Here’s why leaders need to foster psychological safety in the hybrid workplace
What makes you feel safe in the workplace? Turns out that’s less about scanning your badge when you enter a building and more about feeling safe to speak up, ask questions, and learn from your mistakes. Turns out there’s a term for this: psychological safety. This concept was coined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who defines it as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”
Some of Edmonson’s original research on psychological safety was done in hospitals and focused on studying the relationships between doctors and nurses. In her work, she discovered that having shared trust and direct communication about matters of life and death is critical, though this applies in every workplace.
On a day-to-day basis, psychological safety looks like offering a second opinion, asking for help, or requesting feedback without feeling embarrassed or rejected. It can even go as far as challenging the status quo on a team, or resolving interpersonal conflict between co-workers.Creating psychologically safe work environments is critical to running high-performing teams. Plus Gallup Research reported that psychological safety is a necessary part of keeping employees productive and retaining top talent.
