection Is Expected, Mistakes Not Tolerated
When a firm demands perfection of employees, the organization becomes less productive, not more. Demanding perfection creates a culture of blame rather than accountability. Employees spend more time double-checking their work, they struggle to delegate lest they get blamed for others’ mistakes, and they procrastinate — after all, if you don’t start a task, you can’t do it wrong.
Research has shown that expectations of perfection cause job dissatisfaction, depression and burnout. No one likes to make mistakes. When you make a mistake in an unsafe workplace, you feel embarrassed and uncomfortable, even ashamed. You may try to hide your mistakes. This costs the company money and erodes trust among employees, customers and leaders.
“Create a culture of accountability rather than blame. Encourage employees to acknowledge, apologize for and correct mistakes. It’s a change in mindset.”
The truth is everyone makes mistakes; no one is perfect. Striving for perfection is a losing game. According to a study in 2021, employees on average make more than 100 mistakes at work per year. Stuff happens, from easy fixes like forgetting to attach a document to an email to larger ones like forgetting to schedule an important client meeting. It’s not really the mistakes that matter, though, or the number of them. What matters is how the company and employee address them.
Create a culture of accountability rather than blame. Encourage employees to acknowledge, apologize for and correct mistakes. It’s a change in mindset. Acknowledge that mistakes are necessary for learning and help us grow as an employee and a firm. When employees feel psychologically safe enough to own their mistakes and brainstorm solutions, they will be more motivated and productive.
“Mistakes happen; that is life,” says Patrick-Bai. “I want people to come to me with a mistake or bad news. Even if you aren’t sure, something just doesn’t look right, bring it up. Knowledge is power, for both of us.”
“As a leader, it is important for me to set an example,” says Paus. “If it’s my mistake, I acknowledge it. One time my paralegal told a client a scheduling error was the paralegal’s fault. I told her not to do that. I made the error, I own it. I don’t expect her to cover for me.”
As a leader in a psychologically safe environment, the way you act when your employees mess up is important. Don’t blame and don’t assume. Be curious and ask questions. Seek a novel solution. Is it a structural issue rather than human error? Maybe a new policy or procedure is required. Or maybe it’s a sign this employee’s workload is too heavy.
And know that you don’t have to fix everything. Give employees the room and tools to fix the mistake themselves. By fixing their own mistakes, employees build problem-solving skills, grow more confident and expand their knowledge. Coach them to seek excellence, not perfection.
3. Workers Are Afraid to Speak Up
In today’s workplace, collaboration and teamwork are the foundation for successful and productive teams. Psychological safety plays a critical role in cultivating great teamwork.
Workers who don’t feel safe are afraid to speak up. They don’t trust that leadership will respect their input and may even berate them for it. The opposite is often true as well in an unsafe workplace — leaders don’t trust their teams with transparency about important things like goals, expectations and processes. Not giving team members a voice and not communicating clear expectations are sure-fire ways to stop teamwork in its tracks. Without transparency, the team is working in the dark.
“Employee engagement and job satisfaction are critical to organizational success and employee well-being and retention. If employees feel safe, valued and appreciated, they will stay with the firm.”
“Because we are a mediation firm, communication is critical,” says Paus. She attributes much of their success as a firm to creating a team where everyone’s voice is equal, and no one is afraid to question the leaders. “My paralegal feels open enough to say, ‘This isn’t how we originally planned to do this’,” Paus continues. “I admit to changing my mind and apologize for not telling her ahead of time.”
Laying out clear expectations while allowing employees to ask “why” creates a sense of belonging and cohesion that drives productivity. When employees feel their contributions matter, they are more likely to work together and take ownership of common goals and company initiatives. And they are more likely to do so when they feel psychologically safe.
CREATING A PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE WORKPLACE
As a leader, you hold people accountable for their performance metrics, but that’s not all. To drive true performance, you must establish a psychologically safe workplace that encourages trust and creative collaboration and doesn’t shame mistakes. When workers feel safe to fail constructively, they will do astounding things. To create such a psychologically safe environment, leaders must establish and communicate the shared belief that the organization is open to risk-taking, out-of-the-box thinking and constructive mistake making.
Here are four ways to create psychological safety for your team and the larger organization:
- Ask open-ended questions (without yes-no answers) to get your team members thinking. Allow them to disagree and actively dig deeper into their thoughts and work through solutions out loud.
- Show value and appreciation for everyone’s thoughts. There is no such thing as a stupid idea or question. That doesn’t mean you have to implement everything team members suggest, but with this freedom, they may come up with a gem you hadn’t thought of.
- Respect everyone. Team safety comes not just from the leader but also from the other members of the team. Coach your team that there is no eye-rolling, sighing or snorting when someone suggests a new way of doing things. No “of course” comments under someone’s breath when someone admits to messing up. And no talking over each other. Everyone’s voice is important.
- Be precise with information, expectation and commitments. Be crystal clear about your team’s goals and duties, as well as best practices for achieving them.
Leaders can promote psychological safety in their own teams, but such initiatives are always more effective coming from the top. Employee engagement and job satisfaction are critical to organizational success and employee well-being and retention. If employees feel safe, valued and appreciated, they will stay with the firm. Psychological safety plays a significant role in elevating these principles and creating a thriving and productive workplace.
