Signs Your Team is Low on Psychological Safety

And what to do about it before it sinks your results and your reputation.

Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash

It’s time for your weekly virtual team meeting.
You’re 2 min late as usual, and rushing in from another conversation.

The agenda is set. It should be routine, and you’re hoping the team brings a bit more energy today.

They’ve been dragging. It’s been intense, but there is a lot more to get done. You need everyone to show up and show up strong.

As you open the meeting and dive into initiatives, everyone seems to be paying attention, but when you ask if there are questions or alternative ideas, no one adds anything. The few that speak up only add “everything looks good.”

You push back on one person’s ideas, and she hesitates as if wanting to respond, but then acquiesces. You don’t notice it, but a few people’s eyes dart down, and it looks like they are typing. You chalk it up to note-taking.

You think you’re having one meeting. But there are actually two in motion: the one you see and the one you don’t.

Right alongside your meeting.
Everyone in your team is in it, but you.

Why?

Because they don’t trust you.

What’s even worse?

You have no idea.

You’re not alone. Most leaders have no idea when they’ve eroded trust and removed the conditions for psychological safety.

And to be honest, some don’t care.
This post isn’t for them.

This post is for the leaders who do care.

The ones who want to create an environment where their team can be successful and enjoy the ride. The ones for whom it isn’t just about the results, it’s also about relationships.

The good news is that you can do something about it — if you know what to look for.

But let’s start with why psychological safety matters.

Lack of psychological safety will sink your team’s results.

The research is clear:

When people are scared, they are less able to process complex ideas, less creative, and less likely to be happy.

In short, they’re less likely to perform well and less likely to enjoy the work. All the things leaders try to avoid when creating a productive workplace.

In the example above, it means fewer ideas, less dissent and debate, and more side conversations and gossip, which further erodes trust and creates more cognitive and emotional load — load that no one can afford.

So what does psychological safety even mean?

Let’s start with what it isn’t.

It doesn’t come from constant praise. It doesn’t mean giving people a pass every time they make a mistake. It doesn’t result from avoiding critique and hard conversations.

As defined by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, who coined the term:

“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”

Even if your organization has high standards and is not tolerant of underperformance, you can create an environment that has a healthy level of psychological safety. Because at its core, psychological safety is about how you relate to each other — not technical skills or performance outcomes.

The leaders who create the conditions for psychological safety well understand this. They hold their teams accountable for performance while also creating ample room for interpersonal risk-taking.

But not every leader chooses to invest in psychological safety.

Why highly successful leaders don’t prioritize psychological safety.

There are many reasons why psychological safety doesn’t show up in leaders’ top priorities. I can’t cover them all, but I will highlight of what I’ve found to be the most common.

1. Creating psychological safety is not a prerequisite for success.

The old adage that you learn far more from failure than from success is an apt description of why so many leaders are blind to psychological safety.

Many leaders rise because they were in the right place at the right time. I’m not saying they didn’t earn the raise or the promotion. But sometimes they don’t encounter the diversity of situations and build the skills necessary to be an extraordinary, well-rounded leader.

When you are making great progress, even if it requires significant effort, you may not be aware of all of the elements that contributed to the foundation for your success.

It’s the gift and the curse of fast or smooth success, despite the research I cited above.

2. Overemphasis on outcomes over output.

Many organizations and leaders put too much focus on results only. It’s true that if you don’t achieve your goals, all the processes and activities you put in place may feel less relevant.

This can mean skipping over the behaviors and relational norms that help your team achieve those results in the first place and sustain them.

3. Some leaders were “raised” in work environments where psychological safety wasn’t part of the culture.

So they perpetuate what they know best.

Whether it be walking on eggshells with a facade of “politeness and niceness” or a rough and tumble, “survival of the fittest” model or something else altogether that stifles connection and smoothers direct conversation, some leaders just don’t know what they don’t know.

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Regardless of the reason, once you realize the psychological safety is something that could help your team improve how it works, know that you can develop your ability to gauge whether your team is lacking in psychological safety.

Here’s how:

The signs are obvious only after you start to see them.

Like so many things in life, once you start to see them, you won’t be able to stop.

1. You receive little critical feedback

2. Your team doesn’t offer dissenting views

3. You are always right if there is a debate between you and your team

4. Your employee survey results are negative, but you don’t know why.

5. You don’t meet 1:1 with your direct reports (your EA or Chief of Staff is always present)

6. You don’t create time 1:1 or in group meetings to receive feedback.

7. Your team only shares examples of when things go well

8. You don’t know much about what matters to your team outside of work

9. Your team doesn’t know much about you and what matters to you outside of work

10. You get subtle suggestions from your team or colleagues to be more positive or to give your team time.

11. You feel like you’re carrying all the load for the team

There may be other signals as well, but this list should give you a good start. If you are experiencing 2-3 of these, it’s time to dig deeper.

How do you know it’s actually an issue?

You won’t know for sure until your team tells you.

But you likely have a sense that something is wrong. Your team is more quiet than outspoken. They say “yes” much more than they say “no.” You sense that the team’s work could be better, and they could be more engaged, more energized.

The only way to find out is to hear it from your team. Here are some ways to find out:

1. Talk with your team either as a group or 1:1 — Share your concerns and ask if they are seeing an issue. This requires finesse and judgement on when and how you broach the subject. But don’t overthink it and don’t delay.

2. Talk with trusted colleagues — Your team doesn’t work in a silo. Ask cross-functional partners what they are hearing and experiencing. Sometimes, you just need a different perspective.

3. Be patient. Slow down and make space — Don’t wait to start the conversation, but also don’t expect all the answers to come pouring out. It took time create fear, and it will take time to eradicate it. The surest way to kill this process is to add more pressure to it.

4. Be vulnerable — Share more about your thoughts that might feel counterintuitive or surprising. Do it concisely so that you don’t suck up more air space. Model what it means to put yourself out there. If your team sees it, they are more likely to mirror it.

5. Hire an outside coach or consultant —Sometimes you need a third-party perspective and voice. Your team may not be ready to open up to you, but they may be willing to reveal what is happening to someone outside your team. Just make sure you are clear about ground rules from the get-go: what will be kept confidential, what will be shared, and how you all will move forward.

Creating psychological safety is a marathon, not a sprint.

Similar to long-term health strategies, it takes time to see results from attempts to build psychological safety. People need time to build trust and new habits.

You’re helping your team shift their assumptions: from speaking up will result in a bad outcome to seeing that it will result in better performance individually and as a team.

These are not small shifts. They require practice, observing outcomes, and internalizing both. It could take weeks, it could take months.

The key is to keep dialogue open, continue to reiterate why it matters, and to recognize and reward the change in behaviors you want. The only way people will believe the shift is real is if they experience the benefits and witness evidence that demonstrates that what you say is true. And this needs to happen consistently and regularly.

Your turn.

I’d love to hear more about what has worked for you to create psychological safety in your team. How did you know something wasn’t working? What did you to change the dynamics? What felt obvious and what didn’t?

When you share your experiences, you help everyone in the Lead without Limits community grow. And you help more leaders create the kind of organizations we all want to work in.

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Thank you for joining me this week. If this post resonated, the kindest thing you can do is share it with someone who needs it and give it a ❤️ so that more leaders can find it on Substack.

And in case you enjoyed my Substack Live with Tom Hardin, I’m so excited to announce that his book Wired on Wall Street is now available for purchase. I got my copy last week.

May you lead without limits,