Psychological safety is the most important trait of a high-performing team. Innovation and results thrive in an environment where employees feel safe to ask questions, experiment, make mistakes, and learn from them – without fear of shame. Read on to learn how to recognize the level of psychological safety in your workplace and how to develop it.
What is psychological safety?
Psychological safety refers to a workplace atmosphere where people feel safe to ask questions, take risks, fail, and disagree openly. At its core, it’s all about trust.
Research shows that psychological safety is the key success factor for teams and workplaces. Even with the clearest goals and processes, a team won’t reach its full potential if psychological safety is missing.
The best teams aren’t perfect. What sets them apart is that they dare to acknowledge mistakes. They talk openly about failures and treat them as learning opportunities. In lower-performing teams, the fear of shame keeps people silent and hiding their errors.
In high-performing teams, fear of shame doesn’t exist.
You can recognize high psychological safety when team members:
- fully commit and give their best
- feel safe to ask questions and make mistakes
- feel like valued members of the team
- dare to disagree and challenge existing practices when needed.
Warning signs of low psychological safety:
- Repetitive meetings with circular discussions and no real progress.
- People say different things in private than in public.
- Feedback must be requested anonymously.
- Only good news is reported to management—even when reality is different, fear prevents open sharing.
- Problems are ignored or not discussed.
Leaders: Here’s how to build psychological safety
Leaders and managers play a crucial role in creating psychological safety within their teams.
The key is to foster trust and encourage people to share their thoughts openly.
So, as a leader:
- Encourage your team to talk about tough topics and thank them for raising issues.
- Share your own weaknesses and be open about your mistakes. Show that you treat failures as learning opportunities.
- Remember to explain your own actions: “I’m asking about the status of this project not because I don’t trust you, but because I want a clearer picture and be able to offer support.
For more ideas, check out our tips on improving workplace atmosphere.
Employees: you have the power to make a difference too
Leadership matters – but it’s easy to forget that every single person in the workplace shapes psychological safety through their own actions.
Individual choices affect the collective experience of participation. Think about it: when no one contributes in a Teams meeting, what happens to the group dynamic? Decisions can’t be effective if no one engages in the discussion.
So next time you have an idea or a question but hold back from sharing it, ask yourself why. What’s stopping you? What are you afraid of? Could speaking up encourage others to share their ideas too?
Do you dare to be honest, voice your opinions, and disagree when needed?
And remember – sometimes your perception of the team’s psychological safety might be skewed. Past experiences from other workplaces or even childhood can influence how you interpret the atmosphere.
It’s worth testing your assumptions: Is it really true that I can’t ask “stupid” questions here? Will I actually be punished if I make a mistake?
Let’s build your high-performing team together
Psychological safety doesn’t mean that everything is smooth sailing all the time. It’s important to distinguish between talking about problems and wallowing in them.
In the focused Emergy® TEAM training, your team will cultivate an open, trust-based atmosphere with high psychological safety.
In the comprehensive Emergy® LEADER leadership training, managers learn how to support and strengthen psychological safety in their teams.
Read more about emotional climate and how we measure it: Emergy Emotional Climate Audit®.
Let’s work together to transform your team into a gem!
