How Psychological Safety Shapes Leadership

The Misunderstood Buzzword—"Psychological Safety" Psychological safety has become one of those phrases that gets thrown around in corporate settings like “synergy” or “thought leader.” Everyone talks about it, but fewer people seem to understand what it actually means.   What Psychological Safety Is NOT! Actually, Amy C. Edmondson of Harvard Business School and Michaela Kerrissey of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health came up with five misconceptions: 1.     It’s not about being “nice” all the time. Safety and comfort aren’t the same thing. Real psychological safety means you can have honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations. When “being nice” becomes code for never saying what you really think, organizations end up, as the researchers put it, “producing ignorance and mediocrity.” 2.     It’s not about always getting your way. Psychological safety doesn’t mean every idea gets implemented or that everyone leaves every meeting feeling validated. Disagreement and constructive conflict are normal and necessary. 3.     It’s not about job security at all costs. While no one should be punished for offering a well-intentioned idea, psychological safety isn’t a shield against accountability or consequences for actual performance issues. 4.     It’s not an excuse for poor performance. The entire point is to create an environment where people feel empowered to express ideas that might *improve* performance. As the researchers note, extensive research indicates that when people don’t feel safe, they often conceal information to save face or appear agreeable, which can lead to groupthink within teams. 5.     You can’t mandate it from the top. Psychological safety has to be built by everyone, at all levels of an organization. Leadership support matters, but it requires buy-in from everyone. The Bottom Line ·     Creating psychological safety is hard to quantify, but the payoff is real: teams that can speak honestly, challenge ideas constructively, and learn from mistakes consistently outperform those that can’t. ·     And perhaps most importantly, you don’t need to be in charge to start contributing to this kind of culture. Anyone can ask better questions, listen more carefully, and help create the conditions where good ideas can surface—no matter where they come from. Which, ironically, is exactly the kind of thing you should feel comfortable saying out loud at work.   Extract from: Bill Murray Jr. | How’s it Done by Understandably

Psychological Safety Isn’t a Buzzword. It’s a Prerequisite. Leaders keep saying “we prioritise psychological safety.” But most of the time, they mean “we’re nice.” That’s not it. Psychological safety isn’t about comfort, it’s about courage. It’s the belief that you can speak up, disagree, or admit mistakes without fear of punishment or humiliation. Amy Edmondson defines it as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” (Edmondson, 1999; Edmondson & Lei, 2014) When it’s real, it changes everything: People question outdated systems. Teams learn faster. Mistakes become information, not ammunition. What the research says: Teams with higher psychological safety show better performance, learning behaviour, and innovation. (Edmondson, 1999; Frazier et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2017) In high-stress environments, it buffers burnout and turnover. (International Journal of Public Health, 2024) In healthcare and education, it correlates with lower error rates and better wellbeing. (Health Affairs Scholar, 2024; BMJ Open, 2021) What it isn’t: It’s not “anything goes.” Accountability still matters, but it’s shared, not weaponised. It’s not a “vibe.” It’s built through consistent leader behaviour: asking questions, showing vulnerability, rewarding candour. It’s not equal for everyone. Hierarchy, privilege, and neurotype all affect who actually feels safe to speak. Real psychological safety sounds like this: “It’s okay to say you’re not okay.” “You can challenge me — that’s part of your job.” “If we mess up, we learn out loud.” Everything else is branding. 📚 References: Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. Edmondson, A. & Lei, Z. (2014). Psychological Safety: The History, Renaissance, and Future of an Interpersonal Construct. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology, 1, 23–43. Frazier, M.L. et al. (2017). Psychological Safety: A Meta-Analytic Review. Frontiers in Psychology, 8:153. Clark, T.R. (2019). The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety. Berrett-Koehler.

