Aaron De Smet, Kim Rubenstein and Mike Vierow* say organisations that foster psychological safety can reap many benefits to team health and performance.
Organisations that instil psychological safety are more likely to innovate quickly, unlock the benefits of diversity, and adapt well to change—all of which have grown in importance during the COVID-19 crisis.
In a professional climate that promotes psychological safety, employees feel comfortable asking for help, sharing suggestions informally, or challenging the status quo without fear of negative social consequences.
Our recent research suggests how organisations can foster such an atmosphere.
Doing so depends on leaders at all levels learning and demonstrating specific behaviours that help their employees thrive.
Setting the tone at the top
In a McKinsey Global Survey conducted during the pandemic, just 43 per cent of all respondents reported a positive team climate, the most important driver of psychological safety.
Addressing this starts at the very top of an organisation. By setting the tone through their own actions, leaders have the strongest influence on psychological safety.
Three key leader behaviours are:
- Consultative:
Solicit input from team members and consider team views on issues that affect them.
- Supportive:
Demonstrate concern and support for team members not only as employees but also as individuals.
- Challenging:
Ask team members to re-examine assumptions about their work and how they can exceed expectations and fulfill their potential.
Senior leaders can act as catalysts, empowering and enabling others by role modelling and reinforcing behaviours they expect from the rest of the team.
Developing leaders at all levels
Organisations that invest in leadership development are more likely to see leader behaviours that foster psychological safety.
Employees who reported that their organisations invested a lot in leadership development were more likely to report that their team leaders frequently demonstrated consultative, supportive, and challenging behaviours.
They also were 64 per cent more likely to rate senior leaders as more inclusive.
However, results suggest that the effectiveness of these programs varies depending upon the skills they address.
Reorienting skills developed in leadership programs
Our findings suggest that focusing on a handful of specific skills, such as sponsorship (enabling others’ success ahead of one’s own) and situational humility (developing a personal-growth mindset), can improve the likelihood that leaders demonstrate the behaviours that foster psychological safety.
Investing in leadership-development programs can equip leaders to embody these behaviours and cultivate psychological safety across the organisation:
- Go beyond one-off trainings and develop leadership at scale.
Human behaviours aren’t easily shifted overnight.
Yet, too often we see companies try to do so by using targeted training programs alone.
Shifting leadership behaviours within a complex system at the individual, team, and enterprise levels begins with defining a clear strategy aligned to the organisation’s overall aspiration and a comprehensive set of capabilities that are required to achieve it.
Digital models honed during the pandemic give companies more opportunities to break down siloes and create new connections.
- Invest in emotional and sensory development experiences.
People remember immersive and engaging experiences more clearly and for a longer time.
It’s critical that learning programs prompt leaders to engage with and shift their underlying beliefs, assumptions, and emotions to bring about lasting mindset changes.
This requires expertly designed learning environments that increase self-awareness, spark the desire for further growth, and drive collective growth and performance.
- Make development part of leaders’ daily work.
The most successful learning journeys account for the rich learning that happens in day-to-day work.
The use of learning nudges (daily, targeted reminders) can help learners overcome obstacles and apply new knowledge.
Senior leaders should publicly role-model their own learning processes, providing strong signals across the organisation that it is safe to practice, develop, and even fail on the job.
The quickening pace of change, and the need for creative, adaptive responses from teams at every level, means psychological safety is more important than ever.
Organisations that develop the leadership skills and positive work environment that foster psychological safety can reap many benefits to team health and performance.
*Aaron De Smet is an expert on culture change, leadership development, team effectiveness, capability building, and transformation. Kim Rubenstein and Mike Vierow are contributors at McKinsey & Company.
This article first appeared at mckinsey.com.
