When you want to be fulfilled Part Three: 9 tips to enable a safe environment
When we talk about safety, we often think of psychological safety, which is a big part of being fulfilled. We need the ability to try new things, take a chance, and feel we can be open and honest. But safety also refers to a feeling like you aren't going to lose your job at every turn. It is hard to feel fulfilled, let alone engaged and productive if we are constantly worried about whether we will have a paycheck.
This is a little challenging right now as many organizations are either freezing hiring or salary increases or laying people off. This is creating a wave of stress at an already stressful time for those in certain industries, like technology, real estate, and others that are typically subject to volatile market conditions.
Managers struggle to create a safe environment due to these factors outside of their control. This adds stress to already stretched people managers. They may worry about their jobs let alone the roles on their team. So, how do managers create a feeling of safety in uncertain times?
Managers can influence and impact two types of safety: psychological and job security. Depending on the work environment, there can also be physical safety, such as in manufacturing facilities, hospitals, or medical facilities, or roles in the police or fire department. For our exercise, we will focus on the first two individually.
Psychological Safety
A great definition of psychological safety is: Creating an environment where people can speak openly, voice their opinion, or even share a mistake without fear of punishment, embarrassment, or humiliation. An “unsafe” climate can be detected via several organizational cultural behaviors, including:
People say “yes” no matter what.
People have one face with their team but another face with senior leaders; they can challenge their team but fold when a senior leader disagrees with them.
People withdraw and say nothing; giving in can indicate a fear to speak up.
People have the meeting outside of the meeting; people say only what they think outside of the meeting with a few people.
People become defensive or passive-aggressive.
People whisper around the virtual water cooler.
People do just enough to perform well but don’t take risks to excel.
As a middle manager, it may feel daunting to try and create a safe place if you witness the above happening often in your organization. But there are many things you can do. Here are six main actions you can take to create psychological safety with your teams even in turbulent times.
Have candid conversations.
As with most of these tactics, being candid takes trust. Candor goes both ways. First, managers need to be candid with their teams about feedback, performance, and priorities. The best way to inspire candor is to listen. Allow people to share what is on their minds. I had a colleague once who was very frustrated that all their team did was complain. I said at least they feel comfortable sharing their frustrations. If they are out in the open, then you can address them.
Allow experimentation.
One of the great results of a climate of psychological safety is innovation. True innovation and creativity come from heterogeneous teams; those with different perspectives will always create a better solution. Some of the greatest achievements come from trying something new. Allow your team to challenge the status quo and give them room to try something different. If it doesn’t work, capture lessons and move on. If people are allowed to take risks, they will feel more empowered to speak up as well.
Ask for help.
If you, as the manager, ask for help or input, this demonstrates how open you are to others’ opinions. As a manager, I will often suggest that my team members check with someone else on the team for their opinion. This builds a sense of team and inclusiveness and shows that you value asking for help. Successful people have usually made a mistake at one time or another and have always asked for help with areas they were not an expert.
Express gratitude.
Gratitude can have a profound effect on people’s mindsets and attitudes. Many professional psychologists will recommend people make a gratitude list to move into a more positive frame of mind. Expressing gratitude and giving forums for people to thank others also creates a safe place. If people are appreciated for helping, sharing, and taking risks, this will create a climate of positive reinforcement.
Avoid rewarding heroes.
When leaders promote or reward heroes, the ones who seemingly do all of the work, the more they communicate that teamwork doesn't matter as much. Teamwork becomes less important and entertaining different perspectives becomes less critical. This creates an environment that squashes any feeling of security in honoring different perspectives. Especially if the same hero gets recognized over and over again. It makes others feel they can never be recognized; so why even try?
Lead by example.
People look to their managers for how to behave and determine what is acceptable and not acceptable. If you employ the tactics above, others will follow. Help to influence and nudge others’ behaviors to be more of safety and openness than secrecy and fear. As a manager, you should demonstrate what matters by influencing others to behave differently. Modeling this behavior will also help as it shows that you practice what you preach, which demonstrates integrity.
Job Security
While tough to provide guarantees, there are things you can do as a manager to ensure people feel secure and are adding value to the organization. Here are three things you can do immediately.
Align to high-priority work.
It is the job of a manager to ensure their people are working on the right things -- the projects or processes that add the most value, mitigate the most risk, or impact the highest client/employee satisfaction. Not everyone knows the big picture or the details of the company's strategic objectives. So, share those and have open conversations about their work to make sure it is aligned. The quickest way to lose a job, outside of egregious behavior, is to be seen as someone not working on the issues and projects that matter.
Set up your team for success.
As I talk about frequently in my book, Succeed from the Middle, we know, but sometimes skip, the basics. I am guilty of this as well when moving fast or getting overwhelmed with work. Set clear expectations, discuss status, obstacles, and wins often, and make your team's work visible. Also, align your team members with work that plays to their strengths. If you align them to a stretch assignment, set very clear expectations and establish check-ins up front to ensure they are growing on the right path.
Share feedback often.
We often talk about feedback to help engage and develop our teams, but it is also critical to ensuring a feeling of safety. This might be counter-intuitive to those who fear giving feedback. But to have your team on the right path, adding value, and performing at their best, you should solicit feedback from 360 degrees to help them stay aligned and execute quality work.
It can be difficult to ensure everyone feels safe enough to voice their opinions, innovate, and feel secure in their place within an organization, especially through volatile times. Just remember that if we focus on the basics above, we can help share this feeling of safety with our teams. Safety is foundational to feeling fulfilled at work, along with civility and trust. Next week, we will continue to move up the pyramid, so to speak, and focus on Connection.