Psychological Safety: What It Really Means Amy Edmondson, the foremost scholar on this, describes psychological safety as a “shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” In practice, that means: You can admit mistakes, ask questions, challenge assumptions, or own ignorance without fear of personal punishment or ridicule. The team responds to dissent with curiosity, not defensiveness but feedback is welcomed. Leadership models vulnerability. When bosses share their uncertainties, it flips the permission structure. In a psychologically safe culture, people speak up before errors cascade. They ask, “Why might this fail?” Together. What Psychological Safety Isn’t It’s not a license to be disrespectful or unprofessional because candor doesn’t mean chaos. "Honesty" without restraint is arrogance. It’s not consensus at all costs; healthy debate and conflict still exist. It’s not a substitute for accountability. You can’t say, “I felt safe, so I missed results.” It’s not just a feel-good initiative or HR program because it must be baked into how you hire, lead, and review. Real-World Business Examples Tech startups with flat hierarchies often fail because they confuse “everyone speak freely anytime” with safe discipline. One founder I know encouraged roasting ideas, but when external investors came in, dissenters were quietly sidelined. The culture was not aligned from the inside-out. Large legacy firms that shift toward psychological safety often start in design or R&D teams and then struggle to scale it to revenue, operations, and sales functions. The tension is real. One SMB company I advised decided that in all team meetings, the last 10 minutes would be “anyone can raise any concern.” Over time, that created a habit of surfacing risks early and saved them from costly surprises. Why Psychological Safety Matters Today In an era of rapid change and hybrid work, errors proliferate silently. Psychological safety is your front line for catching small issues before they become crises. It accelerates innovation, because people try bold ideas when failure doesn’t feel fatal. It’s a competitive edge in talent attraction and retention because high performers avoid toxic silos. Most importantly, it’s a leadership litmus test. Teams can feel safe only if someone who’s seen as “in charge” acts first who shows courage, admitting gaps, and inviting critique of the task at hand. One takeaway: Psychological safety, when done right, doesn’t mean everyone’s comfortable 100% of the time. It means discomfort won’t silence you. Below is a business workshop session activity that I created and do with SMB and corporate teams, "The Yellow Sheet" that gets full engagement, inclusivity and models psychological safety within the team culture. Try it and let me know how it works. #jamiemasoncohen #psychologicalsafety #culture #leadershipdevelopment Vistage Worldwide, Inc. TEC Canada

Psychological Safety - what is it and how can it be fostered? If you were to walk into a room full of your work colleagues and ask: “How many of you feel safe speaking at work meetings?” your question might well be met with resounding silence. That kind of silence can indicate the absence of ‘psychological safety’— an organisational milieu that fosters a willingness to speak up, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of judgement, criticism or rejection. Dr Amy C. Edmondson, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, has done a lot to develop understanding about psychological safety’over the last 25 years since she first highlighted it in an academic paper published in 1999. However, the term first emerged several decades earlier. In 1954, the humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers coined the term ‘psychological safety’ to capture a state when we believe we possess ‘unconditional worth’. Rogers identified it is a key foundation for creativity and self-expression. But it was Edgar Schein & Warren Bennis who first applied the term ‘psychological safety’ to organisational settings in 1965 in their work in the field of management studies. In 2019, Edmondson developed the Fearless Organization Scale to measure psychological safety in organisational settings. It assesses four facets of psychological safety: 1) Willingness to help, 2) Inclusion and diversity, 3) Attitude to risk and failure, and 4) Open conversation. Employees are invited to express their level of agreement/disagreement with seven statements including: “If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you” and “It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help”. Research has found that staff working in teams with higher psychological safety are more likely to ask questions, admit mistakes actively seeking feedback and deliver superior performance outcomes. It’s important to note that the bulk of the research conducted on psychological safety has been conducted in so-called ‘developed countries’, and more studies are required to ensure the research evidence is representative of the global population. Importantly, research evidence has highlighted that individual differences in our own psychological make-up (such as our levels of self-compassion, or perceptions about our autonomy and competence) can impact on how psychologically safe we consider work environments to be. This suggests that it’s not just the organisational culture that matters for psychological safety but how we're predisposed to respond to that culture. As such, interventions that operate at the level of the organisation and the individual can help foster improved psychological safety. Several potential pitfalls relating to psychological safety have been identified. Research indicates that in organisations that strongly prioritise successful outcomes, high levels of psychological safety can…. Access article here: https://lnkd.in/ewd6eE74 #psychologicalsafety #Thr5newsletter

