It is hard to deny that Canada’s economy and workplaces have been rapidly evolving over the previous years. If your organization aims to enhance employee satisfaction and retention, team performance, and innovation, fostering a culture that focuses on the mental health and psychological safety of team members is crucial. Let's take a moment to explore how vital a leaders role is when developing mentally healthy teams with psychological safety. And provide actionable coaching tips to help you create an environment where team members feel safe to share ideas, learn from mistakes, and contribute candidly.
Why Psychological Safety Matters.
Research shows that teams where honesty and support are the norms, i.e. teams with high psychological safety experience increased innovation, resilience, and employee retention . When team members feel safe, they are more likely to engage, challenge ideas constructively, and support one another through the good and the bad. It is particularly relevant for Canadian teams aiming to improve collaboration, employee well-being, and workplace culture.
The Role of Managers in Establishing Mental Health and Psychological Safety Practices.
Leadership plays a pivotal role in shaping workplace cultures. They define norms around expectations, achievements, work-life balance and even how employees speak to each other. According to renowned researcher Amy Edmondson, “the most important influence on psychological safety is the nearest manager, supervisor, or boss.”. Managers set the standard for team interactions and affect whether team members feel comfortable or safe to take risks.
Here are some fundamental coaching strategies managers can use:
Encourage Open Communication: Regularly inviting feedback. Encourage team members to speak up by actively listening to their ideas and concerns. When people see their input is valued, they feel more confident to engage openly.
Model Vulnerability: Modelling vulnerability is an effective way to encourage team members to be vulnerable. By admitting to your own mistakes, you signal to your team that perfection is not expected. This behaviour encourages team members to share challenges openly, which is essential for growth.
Provide Constructive Feedback: People value respectful communication. Leadership should provide feedback that is specific, actionable, and supportive. This helps employees understand where they stand and where they may need to improve in a relevant and concrete way.
Set Clear Expectations for Accountability: Clear roles, structure, and accountability are crucial for effective teamwork. Managers who balance accountability with psychological safety create environments of both high trust and high performance.
Practical Steps for Managers to Foster Psychological Safety.
Use Team-Building Exercises: Allow team members to connect personally. Sharing personal stories or past work challenges helps teams establish bonds and trust.
Practice Active Listening: Show your team you value their perspectives by listening actively. Pay attention, ask follow-up questions, and show empathy. Employees who feel heard are more likely to voice new ideas and address issues.
Create Safe Spaces for Experimentation: Encourage team members to test new ideas without fear of failure. This promotes innovation, a key element in many industries, and shows that mistakes are part of growth.
Foster a No-Blame Culture: When mistakes happen, focus on understanding the root cause instead of assigning blame. This approach encourages learning and prevents similar issues in the future.
Request feedback Regularly: Make feedback a two-way conversation by asking your team how you, as a manager, can improve. This reinforces psychological safety and helps you enhance your leadership skills.
Managers looking to create a psychologically safe workplace in should avoid behaviours that can undermine trust, including:
Being overly critical
Micromanaging
Taking credit for team achievements
Ignoring feedback
Psychological safety is a byproduct of outstanding leadership that focuses on the mental health of their team. As a manager or team coach, leading with openness, empathy, and accountability is the best way to foster psychological safety. By creating a culture where team members feel valued and safe, you lay the foundation for a high-performing and engaged workplace
Resources
[1]
T. Brown, “How managers can make, or break, psychological safety,” terrybrown.me, Apr. 21, 2021. https://terrybrown.me/posts/2021/the-role-of-management-in-psychological-safety/
[2]
A. Edmondson, “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams,” Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 350–383, Jun. 1999, doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999.
[3]
A. C. Edmondson and D. P. Bransby, “Psychological Safety Comes of Age: Observed Themes in an Established Literature,” Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, vol. 10, no. 1, Nov. 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-055217.
[4]
C. G. V. Coutifaris and A. M. Grant, “Taking Your Team Behind the Curtain: The Effects of Leader Feedback-Sharing and Feedback-Seeking on Team Psychological Safety,” Organization Science, vol. 33, no. 4, Aug. 2021, doi: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1498.
[5]
C. Cote, “How Does Leadership Influence Organizational Culture?,” Harvard Business School, Mar. 02, 2023. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/organizational-culture-and-leadership
[6]
A. C. Edmondson, Right Kind of Wrong. Simon and Schuster, 2023.
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