Overview

How might emotional safety in the workplace support effective feedback? In this blog post, we will look into strategies of psychological safety that managers and people in leading roles can utilize, ensuring employees feel secure enough to provide open and honest feedback.

We will also address the benefits, potential pitfalls, and practical methods for implementation like training programs, supported by psychological principles and studies. By understanding and following these practices, you will create an atmosphere where both individual and organizational growth are maximized.

How Can Emotional Safety in the Workplace Facilitate Open Feedback?

Emotional safety is crucial in the workplace for creating open and constructive criticism. Emotional safety guarantees that one team member or employee feels secure to share their opinions, ideas, worries, or emotions without fear of mockery, backlash, marginalization, or punishment.

These activities are the cornerstone of a culture that leads to a more inventive, collaborative, communicative, and productive work environment. This culture also creates an environment for adaptability and employee happiness.

Emotional Safety vs Psychological Safety

These two terms are frequently used interchangeably. Emotional safety must be created before psychological safety can be established. Although they go hand in hand and appear extremely similar, there are tiny differences.

One cannot say that an organization could solely focus on creating psychological safety and diminish emotional safety or vice versa, because one without the other will not make employees feel that their contribution is appreciated, which won’t drive organizational growth and improvement.

Emotional Safety

When employees feel safe enough to be who they are, express themselves, and take risks without worrying about unfavorable outcomes, they are in an emotionally safe condition at work. This concept of emotional safety involves trust, respect, and support from colleagues and leaders that goes both ways in the workplace.

The primary goal of emotional safety is to establish a supportive and compassionate work atmosphere where team members are comfortable expressing their true emotions. This is crucial for innovation, creative solutions, wholesome relationships, and communication. Not only for the team members’ health but also for the culture of the business.

Emotional safety aligns with well-known psychological theories, one of them is the “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Human needs can be divided into five stages, according to Maslow. The demand for emotional stability and safety comes in second place after the bottom need for physiological need is met. Higher-level needs like self-actualization, esteem, and belonging are dependent on fulfilling needs in the previous four stages. 

Psychological Safety

Psychological safety in the workplace refers to a work environment where employees feel safe to take action, take up risks. This could be like admitting mistakes, recommending new strategies etc, without fearing that their image or social status might be ruined.

The main goal of psychological safety is to establish open communication and risk-tolerant practices without fear of punishment. This kind of culture leads to innovation, and high-performance teams in a positive work environment.

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

An organizational anthropologist with extensive experience in corporate settings, Dr. Timothy R. Clark, has identified four stages that make up psychological safety. Every stage is ever-changing and contributes to the establishment of a safe space where team members feel comfortable providing and receiving constructive feedback.

In his book “The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation”, he explains that by operating within the frame of these four stages a company builds a robust foundation for open feedback and cultivates a supportive work culture. These stages are:

1. Inclusion Safety

This phase refers to belonging and inclusion. This stage is the foundation upon other three stages will be built. This is the second bottom most important need (safety need) according to Maslow’s pyramid of needs. This demonstrates the significance of feeling accepted and valued for who you are in both personal and professional contexts.

With inclusion, a team member is accepted, connected, valued, and appreciated regardless of their role or background. The first step in the inclusion process is for the team leader to acknowledge the individual’s presence and significance. By doing this, the leader sets an example for the other members of the team on how to interact with team members.

For inclusion to become more firmly established, the company needs to take a few more actions. This could involve taking steps like developing onboarding programs that emphasize team integration and a sense of belonging. Along with recognizing their cultural backgrounds, it also entails integrating new team members based on their inherent worth. In addition, put in place regulations that forbid and discourage discrimination of any type.

2. Learner Safety

The second stage, the stage of learning, deals with broadening and exploring new horizons. This is a stage of learning, experimenting, and growing. Here a team member is not only allowed but also feels safe to try out new things, and strategies, fail and make mistakes, without a fear of punishment or rejection. This is the situation in which an employee feels exposed yet protected and is recognized for his efforts to develop new abilities and talents.

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As part of the learning process, a team leader should accept the mistakes made by the team members as chance for growth and resilience building. These teachings ought to be applied not just to the leader as an individual but to the entire team or unit so that each member can benefit.

