Psychological safety in the workplace: how does this affect daily life?

Psychological safety refers to feeling validated, respected and safe to speak up about issues which are affecting us, not only in the workplace but in daily life. Leading chartered psychologist Dr Catherine Sykes explains how this concept applies to our daily lives.

What is meant by the term ‘psychological safety’? How does this relate to the workplace?

Psychological safety is not just a theoretical or academic concept, that is only relevant in the workplace. Psychological safety is at the heart of our human experience. When we feel validated and respected by others and by the systems and structures that govern our lives, we feel safe to fully contribute (to discussions and life in the workplace).

Amy Edmondson, a leading researcher in this field defines psychological safety as ‘a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.’

Several academics have undertaken research into this concept of psychological safety and developed ways to measure it. Research is consistently proving that when people at work sense this psychological safety, their presence and contributions are validated and respected. As a result, teams are more likely to be effective at problem-solving and are able to generate new ideas and be innovative.

What does a lack of psychological safety look like within a workplace?

A lack of psychological safety results in maladaptive competitiveness. Some healthy competition is fine, but in a psychologically unsafe environment, colleagues work against each other and they lose sight of the bigger picture of why they are all there.

In a psychologically unsafe environment, people are too afraid to share ideas and admit mistakes. As a consequence, organisations are put at risk of errors and risk of stagnation.

For example, if an employee asks a manager a question in good faith, in front of a group of people, and the manager responds with ‘What kind of question is that, you should know the answer by now.’ and quickly moves on, the employee will have a response to the way in which the question was answered.

Due to the way it was answered, it is likely that they will feel negative. They may be able to easily hide their feeling of negativity to the response, however, usually a negative response will make them recoil and enter a defensive mode of performance. Consequently, performance becomes related to avoiding shame and focusing on self-preservation and compliance.

What are the dangers of working in an environment which is lacking in psychological safety?

To answer this, I am going to introduce you to Timothy Clark’s work. He sees psychological safety and the lack of it as a health and safety concern. He reminds us that we have become proficient at continuously identifying and removing physical, biological, chemical and ergonomic hazards. Now we need to adopt a 5^th hazard category; psychosocial. This is because psychosocial risks have the potential to cause mental, emotional or psychological harm. That’s the personal danger and the business danger is stagnation and blame culture which can result in serious errors.

How can an established culture of psychological safety help to prevent burnout and other serious issues?

There are many ways that psychological safety can help prevent burnout. The opposite of a psychologically safe workplace is a culture based on fear. If we are in a fear state for a prolonged amount of time, there are some complex biological processes that kick in; there is a bodily impact to exposure to prolonged fear.

There are also some fight or flight behavioural responses that result. In the workplace, this might look like aggression, avoidance & mindless overworking. Overworking as a response to fear accelerates burnout.

Thoughtless over-working driven by fear shuts down our focus and our ideas. We become robotic and shut down so many dimensions of the self that we become too scared to innovate. When we are not growing, we can feel stuck and lose motivation. The result is burnout and health problems. In a psychologically safe culture, burnout is less prevalent and if it happens, it is not seen as a weakness, it is a signal that an individual might need some opportunities and support for growth.

When we are compliant, we don't think for ourselves and we don't innovate. This results in ‘learnt helplessness’; always seeking reassurance and approval from the manager and not using initiative.

The irony is that this can become very draining for the manager, making them more prone to exhaustion but not necessarily burnout, because the manager gets to conclude ‘everyone needs me’. This perceived sense of purpose can protect against burnout. Therefore, for some managers, letting go of a psychologically unsafe culture can be a psychological wrench. They must let go of what they are getting from this culture; feeling needed and relevant.

What are the key factors involved in establishing sound psychological safety in the workplace?

Psychological safety starts with conscious leadership. This is a process by which a leader develops a deep sense of self-awareness and relationship intelligence and focuses on building a culture of ‘we’ rather than a culture of ‘me’.

Self-awareness is a journey but when a leader begins the journey of letting go of fear, there is a magical liberation, resulting in a natural personal and organisational expansion. This is truly life-changing for the leaders, those being led and the organisation.

What is your advice for who is affected by the issues mentioned?

If you are working in a culture of fear and it is impacting you, please don't think you are weak. Thinking it is weak keeps you in fight-or-flight mode and there are long-term consequences of that. The mind and body can’t stay healthy in the long term when it is permanently in fight mode. Once you realise that this might be less about you personally and more about a combination of factors, you can start to think of solutions that are within your control.

It is important to remember that culture starts at the individual level. I like the way Timothy Clark deconstructs the way culture forms. He starts:

• First, it is a pattern of thought or behaviour in a person that becomes a habit.
• Second, a shared pattern of thought or behaviour in a team becomes what we call a norm.
• Finally, there is a collection of norms in an organisation which becomes a culture.

I think this is a really important takeaway message; culture starts with the individual. If we see culture as an intangible concept, we can feel very disempowered and shut down. The individual does have some influence over change culture.

If you are having trouble at work which is negatively impacting your mental health and would like to speak to Dr Skyes, do not hesitate to book an appointment through her Top Doctors profile today.