How leaders can build Psychological Safety

I’ve always been a big reader, and my focus tends to be on business, from management and leadership books to the Harvard Business Review and other similar publications. For much of my entrepreneurial journey, I’ve been enamored with the leadership fads of the time: an endless stream of BHAGs (“Big Hairy Audacious Goals”), SWOT analysis, competitor benchmarking, reverse mentorship, discussions to scrap annual reviews, brainstorming without groupthink—the list goes on.

At one point or another, we’ve tried (or at least deeply discussed) all of these. Now, however, I realize that, beyond the responsibilities mentioned above, there are just two things I need to do as a leader to build the foundations of a strong culture: measure the right things and build Psychological Safety.

“What gets measured gets done.” It’s a simple—and perhaps clichéd—point to make, but if you, as a leader, make sure the right things are being measured then it becomes process, and process becomes culture.

From time to time, it’s worth getting some distance and reflecting deeply on what you are measuring and whether it is the right metric for the stage and challenges of your business. Sometimes, the wrong things will have been measured in the past and taken as the benchmark for success, in which case changing the measurement can be tough. It requires energy and consistency, but with conviction and tenacity it can be done, and after time your new measurement will become the de facto culture.

The other core culture builder, Psychological Safety, is trickier. A lot fits into this concept. At its most basic, it’s straightforward: build an environment of trust and openness, listen, and make sure you don’t bite people’s heads off.

Psychological Safety is essentially the trust that individual team members have in the rest of the team, and how comfortable they feel giving their opinions or pointing out an error without fear of censure. If you can build this into your organization—and this is at the team level, meaning each team has to have this—then you’ll instill a high level of Psychological Safety. That brings with it better inclusion, the possibility for real diversity, stronger innovation, less errors, and, likely, less burnout. All kinds of good things that bake many of the leadership trends I’ve followed over the years into one concept.

For me, a lot of Psychological Safety boils down to being a good, thoughtful listener. To not speak too quickly. To reflect on what has just been said, the emotions of the speaker, and what hasn’t been said, and then to give an appropriately thoughtful reply.

This has not been easy for me as a passionate entrepreneur. That passion is wrapped in strong beliefs. There have been times in the past when I certainly didn’t leave the door open for negative or skeptical opinions when advocating for entrepreneurial goals and strategies.

Then there is my high motivational need for Rationality that often comes out as a love to debate. For team members with low Rationality needs, seeing me come quick and fast at their ideas with questions and opinions must have been demoralizing. From my point of view, I was testing to see which ideas were the best, but for those members it must have felt psychologically unsafe. Even if polled today, my reports probably still wouldn’t give me great marks for my listening skills. But I do think I’ve improved, contributing to a stronger sense of Psychological Safety in our teams.

The phenomenon of “what got you here won’t get you there” certainly held back the achievement of my leadership ambitions. I’d been a very successful individual contributor, and took a lot of those perspectives into management and leadership, not realizing initially that a different set of skills and behaviors were needed to be successful in these new roles. I lusted for ultra-high performing teams, but I couldn’t quite get there. My success-making behaviors as an individual performer were not the behaviors needed for a leader trying to build a psychologically safe environment.

Moreover, a culture is a fragile thing. Even if you’re able to create a strong, psychologically safe culture with all its attendant benefits, a few ill-advised actions here or there and it can all start to unravel.

And how do you achieve this across all the teams in your organization? We currently have 15 or so teams within the company; how do you make sure all of them have Psychological Safety? Because it’s not enough to have it in one or two teams. And remember, Psychological Safety is team-based, so you need every team to have it in order to build an organization that will create truly great things.

It’s all a bit daunting.

As it happens, the solution is deceptively simple: combine the two things that a leader needs to do to build a great culture and measure Psychological Safety. Measure it in individual teams. Track it over time. Analyze it. Reflect on what needs to be changed. Then make the necessary behavioral or structural adjustments to improve the metric.

This is what we will soon be creating and releasing at Attuned: the ability to accurately measure Psychological Safety. Managers and leaders will then be able to assess their team’s level of Psychological Safety objectively, and track it over time.

We see Attuned as a tool to give managers a superpower—the ability to understand their team members quickly and deeply by using Intrinsic Motivation. But we also want to give managers a second superpower—the capacity to measure the level of Psychological Safety in their team with scientific accuracy.

Step-by-step we’re shaping a future in which all managers will be able to understand at-a-glance what makes their team tick, and be equipped to create Psychological Safety that lasts. In short, a future where building a culture won’t be the toughest task on leaders’ checklists.