Mentorship training programs, in which team managers and leaders receive assistance and encouragement to help their teams adopt a development mentality, should also be part of organizational policy. This entails giving them easy-to-access materials and useful advice on how to continue developing the growth attitude that will promote workplace safety.

3. Contributor Safety

In this stage, the employee feels confident enough to use their skills and knowledge to meaningfully contribute to the organization and make a difference. In this stage, a team member genuinely participates in value-creation projects with their own enthusiasm and creativity.

At this stage, a team member is essentially permitted to contribute by their position within the team. In a capacity as the team’s regular member or as its leader. In addition, if you are a team leader, you should ensure that members’ opinions and voices are respected while continuing to be an empowering figure.

This is established with the cultivation of open communication, constructive feedback, regular brainstorming meetings, and recognition of achievements and failures as a chance to further growth.

4. Challenger Safety

Last but not least, in this stage everything is put under a microscope. Here is no space for conformity. Every process, framework, establishment, and paradigm is put into question. In this stage, an employee has mastered their expertise and many processes that are associated with their role, so the employee is now in a position to challenge the status quo with absolute safety.

A team’s ability to reach this stage of development is critical to the innovation, adaptation, and breakthroughs of the business since it marks the point at which the team is mature enough to enhance and optimize the business’s operations.

Here belong behaviors such as encouraging employees to voice their ideas and recommendations. The environment is open to critique, and as a leader, you should positively support challenging and new ideas every team member brings to the table.

Benefits of Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Better Feedback

When psychological and emotional safety is established, effective feedback follows. Organizations can increase the overall efficacy of constructive and open feedback by actively attending to and fostering each of the above stages. A few examples of benefits include higher levels of creativity and team cohesion. Let’s examine the psychological and emotional advantages in more detail, though:

1. Collaboration & Loyalty

Collaborative efforts, mutual assistance, and teamwork are all prevalent in a setting where people feel at ease and safe. In the face of difficulties, team members are more likely to encourage one another and put in greater effort to achieve shared objectives. Members feel appreciated and have a voice in this environment. Additionally, such environments have reduced turnover rates since staff is prepared to go above and beyond for the sake of the group and the company’s objectives. They will also not hesitate to ask for help when needed.

2. Increased Team Member Engagement

Personnel are more engaged, motivated, passionate, and dedicated to their work and achieving their goals when they feel emotionally safe at work. They will not only complete their assigned tasks, but they will also take initiative, offer suggestions, and take calculated risks when needed. This results in increased job satisfaction and self-actualization, which Maslow argues is the highest need a human has to satisfy.

3. Better Performance

A team member who feels comfortable making mistakes and taking risks will approach other team members for support. When this is provided, employees’ resilience and self-confidence are increased, allowing them to keep getting better and producing better work overall.

This relates to autonomy as well. A team member will take the initiative to experiment with novel approaches, plans, and tactics. It frees up a manager to concentrate on more vital tasks rather than continuously leading the team.

4. Enhanced Innovation

When all needs in the previous stages are satisfied (also Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), then psychological safety in the team and organization is greatly met. When this is the case, employees have a sense of security that initiates their creative and innovative thinking. When a company cultivates such an environment, the company will achieve big growth, evolvement, expansion, and increased performance of its teams.

How Leaders Build Psychological Safety?

Working in a psychologically safe work environment is not for granted. Leaders need to put an intentional effort into creating such a culture, and the organization’s policy must be aligned with this purpose. Here, I will analyze some of these methods.

1. Pygmalion Effect

When a leader wants to establish concrete behavior, it is paramount to start behaving in that way. This will mirror expectations from concrete behaviors, forcing team members to behave back in the same way. An example of this is when one wants to improve employees’ performance, the leader will foster open and constructive feedback which is essential for continuous improvement.

It is also important for a leader to admit their mistakes, and be open, vulnerable, and approachable from team members. When a leader demonstrates these behaviors, it encourages employees to do the same.

2. Open Communication

In an environment of open and active listening, a leader fosters an environment of mutual respect, empathy, and understanding. In such environments, consistent and honest communication, where mistakes are welcomed, is necessary. In this constellation, a leader or manager signals its staff that their opinions are valued and validates their self-worth, emotions, and concerns.

