By Hayley Hughes MS, CN, LMHC and Katie Hassall MBA

When individuals are promoted into leadership roles, the typical onboarding focuses on protocols, procedures, KPIs, and internal systems. These are critically important – but what if we changed our approach?

Imagine if step one of leadership training centered on cultivating psychological safety, emotional intelligence, accountability, stress management, and effective communication. Then, step two could focus on technical and job-specific skills.

Psychological safety, in particular, is the foundation of trust, innovation, and high-performing teams. Research shows that employees who feel psychologically safe at work report greater job satisfaction, stronger relationships with colleagues, and significantly fewer negative outcomes like emotional exhaustion and burnout (1). In contrast, at organizations with a low degree of psychological safety, employees are less prepared to handle the changes at work, worry about job security, struggle with burnout, avoid accountability, and more (1).

Defining Psychological Safety

Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School, defined psychological safety as: “A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking” (2). She defined interpersonal risk-taking as: “The willingness to engage in behaviors that might expose oneself to the judgment of others, such as speaking up, asking for help, or admitting errors, without fear of negative consequences” (2).

In practice, this is quite challenging work. For individuals, it requires courage and vulnerability. For organizations, it demands intentional effort to model, reinforce, and sustain these behaviors through culture, leadership, and systems that support psychological safety.

Hearing someone at work say things like, “I need help with this,” “I am not sure I understand,” “I made a mistake,” or “Have you considered this approach?” and be met with support, understanding, and openness from their leaders and teammates sends a powerful signal. This shows the team has built a space where people feel safe to be vulnerable, authentic, and collaborative. That kind of environment does not just happen; it is cultivated intentionally.

The Foundation for Psychological Safety

There are several key elements that help reinforce psychological safety at work. It is helpful to think of transparency and trust as part of an ongoing feedback loop, something that requires consistent, mindful attention. Transparency becomes a catalyst for trust, innovation, and collective success.

When we prioritize transparency, it fosters trust among employees, managers, leaders, and the broader organization. As trust grows within teams, it creates conditions for psychological safety. And when people feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to be open, transparent, and engage in trust-building behaviors, which further strengthens the cycle. Creating and sustaining this environment is a shared responsibility, and it starts with intentional actions and open dialogue.

People often interpret transparency in different ways, which can lead to misalignment within organizations about how to apply it effectively. To use transparency productively, it is important to define it clearly and approach it proactively. Research highlights that transparency involves openly sharing information, motives, and actions in straightforward and plain language (3). When organizations embrace this, it becomes a powerful tool for building trust and reinforcing psychological safety. Transparency is more than just sharing information, it is about cultivating a culture where open, honest dialogue is the norm.

How can you actively engage with your teams in conversations about what transparency means, and what it does not. It is not about oversharing or removing boundaries; it is about building trust through clarity around goals, challenges, decisions, and feedback. Practiced with intention, transparency reinforces trust by reducing uncertainty. In this kind of environment, people feel safe to ask for help, admit mistakes, offer alternative perspectives, and seek clarity, behaviors that signal a high degree of psychological safety.

Reframing “soft skills”

In the corporate world, people often use the terms “soft skills versus hard skills.” Hard skills are seen as technical knowledge, functional skills, often job-specific. Soft skills are interpersonal qualities and are related to how someone is interfacing with their teams, focusing on communication, empathy, adaptability, conflict resolution, and so on.

The term “soft skills” undermines the critical importance of these qualities, implying that these abilities are emotional, secondary, or potentially less valuable than technical expertise. But what if we reframed them as essential skills? By shifting the language, we may foster greater openness and engagement with these skills, recognizing them not as optional extras, but as foundational elements to effective leadership, team success, and a way to cultivate psychologically safe environments.

Empathy, active listening, emotional intelligence, communication, adaptability, conflict resolution and much more are critical and can be learned through intentional practice, feedback, and coaching.

Practical strategies you can use as a leader to cultivate psychological safety

Psychological safety thrives on a few core principles: trust, transparency, free of judgment, openness in conversations and problem-solving, the ability to express oneself fully, and a strong sense of teamwork. Here are a few considerations to incorporate into how you support your teams:

  • Consider sharing your own mistakes and learnings
  • Acknowledge with confidence when you do not know something
  • Encourage reflection after projects or meetings, “What went well? What would you change?”
  • Implement in-the-moment feedback
  • Ask for feedback regularly and respond with gratitude
  • Encourage input from all team members – “What do you think?” or “I would love to hear your perspective.”
  • Avoid interrupting or dismissing ideas
  • Explore as a team how feedback is given and received, and what respectful communication looks like

Interested in learning how you can cultivate psychological safety at work? Reach out to Hayley and Katie.
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Citations:

  1. American Psychological Association. (2024). Psychological safety in the changing workplace: Work in America 2024. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-in-america/2024/psychological-safety[1](https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-in-america/2024/psychological-safety)
  2. Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
  3. Flynn, J., Cantrell, S., Mallon, D., Kirby, L., & Scoble-Williams, N. (2024, February 5). Transparency in the workplace. Deloitte Insights. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/talent/human-capital-trends/2024/transparency-in-the-workplace.html