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Organizations tend to paint a picture-perfect organizational culture, but behind the scenes, a different story is depicted. According to Gallup's latest State of the Global Workforce report, it was found that "quiet quitting," or "employees not going above and beyond at work," is still prevalent. The report showed that 62% of employees globally are disengaged.
Quiet quitting is usually a result of a toxic work culture and/or burnout. Taking proactive measures is key to foster an environment where employees thrive at every level in the organization.
At the core of all of this lies the power and role of authenticity and empathy in leadership: to create and cultivate a psychologically safe work environment. Authenticity can be perceived differently depending on who we are and our experiences. When inauthenticity is present, it can sometimes be easy to identify. Signs of inauthenticity is when a leader's behavior is not aligned in different settings; as well as their actions not being in alignment with their words.
So how is it that leaders can create a psychologically safe work culture underpinned by authenticity and empathy? Here are five powerful ways to do so.
Related: Why You Should Care About Psychological Safety in the Workplace
1. Encourage a culture of speaking up and discourage a culture of silence
A culture of silence arises when there is a lack of psychological safety. This can be quite dangerous as it results in failure to innovate, higher turnover and lower performance to name a few. A culture of silence is not only one in which people cannot speak up, but one in which people are refusing to intentionally listen to others.
Nurture a culture of speaking up by encouraging the voicing of ideas, asking questions, reporting mistakes and challenging the status quo.
Here are some methods to do so:
- Use a combination of live open feedback and anonymous feedback.
- Live open feedback: Encourage employees to voice their opinions/thoughts without feeling like they are being judged.
- Anonymous feedback: Create channels like Google surveys that can be used to receive feedback from employees. Anonymous feedback can discourage "GroupThink" which can be advantageous in producing more genuine feedback. "GroupThink" is when an individual just agrees with the consensus view instead of engaging in critical thinking.
Leaders showing up authentically and empathically is key to contributing to a culture where everyone's voice is heard. This means that integrity is a consistent theme across all aspects of your life. Showing up empathically also means genuinely putting yourself in someone else's shoes to understand what motivates them and understand their feelings with compassion and support. These sort of leaders are secure within themselves which allows them to welcome views that may be unpleasant and ones that challenge them. Insecure leaders don't welcome input from team members because they may perceive it as individuals challenging their authority.
2. Humble listening and showing people that you care
An effective leader is one who listens to understand instead of listening to respond. This ensures that their team members feel genuinely heard and understood. It's also important to make sure that conversations between managers and team members are conducted in equal proportions. When managers speak first, team members will be less likely to volunteer any ideas that conflict with the leaders. This is why it's encouraged that leaders speak last and hold space for every person in the room to have an equal opportunity to speak.
In Edmondson's book, she highlights Eileen Fisher's workplace meeting structure that de-emphasizes hierarchies and promotes equal participation. Therefore encouraging what's called "a leader in every chair."
Related: Do Your Employees Feel Safe? Here's How to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace
3. Make it safe to fail
Staying innovative in today's world requires allowing people the "freedom to fail." Now this is not about taking uncalculated and negligent risks that lead to business failure, but instead taking calculated ones.
Here are some examples of how leaders can make it safe to fail:
- Solutions-focused response: It's important to ensure that the recognition of mistakes comes from a place of finding solutions to the mistake/s coupled with an element of support.
- Calculated risk-taking workshops: Workshops focused on how to take calculated risks can make taking risks seem less daunting and creates a culture of innovative thinking.
Instead of looking at failure as something that you need to completely avoid or be fearful of, view failure as a normal part of learning and experimenting.
4. Model vulnerability
It's important to be open about the areas where you lack expertise as a leader. During team strategy meetings, do your best to seek ideas from your team and be open to their opinions and directions. This will create a safe space for future meetings without the fear of belittlement or consequences.
A lot of leaders struggle with the question, "How can I be vulnerable without sharing too much?"
It's important to note that leaders should share without oversharing. Leaders need to be vulnerable with boundaries attached to them. Research professor and vulnerability expert Brene Brown states this perfectly, "Vulnerability minus boundaries is not vulnerability." For example, a manager might share that she is having a bad day due to some personal issues, but she makes sure that she doesn't share the intricate details of her personal issues.
Vulnerability has the ability to create a culture of trust and inclusion, which is ultimately a psychologically safe work environment.
Related: Psychological Safety Is Crucial to Your Team's Success — Here Are 4 Ways to Create It
5. Recognize and celebrate people
"The extra mile is never crowded" as the famous saying goes. This is something that leaders should take into consideration when it comes to recognizing and appreciating team members. Monetary incentives do play a role in adequately recognizing employees, but the use of words is something memorable when it comes from a genuine place. Acknowledging accomplishments right away, celebrating teams' work publicly and sending a personalized thank you letter are some great ways to show recognition.
Authentic appreciation leads to a psychologically safe work culture. Every individual has their own personal preferences regarding receiving positive feedback. Creating a reward system where every employee has the freedom to choose their incentives creates a more personalized feel.
At the end of the day, when employees are happy, everything falls into place and flows beautifully and efficiently. And it all starts with making an intentional effort to always find ways to create a workplace culture that every employee can be proud of and therefore thrive in all areas, not just in their careers.
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