3. Growth Mindset

Providing open and constructive feedback either with the 360-degree or the sandwich feedback method, which is performed with emotional safety in mind, reinforces that mistakes are growth opportunities. This mindset shift can be exemplified by leaders being role models, admitting their own mistakes, and demonstrating behaviors that they learned from them.

4. Recognize and Reward Results

Eliminated, undesired behavior or established desired behaviors or results should be recognized and celebrated. Recognition solidifies positive behaviors and motivates employees to continue performing at their best.

3. Inclusivity and Transparency

Being inclusive and transparent with your staff is another key factor in creating psychological safety at work. When your team members feel included and valued, they become more engaged, work more, and share their unique perspectives and ideas.

Additionally, sharing information and explaining the rationale behind your strategic decisions, builds trust and a desire within your team to contribute to the bigger plan.

A Step-by-Step Guide: How to Implement Emotional Safety

First of all, before you start implementing this step-by-step guide, you need to get an estimation of where you are standing on a scale of psychological safety. To do so, do a free questionnaire that screens the level of your psychological safety, which is created by Dr. Amy C. Edmondson, a world-known Harvard professor. This free psychological safety test you can do it here.

Creating a workplace environment that prioritizes emotional and psychological safety is essential for high-performing teams. In this section I outline an actionable step plan for managers or leaders on how to establish emotional and psychological safety, aiming to enhance the overall productivity and workplace culture of the team.

1. Establish Regular Check-ins Meetings

Regular feedback sessions are important. These meetings can be scheduled or be more informal; the point is to become consistent. The whole goal of these meetings is to establish normalized open communication that is not based on fearful feedback. These meetings should foster trust where employees discuss their ideas, concerns, and emotions, and are free from judgment and criticism.

A good example of such meetings is ”Pixar’s Braintrust Meetings”, which are designed to provide a safe space for feedback and collaboration.

In these meetings, everyone is encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas without fear of judgment, fostering a culture of creativity and innovation.

2. Trainings

Furthermore, training like workshops, seminars, and coaching sessions for managers or leaders which are focused on their EQ, can aid in better understanding and effectively responding to their team members’ answers and emotional reactions.

A well-known Harvard professor for her training and research on psychological safety is Dr. Amy Edmondson. She detected that teams with high levels of psychological safety were more likely to learn from their mistakes, innovate, and perform better.

If you are interested in such kind of training, which is under 30 minutes, you should look nowhere else but Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor. Her training is hosted through the LinkedIn platform.

Her training aims at providing leaders with core knowledge about psychological safety while simultaneously focusing on specific skills leaders need, including building trust, and increasing EQ. Upon completion, you will be provided a certificate. You can find the training here.

2. Develop and Establish Anonymous Feedback

No matter how good and effective regular feedback meetings are, there is always some residual that not only staff but leaders as well, is hard to address or speak out about. Identifying underlying issues that might not surface through regular feedback sessions, comes to address anonymous feedback tools.

Tools like employee engagement software can ease the process, making sure that feedback is collected, analyzed, and acted upon efficiently.

3. Third-Party Facilitators

Despite engagement and good intentions, some topics are very sensitive to be discussed and picked up through feedback or software feedback tools. This obstacle tackles a third-party facilitator. This is a mentor or coach. Such coaches can guide individual or group conversations constructively, ensuring that every voice is heard, underlying problems are detected and appropriately addressed.

They can also be very useful as mediators in navigating conflict or addressing systemic issues within a team or organization.

4. Observe, Adjust, Repeat

After implementing regular and anonymous feedback, it is time to evaluate the results. When necessary, appropriate adjustments and necessary improvements to ensure the level of psychological and emotional safety should be made.

Here can help, surveys, feedback meeting sessions, and software tools or even employing a third-party facilitator to gather insights and identify areas for improvement.

Examples of Building Emotional Safety

Case studies consistently show that emotional safety leads to improved well-being and enhanced performance among employees. But also higher levels of creativity, innovation, and overall employee satisfaction. Let me illustrate an example of two world-known companies.

