Building Psychological Safety With Your Team

Emotional intelligence expert Phil Wilcox explains how to establish psychological safety in a team – and how to sustain it.

Key Takeaways: building psychological safety with your team

• Psychological safety is about empowerment. Individuals and groups are confident and safe to try and fail, and to share their feelings.
• Psychological safety is influenced by the leader. Be conscious of how you react to other people and model the behavior you want to see in the team. Create spaces for people to share and encourage honesty.
• It's not a "one-and-done" exercise. It requires effort and diligence to maintain a psychologically safe team.

Let's Act: create a psychologically safe team

If there's one top tip for creating psychological safety in a team, it's this: don't interrupt.

So make this commitment today:

• Don't speak until someone has finished what they're saying.

When you ask a question or someone is contributing, don't say a word until they're done. As Phil says, the fastest way to destroy psychological safety is to shut people down. So commit to letting people speak and making them feel safe.

Here are some more Mindtools resources on psychological safety for you to explore:

• Article: How to Create Psychological Safety at Work
• Expert Interview: The Fearless Organization With Amy Edmondson
• Podcast: Expert Voices on Psychological Safety at Work
• Skill Bite: Building Trust With Your Team