Experience an increased level of psychological safety
New market research published by FRONT Leadership shows that employees experience an increased level of psychological safety as a result of improved leadership. Along with increased motivation and engagement and increased job satisfaction, strengthening the psychological safety of employees is the most important reason for investing in leadership development.
By Marte Aasmundsen
As many as 95% of all respondents in the market survey - regardless of the size of the company and whether it is in the private or public sector - responded that increasing psychological safety and recognition among employees was an important reason for further investment in developing leadership skills. When it came to the effect of improved leadership, 69% of the companies had registered increased psychological safety and recognition among employees.
The market research thus suggests that leadership development has a major impact on psychological safety. One person with a lot of experience in this area is Gunn Brigitte Danielsen, a leadership developer at FRONT Leadership. We caught up with her to learn more.
Gunn Brigitte Danielsen
Leadership developer in FRONT Leadership
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What is psychological safety?
Psychological safety is a subjective feeling, which is primarily about feeling safe to be who you are. When you are with others, you are not afraid of being ostracized by the group, laughed at or punished if, for example, you do not agree with the others or do not understand what the others are talking about. When groups have high psychological safety, we can see it in different ways:
- People ask questions when they don't understand, without fear of looking stupid.
- People ask each other for help.
- People speak up when they disagree or when they are concerned about something.
- People speak up when they've made mistakes, so we can all learn from them.
- People share thoughts and ideas without them being fully formed or perfect.
Why does leadership development provide more psychological safety?
The best way to build psychological safety is for managers to set a good example. This requires, firstly, that they know what psychological safety is, and that they then feel confident enough in their role to do what is needed. This means that they themselves ask questions when they don't understand, ask others for help, report mistakes, etc. Another good way is to get to know each other, beyond the job role. The fact that we see each other as "whole" people.
Why is it important in a workplace?
It's super important in a workplace where we want to do a good job. If we have people who want to do a good job but lack psychological safety, we risk making a lot of unnecessary mistakes and poorer decisions.
We can all imagine the impact on quality if people don't speak up when they don't understand, ask for help when they need it or tell us about mistakes they've made. If we are to be creative and innovative, we also need people to dare to share their ideas and thoughts, and to challenge the status quo.
What are your experiences around this topic?
My experience is that many managers have not thought about how important this is, and that those who are really committed to creating psychological safety say that this has made a clear difference. Personally, I always spend a lot of time on this at the start of a leadership development program. To create a good learning environment, and for leaders to really develop optimally, we need to have a learning space where it's not only okay to speak up when you don't understand, but that that's the standard. That people ask questions and share what they find difficult.
This is one of the things I also highlight to the groups as time goes on. How much higher their psychological security has become, and how it shows up again. By being open and honest about challenges, what they find difficult. And that it's okay not to master everything.
Just this week I received an email from a participant who says that they have introduced a new principle in the team - it's called UFDA and stands for Explore - Fail - Share - Fun (have fun). It's to remind them of the importance of psychological safety and it will be used both in collaboration across the team and with customers.
