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May 19, 2022
Brenda R. Smyth, Supervisor of Content Creation
Most of us want to look smart, capable and helpful at work. And for the most part, we’re going to do (or not do) what it takes to maintain that impression. Psychologists refer to this as impression management.
And as long as employee impression management happens in a psychologically safe work environment, organizations benefit. But when a culture of fear—of looking incompetent, being seen as negative or contrary or being punished for mistakes—dominates, an employee’s efforts to manage his or her impression, take a wrong turn.
At work, when employees intentionally don’t do things because they fear it will hurt their image, organizations lose. Workers stay silent about their own mistakes because they fear reprisal—after all, no one else seems to be making any. They keep innovative ideas to themselves because they fear being ignored or ridiculed. They don’t rock the boat or the status quo because they’ve been accused of being negative before. And they don’t question authority or colleagues’ ideas because they eventually stop caring.
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Several years ago, psychological safety in the workplace was the topic of research conducted by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson. Edmondson maintains that employees must believe they won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up. “Self-protection is a natural instinct when you join an unfamiliar team or start a challenging new project,” suggests Edmondson.
Her research showed that teams are stronger when they feel safe—to question, to be wrong, to admit weakness and to give input.
Her initial findings were unexpected. It appeared that the better teams in her study were actually making more mistakes. But further digging revealed that when there was a climate of openness, colleagues felt safe reporting and getting to the bottom of errors. (They weren’t making more. They were just admitting to more.) Thus, opening the door to fixing problems and ultimately reducing them.
Barbara Fredrickson, professor at the University of North Carolina concurs. “We become more open-minded, resilient, motivated and persistent when we feel safe.” Organizations where trust levels are high see this kind of openness and risk taking.
When workers are comfortable expressing themselves—when they believe they won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, you have psychological safety … and accountable employees. Leaders can help build this culture by being inclusive and humble … and by encouraging their staff to speak up.
Brenda R. Smyth
Supervisor of Content Creation
Brenda Smyth is supervisor of content creation at SkillPath. Drawing from 20-plus years of business and management experience, her writings have appeared on Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com and Training Industry Magazine.
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