You need to say it, but it might get you fired… | Issue #238
How to build psychological safety to improve performance in your team
Think back through your life. You’ve likely been part of many teams, either professionally or personally. Which one was best? Can you work out why? Was it because you felt safe enough to speak your mind? Did you feel supported? That the other team members had your back?
This all boils down to psychological safety, and a growing body of research reinforces its importance. Every leader should be aware of it. To work at their best, every team member should feel able to express their creativity, talents and skills without fearing judgement. In too many business cultures, people hold back because they don’t want to risk being ridiculed, disregarded or even punished by a poor performance review.
In our coaching, we work with leadership teams to foster psychologically safe environments. This is deliberate and takes focus. Only last week, we hosted the Heads of Department from one of our clients, who joined the Executive Team for the first time. There was already good rapport amongst the Execs, helped by the CEO, who encourages direct communication. We expanded this to include the departmental heads and worked through a few exercises. We aimed to get people to open up, speak their minds and get used to being honest. It was a great session.
So what are these exercises? How do you build psychological safety in your team?
E243 | Playing To Your Unique Ability To Thrive At Work with Shannon Waller
Do you know what your Unique Ability is? Every entrepreneur has theirs and is only able to succeed if they’re supported by a team. Because you can’t be good at everything, is important to surround yourself with a team that complements you, to compensate for your weaknesses with their strengths. Our guest this week teaches exactly that to the teams of entrepreneurs so they can do the things that they’re great at and they can thrive in their unique ability.
This week on The Melting Pot, we learned from highly-sought after coach, author, and creator of The Strategic Coach® Team Programs, Shannon Waller. In this episode, Shannon shares with us the secret of her long career at Strategic Coach and how she realised what her unique ability was. She also dives into the twelve timeless truths for successful entrepreneurial organisations found in her book Multiplication by Subtraction, and how applying the ‘who not how’ concept can help entrepreneurs do what they’re really good at and thrive at work.
Download and listen to learn more.
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Corporate Rebels take us on a flight across several pioneering organisations to explore five proven practices that allowed them to create a higher sense of psychological safety.
Recommended Reads
When Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy was published in 2011, it immediately struck a chord, calling out as bad strategy the mish-mash of pop culture, motivational slogans and business buzz speak so often and misleadingly masquerading as the real thing. Since then, his original and pragmatic ideas have won fans around the world and continue to help readers to recognise and avoid the elements of bad strategy and adopt good, action-oriented strategies that honestly acknowledge the challenges being faced and offer straightforward approaches to overcoming them. Strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision or planning; rather, it is coherent action backed by an argument. For Rumelt, the heart of good strategy is insight into the hidden power in any situation, and into an appropriate response – whether launching a new product, fighting a war or putting a man on the moon. Drawing on examples of the good and the bad from across all sectors and all ages, he shows how this insight can be cultivated with a wide variety of tools that lead to better thinking and better strategy, strategy that cuts through the hype and gets results.
Quote of the week
“Finding out that you are wrong is even more valuable than being right, because you are learning.”
Amy C. Edmondson
Dominic Monkhouse
Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.