Psychological Safety A boon of the times we’re in. The freedom to be yourself, to speak your mind, to show your vulnerability without the fear of being judged, to draw lines between work & life without risk of repercussions. Etc. Amazing, isn’t it? 25 years back, the maximum psychological safety you were allowed was a salary cheque at the end of the month ( possibly delayed by a few days), even when it came at the cost of tolerating a foul-mouthed, unreasonable jerk at work who would assume that it was his ( they were mostly ‘he’ then) birthright to humiliate you just because your subjective performance rating was in his hands. We endured. Quietly. Bravely. Clumsily. Cautiously. Our eyes always looking over our shoulders, bracing for impact. Some of them got named & shamed. And were ejected. But many survived. To torture others. Trust me – Those people were awful. Work sucked. Life sucked. So, like millions, I welcomed Psychological Safety. And started to advocate for it. Even led by example. But what we never provisioned for, was psychological safety for supervisors, the ones who needed to walk the fine balance between employee well being & financial results. Or for employees who found it as a one-way street, a new slogan that was not applicable for them. Here are two examples – - Employees who use some card ( gender, race, age, etc.)  to mask their incompetence & lack of results, accusing a supervisor of discrimination when all that the supervisor may have done is point out inefficiencies. Employees who’re manipulative & liars, who consistently flunk at work, don’t even generate enough revenue to justify their own salary, and yet who protest against basic work-reporting, calling it as ‘control freak’ behavior, who abruptly drop out of work on workdays, with no prior intimation . And insist it’s a ‘burnout’? How do managers safeguard themselves against unfair and untrue allegations by such employees? - Managers who use psychological safety to point out that one thing that went wrong in an employee’s deliverable but are not open to listen to the 99 things that an employee did right & start collecting grudge baggage when reminded. Etc. I guess you get the drift. Psychological safety is an amazing thing. And we have come a long way since pre-history when dinosaurs walked on earth( the 90s). But we need to now move to Phase 2. Ensuring that psychological safety is followed in Spirit as rigorously as it’s done in the letter. By all parties. With necessary checks & balances to call out the bad actors who use it as a tool to manipulate & a place to hide their incompetence. As leaders, it’s on us to set the tone & lead the narrative. And lead by example. Culture changes, one person at a time. It starts with you. It starts with me. Drip. Drip. Drip. And  then one day there’s a Whoosh! #leadership #management #teambuilding

We talk a lot about “psychological safety”, but what does it really mean in practice? For me, it started with learning to trust my own voice. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐩 What if safety isn’t about comfort, but about courage? When I was younger, I often stayed quiet. Not because I had nothing to say, but because I doubted that my voice mattered as much as others’. I was the one who listened carefully, smiled often, and made sure people felt at ease. Being liked felt important, almost like a form of safety. I remember sitting in meetings, hearing thoughts form inside me but keeping them there, afraid they might sound foolish. Others seemed more confident, louder, quicker. My silence felt safer than the risk of being judged. Looking back, I see how much I confused being nice with being silent. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 As I grew older, something shifted. Life, work, and experience slowly taught me that my voice wasn’t less valuable, just quieter. And that quiet voices can hold depth, perspective, and truth. Speaking up no longer feels like rebellion, but like responsibility. But in the beginning, when I first discovered the power of speaking up, I overcompensated. After years of silence, it was as if a dam had burst. I wanted to make up for all the times I hadn’t spoken, so I became the first to express my opinion, every time, sometimes too quickly. It took me a while to understand that courage also means patience, knowing when to speak, not only what to say. With time, I learned to find a balance, to speak with presence, respect and timing, aware of the moment and the other person. 𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲, 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 Reading Amy Edmondson’s The Fearless Organisation put words to something I had long felt. Psychological safety isn’t about creating harmony or agreement; it’s about creating space, space for questions, uncertainty, and honesty. It’s what allows people to take interpersonal risks without fear of punishment or humiliation. Because when we feel safe enough to speak, we don’t just protect ourselves, we protect the system. We surface the unseen, challenge blind spots, and make learning possible. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 True safety isn’t soft. It asks for courage, from leaders, to listen without defensiveness, and from team members, to voice what feels uncomfortable. It’s built not through big gestures, but through small, repeated signals: “Your voice matters here.” Sometimes I still feel that old hesitation rise, that small voice wondering if it’s better to stay quiet. But now, I listen to it, and then I speak anyway. Because real safety lives in that moment, between fear and courage, and that’s where trust begins to grow. When was the last time you spoke up, even when it felt uncomfortable? #PsychologicalSafety #Leadership #Courage #Authenticity

