The role of Trust and Psychological Safety when Leading (2 of 2)
Quick Breakdown
How do you lead teams to do their best work? It's all about fostering an environment where teams can excel. Drawing from Patrick Lencioni's "5 Dysfunctions of a Team," the emphasis is on building trust and psychological safety. As a new leader, your role shifts from individual contributions to unlocking your team's potential.
Trust is the bedrock of high-performing teams. It's cultivated when members can share weaknesses without judgment. Embracing vulnerability as a leader, acknowledging mistakes, and building strong relationships are key.
Psychological safety, defined as a space where one can speak up without fear of retribution, is essential for constructive conflict and growth. Leaders should aim for transparency, delegate decision-making, and focus on outcomes over methods. In essence, a leader's success intertwines with their team's, and creating a safe, trusting environment is paramount.
Leading teams to do their best work
After over 1,000 coaching sessions with more than 40 clients, I have noticed patterns that have evolved into a proven method for leadership development. My expertise lies in guiding leaders to set the course for their teams, effectively manage stakeholders, navigate crises, and, most importantly, lead their teams to do their best work.
One framework that I find particularly effective in creating an environment where teams can excel is Patrick Lencioni's "5 Dysfunctions of a Team." This framework provides valuable insights into the behaviors and dynamics necessary for high-performing teams.
As a leader, it's crucial to understand that your main role is to unlock the potential of your team. Your success is no longer about your individual contributions but rather about creating an environment that allows your team members to thrive. Your success is intertwined with the success of your team.
Building trust and psychological safety are fundamental to fostering great teamwork. They are the foundation upon which a high-performing team can be built. There are two critical behaviors that you should focus on nurturing:
Creating a Trusted and Safe Environment: It is important to actively work towards creating an environment where team members feel safe to be their authentic selves.
Encouraging Open Communication: Team members should feel comfortable bringing up problems and difficult issues when they see them.
Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The role of Psychological Safety
We explored the concept of vulnerability and its role in establishing trust within your team in the first part of this article. Now, let's shift our focus to the importance of psychological safety in cultivating trust and harnessing the potential of constructive conflict.
To reiterate, when there is a lack of interpersonal trust among team members, it becomes challenging to engage in authentic discussions with constructive conflict. This ultimately hinders the ability to commit to decisions, leading to a decrease in accountability and making it difficult to achieve desired results.
Psychological safety, as defined by Amy C. Edmondson in her book "The Fearless Organisation," refers to the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. It is the understanding that the team is a safe space for interpersonal risk-taking.
Put simply, when psychological safety is high, individuals feel at ease admitting mistakes, seeking help from colleagues, addressing issues, and constructively challenging their peers. However, when psychological safety is low, these behaviours are avoided, and the focus shifts towards maintaining appearances and safeguarding individual interests, often at the expense of doing what is right for the team.
While it is widely known that feeling safe is positive and feeling unsafe is detrimental, it is essential to recognise that a certain level of challenge and pressure can enhance focus, determination, and ultimately yield better results. As leaders, it is crucial to learn how to strike the right balance between ensuring that our teams feel safe and nurturing growth without fostering complacency or overprotection. Remember, a safe space is also a brave space!
So, how can we identify if an environment lacks psychological safety? Here are some common indicators:
Fear of Speaking Up: Team members are hesitant to share their opinions, ideas, or concerns during meetings or discussions due to fear of ridicule, dismissal, or negative repercussions for expressing their thoughts.
Blame and Finger-Pointing: Instead of fostering a problem-solving mindset, team members tend to blame one another for mistakes or failures. This creates a culture of defensiveness and inhibits innovation and learning.
Lack of Trust and Support: Team members do not feel comfortable seeking help, sharing personal challenges, or asking for support from their colleagues. They may believe that their vulnerabilities will be exploited or used against them.
Micromanagement and Control: Leaders or team members exhibit excessive control over others, leaving little room for autonomy, experimentation, or innovation. This stifles creativity and undermines trust.
Gossip and Office Politics: Negative conversations, rumors, and office politics dominate the team environment. Trust erodes as team members engage in backbiting and undermining one another.
Reflecting on my personal experience in middle management, I encountered such an environment where our C-Suite leaders maintained an excessive degree of micromanagement and control. Their focus was primarily on the "how" things should be done rather than the "what" things should be done. This constant scrutiny eroded my sense of agency, causing me to feel disengaged and unmotivated. As blame was continuously directed towards me and my fellow middle managers, my sense of accountability diminished. This toxic environment not only affected me but also dragged down those around me.
Behaviors to facilitate a psychological safe environment
So, what can you do to foster a psychologically safe environment? Consider implementing these behaviors:
Emphasize Transparency: Foster an environment where information sharing is encouraged. Lead by example and be transparent yourself. The more transparent you are, the better equipped your team members will be to make informed decisions and, in turn, build trust by being transparent themselves.
Delegate Decision Making: Empower individuals and teams with access to unfiltered information, allowing them to make decisions at the appropriate level within the organization. This demonstrates trust in their judgment and expertise.
Focus on the What, Not the How: Encourage your team to prioritize desired outcomes and goals rather than prescribing rigid methods or solutions. Give them the freedom to figure out the best approach to achieve their objectives.
By implementing these behaviors, you can create a psychologically safe environment that encourages open communication, trust, and the constructive conflict necessary for growth and innovation. Remember, it is through psychological safety that teams can truly thrive and unleash their full potential.
Final Thoughts
Leadership is much more than just a title. It requires creating an enabling environment that breeds trust and fosters psychological safety. Remember, a leader's true success lies not in their own achievements, but in those of their team.
Creating a psychologically safe environment can be a daunting task, and it is often easier said than done. However, the rewards of such efforts are far-reaching, from increased employee engagement and satisfaction to improved team performance and innovation.
Leadership is a continuous journey of learning, unlearning, and re-learning. Embrace vulnerabilities, foster open communication, and empower your team members to take ownership of their roles. Lead by example and keep fostering an environment conducive to growth, respect, and emotional well-being.
As you continue on your leadership journey, always remember that trust and psychological safety are not just checkboxes to be ticked but are the bedrock of a high-performing team. Leadership development is a continuous process that requires self-reflection, practice, and resilience. However, the reward of molding a dynamic, innovative, and high-performing team makes the journey worth every step.
This was part 2 of a 2 piece article. Read part 1 here.