1. Google: ”Project Aristotle”

Google’s Project Aristotle identified psychological safety as the most important factor in high-performing teams. Teams that felt safe were more likely to take risks, collaborate, and innovate, leading to better performance and outcomes.

2. Microsoft: ”Empathy and Learning”

Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella transformed the company’s culture by prioritizing empathy and learning. By doing so, he increased the company’s innovation and team cohesion, which is backed up by the results they bring in.

Criticism and Challenges

The benefits of creating an environment for emotional safety in the workplace are obvious. However, there are some potential downsides that I think are time to be acknowledged. By keeping in mind these challenges, leaders can effectively build a psychologically safe environment, paving the way for enhanced performance and well-being within teams.

1. Misunderstanding Psychological Safety

Understanding the psychological safety term is important for both team leaders and team members, as it can mean different things to different individuals. Based on wrong interpretation staff can perceive it as avoiding conflict or criticism altogether, which can hinder growth and accountability.

2. Safety vs Accountability

As I have demonstrated so far, the importance of psychological and emotional safety is essential. But it should not come at the expense of accountability that comes into play. Companies ought to provide a safe atmosphere but also hold employees accountable for their performance.

Ideas, emotions, and thoughts should be disguised, and mistakes should be made. But also repercussions from these mistakes should be taken, accepted, and addressed accordingly.

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Every member of the team, likewise leaders, should be held accountable for actions they take. If a mistake is made, it should be perceived as a chance for growth, independent of how hard the consequences might be. The whole group should act as a unit and provide support when the consequence is big.

3. Overcoming The Old Establishment

Implementing psychological safety can be hard, especially in organizations with deeply ingrained cultures that have been in place for decades. Establishing a new culture, a culture of emotional safety demands time and lots of effort on the side of the leader.

In such environments, leaders must demonstrate a great deal of patience and persistence because immediate results will not be apparent, and resistance from the old establishment is the sure factor.

Also, staying motivated in such rallies is crucial and can be done by keeping in mind that long-term benefits outweigh the present challenges.

What Are The Psychological Principles Behind Emotional Safety?

As it is apparent in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, needs are built upon one another. For one higher need to be fulfilled, a lower need must be completed.

Based on this model, emotional safety to be fulfilled, lower needs as well appropriate environment, must be fulfilled and in place. Psychological safety operates based on some principles that are the following:

1. ”Social Learning Theory”

”Social Learning Theory” by Canadian-American psychologist Albert Bandura, suggests that people learn through observation and imitation. By modeling and demonstrating desired behaviors, leaders can influence their team members to adopt these or similar behaviors, in a culture of psychological safety.

2. ”Self-Determination Theory”

”Self-determination Theory” or SDT, which was developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, emphasizes the fulfillment of three psychological needs for optimal human functioning:

• Autonomy
• Competence
• Relatedness

When an organization fosters and cultivates an emotionally safe environment where these needs are met, it leads to higher intrinsic motivation, performance, and safety.

Conclusion

Establishing emotional safety in the workplace is an ongoing process. It is a key factor by far that plays a huge role in fostering constructive feedback, innovation, and collaboration in the workplace. It requires commitment and consistent effort both from the leader and team members, but also support from organizational culture.

The four stages of psychological safety by Dr. Timothy R. Clark provide a framework for creating a supportive environment where employees feel safe to express their ideas, create, and take risks.

Leaders play a crucial role in building and maintaining psychological safety by modeling desired behaviors. Amy Edmondson’s training, who is a Harvard professor, can help you with encouraging constructive feedback and increase the team’s performance among others.

By understanding the psychological principles underlying emotional safety and implementing the step-by-step guide above, you as a leader can foster a culture of trust, respect, and continuous improvement within the organization.

Your Takeaway

The importance of emotional safety in the workplace for high performance cannot be overstated. Building psychological safety through regular or anonymous feedback, short or long training programs, and potentially involving third-party facilitators like coaches or mentors, leaders and managers, build a foundation for team excellence and cohesion.

As a leader embrace these principles to create a thriving work environment where your team members feel valued, motivated, and empowered to contribute their best ideas and efforts for a productive and positive workplace.