Don’t Confuse Psychological Safety with Comfort! Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hearing this tension from both sides of the table. “I dare not offer different views these days; people get triggered so easily,” a senior manager told me, frustrated. “I love to learn and grow, but they need to be kind and make me feel safe,” an employee said in a coaching session, equally sincere. Both are right. Both reveal a shared misunderstanding of what safety truly means. When we equate safe with never triggered, we confuse safety with comfort. And comfort may feel good, but it rarely helps us grow. To be safe doesn’t mean we won’t face conflict, challenge, or harsh feedback, the kind that lights up our blind spots and sends a wave of emotion through the body. In those moments, our nervous system activates, and the mind races with thoughts like: “Am I right or wrong?” “Am I good enough for this?” “What if I’ve failed?” "Am I judged? How are they going to think about me?" .... All of which depend on our habitual way of interpreting the situation, whether we see it as a threat to defend against, or as data to grow from. Does 'safety' equal the absence of such discomfort? Hell No! It is a skill we all need to practise! not to shame, blame, belittle, or project when tension rises, but also not to withdraw, avoid, defend, or shut down when we are disagreed with or challenged. Safety is the ability to stay connected while uncomfortable. It’s built in us so that we can extend it to our environments for others. As humans, we all have the impulse to compare, to correct, to advise without permission, or to impose, to fix (others), to judge, to comment... to feel good about selves. Also, we all carry that inner tension, the desire to grow and learn, while at the same time, needing to feel valued and accepted regardless. That’s the paradox of being human! And co-creating psychological safety in teams means not outsourcing it to policies or culture statements, but working on our own internal tensions and triggers, so that we can stay present and responsive when others are struggling with theirs. So, How? 👉 When triggered shift from “they’re bad human with malicious intent” to “something in me is being activated, what is it asking me to see?” 👉 When challenged, shift from defending your position to expanding your perspective. Curiosity is maturity in motion; explore gently. 👉 When the stakes are high and your nervous system is activated, instead of trying to control the moment, try to regulate the system: breathe, ground, and orient back to what truly matters. Safety is the inner capacity we build in every challenged interaction... in ourselves first, then for those around us. So, what triggers are you still carrying into your conversations, and how might they be shaping the ‘safety’ around you? #iGrow #InnerEdgeCapability #leadership

If people aren’t speaking up at work, it’s rarely because they have nothing to say. It’s one, however, of the earliest warning signs of low psychological safety, and perhaps the most expensive. When team members go quiet in meetings, nod along in agreement, or wait to speak until they’ve checked the coast is clear, that's not harmony. It’s self-protection. In our work, we see this all the time; great people holding back fantastic ideas because the cost of getting it wrong feels far higher than the benefit of getting it right. That’s why the first step in building psychological safety isn’t a training programme or a team charter. It’s noticing what’s already happening. -Who’s speaking up, and who isn’t? -Who's challenging ideas, and who’s always agreeing? -What happens when someone makes a mistake? If you've spotted the signs that you may have an impending problem, we’ve written a short, easy to use guide so you'll know what to say before it becomes an ingrained culture. Read it here https://lnkd.in/e6w4vzGV You can back this up with a quick insight into how safe your team really feels with our Psychological Safety Self-Assessment: https://lnkd.in/eYAwV7cF

