Psychological safety is an often-overlooked leadership issue gaining more and more attention due to rising employment litigation, turnover, disengaged employees, and shaky bottom lines.
As a leader, you are responsible for creating and maintaining an environment where team members feel safe speaking up, taking risks, and expressing their thoughts without fear of reprisal. In addition, you are responsibility for making sure there is no subtle retaliation affecting promotions, pay increases, assignments, or professional reputation.
What Leaders Overlook About Psychological Safety
- Harsh or public criticism for mistakes
- Micromanagement of projects or tasks
- Dismissing ideas as “stupid,” causing embarrassment or humiliation
- Creating fear, doubt, or anxiety through unpredictable behavior
- Squashing creativity and solutions
- Team members feeling unvalued, unheard, or disrespected
- Hesitating to challenge or talk through poor decisions
- Avoiding admitting mistakes or failures
- Allowing poor quality or inefficiencies due to fear of giving feedback
- Retaliation, subtle or overt, impacting compensation, opportunities, or visibility
Leaders who foster psychological safety encourage innovation, honest feedback, and healthier workplace dynamics. It starts with awareness and a conscious commitment to how you develop and support your team.
Strategies to Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace
Share Authentically. When leaders admit their own mistakes or uncertainties, it signals that learning and growth matter more than unachievable perfection. Team members open up more readily when you model vulnerability. They also bounce back faster when they hear your stories of lessons learned.
Solution: Practice storytelling with an executive coach. Meandering or overexplaining will lose your audience.
Encourage Open Dialogue. Actively invite team members to share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns. Use open-ended questions and listen with genuine curiosity.
Solution: Phrases like “What do you think?” and “I’d love to hear your perspective” create engagement. Just be sure you truly listen.
Provide Constructive Feedback. Frame mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures. Replace blame with questions like, “What can we/you learn from this?” or “How can we/you improve next time?”
Solution: Use the sandwich or direct approach depending on the person and situation. Always provide feedback in private.
Model Active Listening. Show engagement through eye contact, nodding, and summarizing what you heard. Avoid nonverbal behaviors that signal distraction such as multitasking, doodling, checking your phone, or tapping on the table.
Solution: Stop multitasking. Be present and mindful, focusing fully on the conversation in front of you.
Set Clear Expectations and Hold Team Members Accountable. Clarify that feedback, honesty, and thoughtful risk-taking are valued. People won’t speak up if they fear negative repercussions. And many won’t deliver consistently without accountability.
Solution: Hold employees accountable for quality work, positive client interactions, and meeting deadlines, because consistent accountability helps everyone feel they’re part of a strong, high-performing team.
Recognize and Reward Effort. Learning to brag about successful outcomes, individually and as a team, is essential. Recognize people for trying new approaches, solving problems creatively and resourcefully, or helping others.
Solution: Brag about their accomplishments and ideas to others. Public recognition done in a business professional manner builds confidence and reinforces desired behaviors.
Promote Inclusivity. Ensure all voices are heard, especially those who are quiet or hesitant. Encourage diverse perspectives and stay mindful of power dynamics that may silence some individuals.
Solution: Go around the table at least twice to ensure everyone has a chance to contribute. Reinforce respect for all ideas.
Psychological safety isn’t a one-time effort. It requires consistent reinforcement. When done well, it transforms teams, strengthens trust, and fuels innovation.
© Jeannette Seibly 2025–2026 All Rights Reserved
Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience guiding leaders and executives to achieve exceptional results. She delivers practical coaching and innovative solutions for hiring, leadership development, and performance success. Successful leaders have coaches—connect with Jeannette to elevate your results and impact in 2026.
As a leader, being responsible for psychological safety will ensure team members have the resources, responsibilities, and support needed to excel. If you’re unsure how to make meaningful changes, contact me.
NOTE: A new presentation, Psychological Safety: Workplace Solutions, is now available for your business leaders, bosses, and managers. Contact me for details.