Sean: How can I encourage my team members to speak up?

Sean: They're comfortable talking to me, but it becomes a challenge when we ask them to speak their mind in an app or platform. I guess you have to first, create a culture of safety, an environment of safety where people can speak up. That doesn't mean they're not going to be responsible about what they say, they have to be responsible about what they say. They can't just say things like, they can't just tell you that I feel like resigning and I feel like this, this, and this also feels the same way. Like they can't just say that, they have to qualify it really well. So those are things that they have to take responsibility for.

Sean: All I'm saying is when you create a culture of safety, a psychologically safe zone where people can tell you stuff, they still have to be responsible about what they say. They can't cuss you, they can't say bad things to you. They have to respect you. They cannot behave in a way that is going to be a form of misconduct.

Sean: So that said, make sure that as a leader, you listen to your people. And when I say, listen, you don't just listen with your ears, you listen with your hands also, you act on what it is that they're saying if it makes sense. If it makes business sense if it makes team sense if it makes cultural sense to your team. So I'm not telling you to be a subservient CEO or a subservient leader - that you are going to follow everything that they say, if that's the case you should have just worked as an employee rather than a CEO. You have to make sure that you are making the critical decisions that are best for the entire team, not just for one or two people who are telling you their opinions in that circle of the safety zone.

Sean: So it is a tough dance that you have to do as a leader, but people will speak up if they know that you listen, you have a sound mind, you have wisdom, the wisdom of God and you actually act on the things that make a lot of sense for everyone. I think in SEO-Hacker, that's the kind of culture we have. People just speak up. They tell us what they think. In fact, they rate the management, they rate me and the other leaders. Can you believe that? Every month we get that twice, and when we get scores around 7 and 8 we already get weary? That's how we are as leaders and we really act on what we can.

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