6/30/22, 11:07 AM What Psychological Safety Is Not

LEADERSHIP STRATEGY

What Psychological Safety Is

Not
Timothy R. Clark Contributor
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I write about leadership, culture, and change as applied disciplines.

Jun 21, 2021, 04:30pm EDT

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Psychological safety is not a shield from accountability. It’s not

niceness, coddling, consensus decision making, unearned
autonomy, political correctness, or rhetorical reassurance. Before

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we talk more about what it’s not, let’s get on the same page about
what it is.

When Edgar Schein and Warren Bennis from MIT first put the
concept of psychological safety on the academic research agenda in
1965 in their book titled, Personal and Organizational Change
Through Group Methods, they defined it as “providing an
atmosphere where one can take chances without fear and with
sufficient protection.” Let me compress that into a five word
definition: “An environment of rewarded vulnerability.”
Psychological safety enables you to:

1. Feel included
2. Learn
3. Contribute
4. Challenge the status quo

And you can do those things without fear of being embarrassed,

marginalized, or punished in some way.

As the central measure of cultural health, and the path to both

inclusion and innovation, psychological safety is exploding as an
organizational priority around the world. But there’s some
confusion (and sometimes deliberate deception) about what it is
and is not. People still misinterpret and misapply the concept. Let
me share seven ways that leaders and organizations miss the mark.

A Shield From Accountability

A common and distorted application of psychological safety is to

use it as a shield from accountability. Non-performing employees
tend to invoke it as an excuse for poor performance, insisting that a
focus on psychological safety means valuing people and building

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6/30/22, 11:07 AM What Psychological Safety Is Not

relationships. That’s true, but stretching the premise, they claim

that we should give them a pass when they don’t perform.

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The flawed logic continues: Because we may have used fear and
intimidation, command and control, and manipulative and coercive
tactics with people in the past, we are now shedding those
industrial artifacts. We should allow people to govern themselves
without any structure at all.

Those who take this view see psychological safety as a kind of

diplomatic immunity from having to deliver results. Rather than
holding people accountable for performance, organizations that
follow this pattern chronically move non-performers around,
stuffing them into corners to mitigate risk. That’s a likely indicator
of using psychological safety as a shield from accountability.

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6/30/22, 11:07 AM What Psychological Safety Is Not

Niceness

Closely related to using psychological safety as a shield from

accountability is the flawed argument that it means being nice.
When we are collegial to a fault, what happens? We create false
harmony and false compassion. It’s an image and a front, but
leaders and organizations often run with it. This overemphasis on
being warm, hospitable, and caring can turn into a cheerful
indifference to the tough decisions that need to be made. We shy
away from engaging in the hard-hitting debate and intellectual
friction required to solve problems, create new solutions, make
break throughs, and innovate.

Organizations that persist in doing this become lethargic in

decision making. Certainly we don’t want to be rude, but a
persistent and unreflective emphasis on being nice becomes a layer
of denial that stands between us and reality. Have you ever been
around someone who was nice but didn’t make you feel safe? A
barracuda may smile at you, but don’t pet it. Niceness without pure
intent is counterfeit. It still induces fear and mistrust.

Coddling

A third trap is to believe that psychological safety means rolling

everyone in bubble wrap. Rather than giving you the proper respect
and autonomy you deserve as a human being, we indulge you with
excessive care and attention. We overprotect you from anxiety, fear,
stress, adversity, and trauma.

This misinterpretation leads to dependency, learned helplessness,

and victimhood. Rather than empowering you with challenging
work and the assumption of some failure along the way, we buffer
reality. We acquiesce to your demands instead of letting you fight
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through the learning process and the adversity that will make you
stronger and build your sense of self-efficacy.

Psychological safety means treating you with respect, but no more

than the next person. There is no preferential treatment. You get no
special dispensation. If you think about it, psychological safety is
actually an equalizing force that creates a culturally flat
organization in the midst of hierarchy and positional power.
Psychological safety means respecting your humanity, not
increasing your fragility.

Consensus Decision Making

Another grave misconception is that psychological safety

democratizes decision making and gives everyone a vote. We are
now making decisions by consensus, goes the thinking, and we can’t
move forward until we are all in lockstep. It’s disfigured logic for
sure, but I’ve seen employees assume that an emphasis on
psychological safety suddenly invests them with authority and a
seat at the table, not just to discuss issues, but to decide them. Not
true.

Yes, psychological safety should do much to neutralize the power

differential created by hierarchy, titles, and position, but I’ve seen
employees who believed that their organization’s emphasis on
psychological safety invested them with veto power. Psychological
safety should give you voice, but it does not change decision making
authority. What should change is the level of engagement and
collaboration that informs decisions. You should always be able to
bring and discuss issues without fear. But as the adage goes, to be
heard is not to be heeded. In large, complex organizations, only
consultative decision making can keep up with the speed of change.

Unearned Autonomy

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Related to the distortion that psychological safety legislates

consensus decision making, people sometimes believe it represents
a shift to universal and self-directed empowerment. Psychological
safety does have the potential to redistribute influence if people
contribute more fully, but it doesn’t mean you magically acquire a
new level of autonomy. You don’t have a right to less supervision.
You don’t have a right to be managed loosely or not at all. You don’t
have a right to do things your way without discussion or approval as
if you had been granted pre-authorization to be your own boss. You
may obtain these things eventually, but it will be through
competence, not entitlement.

I’ve talked to some employees who have run with this false
interpretation, believing that they had been suddenly empowered to
go and do even though they had not earned the right to greater
autonomy through a personal track record of performance. They
look at you and say, “We have psychological safety now. You have to
trust me.” Please remember that autonomy is earned, not owed.

Political Correctness

Another distortion is that ushering in psychological safety means

we must comply with the unwritten norms of political correctness.
Psychological safety does imply sensitivity for the views, feelings,
and human attributes that define people. In fact, it’s a function of
respect on the one hand and permission on the other. When we
grant each other more respect and permission to be ourselves and
do our best work, psychological safety soars. In fact, maintaining
psychological safety requires that we patrol the boundaries of
respect and avoid language or behavior that would deliberately
demean, belittle, or ridicule others.

Yet psychological safety does not subscribe to a political agenda. It

attaches itself to no policy, no person, and no organization. There
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are some people who would hijack and weaponize the concept, but
that’s not going to happen because, at its core, psychological safety
is an apolitical, non-partisan, universal concept that refers to a
cultural condition that unleashes the potential of people. No one
can or should try to harness it to advance their political ends.

Rhetorical Reassurance

Finally, I’ve seen some leaders try to enact psychological safety with
words. They mistakenly believe they can decree it into existence by
simply saying, “Psychological safety is a priority for our
organization. Please speak up. Give us your honest feedback and
candid input. It’s now safe.” Just making a declaration won’t make
it so.

It’s one thing when a leader does this in a marginally healthy

culture; it’s quite another when a leader does it in a toxic
environment. This kind of lip service simply increases the toxicity
and underlying fear of retaliation for speaking your mind and
suggests that a leader is either culturally tone deaf or hypocritical.
Remember, the single most important factor in culture formation is
the modeling behavior of leaders. So a leader who takes this
approach is putting on appearances.

As you make your own journey of cultural transformation, knowing

what psychological safety is not will help you create and sustain
what it truly is—an environment of rewarded vulnerability that
allows you to:

1. Feel Included

2. Learn

3. Contribute

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4. Challenge the status quo.

If you would like to attend a webinar on this topic, register here.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Timothy R. Clark Follow

I am the CEO of LeaderFactor, a global leadership and culture transformation

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