Following up from Tuesday’s ‘epiphany’ about psychosocial safety, I thought I’d keep the theme going with the other ‘psycho-safety-thing’ – psychological safety! 🧠 Psychological safety is about being able to speak up. About admitting errors and mistakes, seeking help, and most importantly – trusting that you can do this without fear. Simple, right!? You’d think… If, like me, you read the bit about trust and snorted your Builder’s Tea out of your nose, I hear you! Because the construction industry🏗️🚧👷♀️is really, really bad at trust! 🤔 Why on earth should our workers trust us when they’ve long been subjected to the realities of the bad apple theory of safety? 🤔 Why should they trust us when we’ve asked them to take the time to contribute to suggestions boxes, near miss reporting and leadership engagements – and nothing they ever raise actually changes? 🤔 Why should they trust us when we’ve lied to them for literally ever by repeating ‘Safety is our No1 Priority’ ad nauseum? (Hint: Building stuff is our No1 priority, just in case you were wondering!) But folks in the field actually DO trust each other. You HAVE to when your life can depend on someone else’s actions or omissions. In my time working on site, I found that workers will call each other out on things, they will speak up, and they will do so without fear. That’s where you’ll find the trust and psychological safety in our industry. But from the field upwards, things aren’t always so good... I’ve always been curious how psychological safety folks know workers aren’t speaking out because of fear – or just because when they’ve spoken out the last ten times about the need for better equipment, or PPE, or a new way of doing something, and yet again they got ignored and nothing changed for the better so they just stopped being bothered? And once again I’m going to lay down a challenge here! Any construction firms brave enough to invite me to swing by and sanity check on your levels of psychological safety? Straight Talk Safety has the research skills, tools and methodological expertise to give you a truly honest evaluation of your psychological safety performance. Our industry experience (and a LOT of tattoos!) mean we talk the same language as your workers, and it’s not one of empty promises and safety hype. Why not let us find out precisely what your workers really think about trust, honesty, and getting involved with safety on your jobsites? Check out www.straighttalksafety.com to find out more, or email hello@straighttalksafety.com to arrange a call to discuss this further. #Straighttalksafety #safety #constructionsafety #safetyconsultancy #safetyworkshops #psychologicalsafety

Psychological Safety, Vulnerability, and Communication are deeply intertwined concepts that form the foundation of a high-performing, learning-oriented workplace culture. They are three sides of the same organizational health triangle. 1. Psychological Safety (The Environment) Psychological safety, defined by Amy Edmondson, is the shared belief that a team environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It is not about being nice or comfortable; it is about creating a space where people believe they will not be punished or humiliated for: 🔹 Speaking up with ideas or suggestions. 🔹 Asking a "dumb" question when they are confused. 🔹 Admitting a mistake or error (vulnerability). 🔹 Challenging the status quo or disagreeing with a superior. Impact on Communication: When psychological safety is present, communication becomes an early warning system. Employees surface problems and errors immediately, which allows the organization to learn and correct issues quickly, rather than letting them fester into major failures. 2. Emotional Vulnerability (The Action) Vulnerability is the conscious choice to expose oneself to emotional risk, uncertainty, and potential judgment. It is the key action required to test and maintain psychological safety. Examples: 🔹 Trust Builder - A leader demonstrates vulnerability by saying, "I don't know the answer" or "I messed up that presentation." This models the desired behavior and signals to the team that it is safe to be imperfect. 🔹 Connection Enabler - Sharing the "why" behind a decision, including the emotional struggles or challenges involved, moves communication from transactional (just giving orders) to relational (building human bonds). 🔹 Learning Catalyst- An employee demonstrates vulnerability by asking for help before a task fails. This shifts the team's focus from "Who is to blame?" to "How do we solve this together?" 3. The Interconnection in the Workplace These three elements form a crucial cycle for continuous improvement and high performance: 🔹 Safety Enables Vulnerability: Without psychological safety, the risk of shame or punishment is too high, and employees will choose silence over vulnerability. 🔹 Vulnerability Drives Communication: When employees take the risk to be vulnerable (by admitting an error or sharing a new idea), it generates crucial two-way communication and high-quality feedback. 🔹 Communication Reinforces Safety: When the leader responds constructively (with gratitude and curiosity, not blame) to a moment of vulnerability, they reinforce psychological safety, making it more likely that the next risk will be taken. ♻️ If you found this helpful, please like, follow, and share.