Why Keeping Your Team Safe, is the Best Way to be a Successful Leader
People need freedom and safety, not bean bags, even if they say they need bean bags.
Earlier this month I had a workshop with one of our teams to map out the pain points of their project. This involves open discussions and brainstorming sessions, which I like the most.
The only problem is not everyone feels the same way to talk openly about the issues they aware. The truth is, these untold problems could possibly jeopardize the success of a project. Although, I am sure that is not their intention, so I started to research.
The reasons of this are many: lack of confidence, insecurity, unclear objectives, mistrust, fear of failure, the list goes on. I started to dig deeper, going through my old notes from previous workshops to find an answer.
The results were jaw-dropping.
In the worst cases, people would rather shut-up about a serious issue, than expose themselves to unwanted attention.
If you ever convinced yourself during a meeting to not raise your voice about an obvious fact, then you know this is a recipe for failure without a doubt.
The glitch is easy to spot and not that hard to fix, but the results are colossal. Here’s how to do.
On a team, trust is all about vulnerability, which is difficult for most people. — Patrick Lencioni
When the members of a team or any group are not confident to speak their mind, the team handicaps strategic thinking and the ability to solve epic problems. This is applicable to life, business, education or any creative endeavors.
Just think for a moment, where do you feel more comfortable? In a group where you can be part of a meaningful conversation, or where you sit in the corner looking for your way out? That is terrible.
As a leader, it is your duty to be aware of situations like this and don’t let anyone get stuck in the corner.
When Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo! was promoted into her new role she made an insane amount of mistakes. Fortunately Yahoo! realized the need for a massive change in leadership to avoid a very slow and painful death.
That gives us a memorable lesson to learn:
It’s never too late to lead better.
Sigh. What a relief.
In the US 75% of employees leaving their companies because of their boss, only 12% of them does this for money.
Don’t fool yourself, it would be reckless to think leaders alone can change that.
Building safety and trust is a group process, you can’t build team identity alone. Research shows, when we believe that a group we belong is important to us, we stereotype other members as being more like us, so we trust them more. It’s magical indeed.
If you as a leader, manager or start-up CEO fail to understand the importance of trust, you will run out of employees before saying out loud bean bags.
A recent study shows that the highest performing teams share one thing in common. They all work in psychologically safe environments where people feel challenging but not threatening. The first increases solution-finding, the second ignites fight-or-flight mode.
For example, if you are part of a project team and the project is in serious delay. What would you prefer to hear from your boss?
An inspiring speech that makes your soul fly, or a stinky guff where someone has to be blamed for everything?
Amy Edmondson, professor of Harvard said,
“Psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”
The studies fail to mention how the beanbags build trust in your team, but they do say, psychological safety triggers positive emotions, allowing you solve complex problems and foster cooperative relationships. These emotions are confidence, curiosity, trust, and inspiration. In such safe environments, people tend to become more open-minded, motivated and persistent.
If trust is ensured, it’s not hard to deal with the ’less’ optimal situations. That is why great leaders make you feel safe, it’sa powerful fuel. Losing trust and safety, the group will fail to capitalize their true potential.
Here are a few tips to notice them if your team lack the psychological safety of your work environment:
1. If you make a mistake, it is often held against you.
2. Team members are not able to bring up problems and tough issues.
3. Reject others for thinking different.
4. You would not take any risk on this team willingly.
5. You would rather do everything alone, than asking for help.
6. Fear to give or receive constructive feedbacks
7. Your unique skills and talents are undervalued and not utilized.
Every team needs respect, autonomy, reliability, certainty, connection, and growth. If you can recognize these needs that will create the positive atmosphere to elicit trust.
A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other. — Simon Sinek
If you find yourself in a cranky situation, like others bombing you with uncomfortable questions, try not to pour gasoline on the fire, instead aim to walk away happy.
Paul Santagata, Head of Industry at Google use this exercise called “Just Like Me” which asks you to consider:
This person has beliefs, perspectives, and opinions, just like me.
This person has hopes, anxieties, and vulnerabilities, just like me.
This person has friends, family, and perhaps children who love them, just like me.
This person wants to feel respected, appreciated, and competent, just like me.
This person wishes for peace, joy, and happiness, just like me.
We love winning even more than we hate losing. Putting yourself in your opponent’s shoes aim to achieve a mutually desirable outcome, a win-win situation. It’s not going to work all the time, but it will help you to avoid criticism, suspicion, and disengagement.
Our reactions to a situation has the power to change the situation
But you must be prepared. Before you get into one, you must think in advance about the reactions to your message. You have to be sure no one is misunderstanding you and takes your message as a direct attack on their ego.
For example, gathering evidence that supports your statement is smart, when you prepare to discuss hot topics. Only stupid people start arguments without any proof. Why would anyone do that?
If you can look at the discussion from a third-party point of view, it will help you to expose the weaknesses of your argument, so you can reconsider before even start it.
Give yourself a head-start and have clarity about your main points, the likely response and your reactions to them. If your team sense that you are about to mount an assault on them you will become their big bad wolf. This would eventually escalate conflict, defensiveness and decreased trust.
If you can guess what the others will say, you might be ready for the conversation. You are ready if you are accepting that you don’t have all the facts, and acknowledging that the others can give you the support you need.
Introduce a hot topic as an observation of yours using a neutral language like,
“I know there is tremendous work to do, but progress appears to be slowing on the project.”
Involve the team to unfold the painful points together. Often the people who are responsible for creating a problem holds the key to the solution. Ask them about their ideas, or what needs to be done. When evaluating a position on any topic, you must ask yourself, are you trying to learn something, or you just trying to justify your opinion?
Offering your support is another step closer to the solution.
In order to increase the level of trust, you have to ask for feedback right after the difficult conversations. This will enhance others to do the same and you will also learn the weak spots of your communication skills.
Santagata asks these 3 questions for effective feedbacks:
• What worked and what didn’t work in my delivery?
• How did it feel to hear this message?
• How could I have presented it more effectively?
After giving a tough feedback to one of his managers, he got this response, “This could have felt like a punch in the stomach, but you presented reasonable evidence and that made me want to hear more. You were also eager to discuss the challenges I had, which led to solutions.”
His team at Google are always monitoring safety, that’s why they take surveys on psychological safety and other team dynamics. If you can measure something, you can improve it. If you are having doubts about the safety of your team just try to answer this question.
“How confident are you that you won’t receive retaliation or criticism if you admit an error or make a mistake?”
If not much, try to focus on the following steps to enhance safety on your team, increase motivation to handle difficult situations and problems, increase engagement and work performance. If you aim to be a great leader, your presence should make others better without promising any beanbags.
Here’s the take away:
Collaborate in conflicts, don’t escalate them.
Foresee reactions and plan countermoves.
Ditch the blame, be curious.
Ask for feedback right away.
Measure psychological safety.
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