Feeling safe at work or enjoying psychological safety in a team is a very big deal for all of us. I cover what is psychological safety, 4 stages of psychological safety and 7 ways of creating psychological safety in teams.

Feeling safe within a team or having psychological safety at work provides a huge range of benefits including:

1.      Much more positive working atmosphere

2.      Better teamwork

3.      Lower staff attrition rates

4.      Greater levels of innovation

5.      Higher team performance and output

Create psychological safety in a team and you, as a manager, get to enjoy all the benefits that come with increasing team performance.

There are loads of ways to make employees feel safe and create psychological safety in the workplace. The first step in my view is creating really clear expectations. When we know exactly what is expected of us we gain psychological safety and certainty. 

Next, for getting staff feeling safe and secure be open and honest with what is happening around the team and with what you think, feel and worry about. Being honest and being empathetic increases transparency and reduces fears and insecurities. 

Third, to create safety at work proactively ask questions and seek team members views. This is great for how to make employees feel valued.

Fourth, critical for creating safety at workplace for team members is how you manage and control your reactions and responses.

Fifth, for creating psychological safety in teams prove that making some mistakes is okay by treating this as a learning opportunity. By accepting some mistakes, you encourage your team to take calculated risks, to learn and to innovate.

Sixth, to get staff feeling safe at work encourage constructive conflict where ideas, solutions and views shared are open to careful and diplomatic challenge. Celebrate the differences within the team and use these to improve the solutions created and implemented. 

Seventh, to encourage feeling safe at work, make it desirable to ask for help within your team. Asking for help quickly and appropriately aids learning, creates psychological safety and improve team performance.

I view creating psychological safety in teams as essential in the journey to increasing team performance and making the team an enjoyable and rewarding place to work for everyone.

Please put to use as many of these ways to make employees feel safe in your team - today and onwards.  

If you have any questions on “Feeling Safe at Work – 7 Ways of Creating Psychological Safety in Teams”, please email me at [email protected]  and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

Enhance.training,