UNBIAS

CHAPTER 4Leaders Lead Teams Who Trust

Have you ever felt uncomfortable sharing your opinion, asking questions, or making mistakes?

Do you know if your employees feel comfortable sharing their opinion in your company? Can they ask for help without being viewed as incompetent? Can they take risks that won't be held against them if they fail? According to Gallup, only three out of ten employees in the United States strongly agree that their opinions count at work. People hold back because they don't feel safe to engage.

Creating Comfort Through Pyschological Safety

There are so many nuances to unconscious bias in the workplace and without psychological safety, you cannot hope to address them. For example, if you are in a meeting and the only woman on the team comes into the conference room and sits on the outskirts of the room, do you invite her into the inner circle and encourage her to participate in the meeting, or do you assume she is only there to take notes and say nothing?

Assuming you didn't notice the difference in seating, psychological safety allows someone else within the meeting to feel comfortable in speaking up and addressing the situation if they notice it.

Encourage Open Communication

Psychological safety allows team members to feel safe to take risks and to be vulnerable with one another. The term was coined by Dr. Amy Edmondson, who defines it as “a climate in which people are comfortable being (and expressing) themselves. Dr. Edmondson is a Harvard Business ...