Career conversations with Margie Hartley and Sophie Hampel

Psychological Safety

Sometimes management terms come and go and everyone seems to use a new phase or term for a while and then it disappears.

Psychological Safety is a term that is often misunderstood or dismissed as a new management term. It’s not. It is a vital, and I’ll say that again VITAL, component that predicts business success.

The notion of psychological safety was first introduced by organisational behavioural scientist, Amy Edmondson, who coined the phrase and defined it as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”

There are two main ideas that all leaders need to know about Psychological Safety:

  1. Success in creating the right environment is largely dependent on the leader’s behaviour
     
  2. Establishing the norms and standards is essential
     

What psychological safety is not, and the nuanced interpretations of the term, is something I speak about in depth with Sophie Hampel, Founder of Leadership and Diversity Consultancy, Inkling, on the latest episode of the FastTrack podcast.
 
Getting this right might just be the difference between being a high performance team and begin a low performing team and you weren’t even aware.