Episode 74: Cultivating Psychological Safety at Work

Please excuse any typos, transcripts are generated by an automated service

Dr. Melissa Smith 0:00
Psychological safety? What is it? And why is it so darn important for work teams?

Dr. Melissa Smith 0:05
Hi, I’m Dr. Melissa Smith, welcome to the pursue what matters podcast where we focus on what it takes to thrive in love and work? Well, today we’re going to talk all about psychological safety. Is it really that important? Well, if you spend any time reading up on business or leadership, you’re probably hearing a lot about psychological safety these days, I know I am. It’s definitely the new buzz term. And I’m totally thrilled that it is being talked about so much. Because you know, of course, as a psychologist, I’ve known that psychological safety has been important for a long time. And of course, psychologists and other mental health experts have been talking about psychological safety and the importance of it for decades. But now we’re really understanding the value of it at work, it’s always been important at work. But we’re finally now talking about it and really looking at it. And so you know, it’s about time. So today, we’re really going to dig in, and make sure that you know what psychological safety is, and why it’s so important to you and your organization. And then of course, most importantly, we want to make sure that you are cultivating psychological safety at work, it’s really important, it really matters. So hopefully, we can help you to get a good handle on psychological safety, because a lot of people are talking about it, but not everyone understands it. So hopefully, I can help you clarify that. And of course, every week with the podcast, my goal is to help you strengthen your confidence to lead. And I do that in one of three areas. So whether that is leading with clarity, leading with curiosity, or leading your community. And so this week, we’re really helping you lead your community because of course, psychological safety is all about your work with teams. So it’s all about building and leading a team. And you’ve got to have psychological safety in order to do that effectively. And so that is the the main way, we’re really going to help you to strengthen your confidence to lead today. And so, you know, communicating on teams is more important than ever. And so I’m going to be referencing a great article. And this is from the New York Times Magazine, and this is by Charles Duhigg. Of course, he’s the author of the great book on The Power of Habit. And this came out a few years ago, and it was entitled What Google Learned From its Quest to Build the Perfect Team. Of course, I will link to this article in the show notes. But it’s a great in depth article. And you know, the first point is that our organizations are working on teams more than ever. So the bulk of our modern work is more and more team based. So you know, managers and employees are really spending their time and energy in collaborative activities. More and more, it’s like up by, you know, more than like 50% of their time is spent in collaborative activities. And at many companies, more than three quarters of an employee’s day is spent communicating with colleagues. And so like there’s just so much interaction among colleagues on teams, and it’s just, you know, it’s just the way that our work is getting done. Of course, this is stressed now with more remote work. And so it’s, I think it’ll be interesting to kind of see how our teams and our organizations and actually psychological safety are impacted by this, but we also have some good research that show us that teams so working in teams, actually are better for organizations.

Dr. Melissa Smith 5:02
And so, you know, teams and groups tend to innovate faster, they see mistakes more quickly and find better solutions to problems. So they’re not always better brainstormers. So I have an upcoming podcasts on that topic. So you’ll have to wait and watch for that one.

Dr. Melissa Smith 5:24
But we have some research showing that people working in teams tend to achieve better results. And they also report higher job satisfaction. And so you know, there are lots of benefits to working on teams. And there’s also research that shows that profitability increases when workers are persuaded to collaborate. So right, like, sometimes it can be a little bit challenging to get people to work on teams, because we’ve all had that undergrad experience, right? Where, I mean, when I was an undergrad, I hated working on teams, because I was the one doing all the work, and then you have the slackers on the team. And so no one wants to be part of that team. But when we’re on a, well, a well working machine, well working team, right, a well run machine, and teams, you know, can be so successful. And teams really are now the fundamental unit of organization in most companies. So if a company wants to outstrip its competitors, it really needs to not only influence how people work, but how they work together, because more and more that work is happening together. And so the only caveat that I would add to this, and it’s a big one is that you have to have psychological safety in place. So how teams work together really, really matters. Because if you don’t have psychological safety in place, all of those benefits that I just listed, are gone. And in fact, not only that, but it corrodes your culture. And so all of those benefits, not only are they lost, but you’ll start having a negative impact.

Dr. Melissa Smith 7:18
So let’s dig into you know, what psychological safety is in the first place. So you know, as is true in so many areas, there are buzzwords and topics that come in and out of fashion. And so, you know, in recent years in the business and leadership, literature, we’ve heard a lot about emotional intelligence, and just how important that is in leadership. And it’s great. I mean, emotional intelligence is awesome. And the research is very compelling on that. And, you know, it’s definitely not going away. But I think kind of what we’re finding is emotional intelligence, is, is, is kind of geared at the individual level. And psychological safety is, is kind of a parallel to teams.

Dr. Melissa Smith 8:12
So if you think about, like, the skills you need, individually, are emotional intelligence, at the group level, those skills are psychological safety. And so if you have a team, composed of high EQ people, so they’re high in emotional intelligence, we’re going to, you’re going to be more likely to have strong psychological safety. But you know, in more recent years, we’ve kind of turned our attention in a new direction with some of the psychological safety. So now that we have strengthened our individual EQ skills, which is great, we’re ready to strengthen our team skills. And this is where, you know, we’re seeing the new business lexicon, focused on psychological safety. And like I said, there’s absolutely nothing new about psychological safety. As a psychologist, this is something I and those of us in the mental health field have been attending to. For aeons, it seems that what’s really great is that we’re beginning to apply this principle to the world of work.

Dr. Melissa Smith 9:21
So you know, after all, people are people at work they bring, we bring our whole selves to work. And so of course, the same principles apply at work as they would at home, and in our other relationships. So we’re not different at work. And so if we need psychological safety in order to thrive outside of work, you know, it stands to reason that we would need psychological safety in order to thrive at work. So, you know, it’s kind of a no brainer, right there.

Dr. Melissa Smith 9:53
So,before I jump into the details of psychological safety, I do want to share with you a study that really started the ball rolling on applying psychological safety to the world of work, and it’s, you know, this tiny little study known as the Aristotle project, maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. But this is really the project that got the ball rolling, and got the business world to pay attention.

Dr. Melissa Smith 10:20
So at the end of 2015, Google released the results of its five year study in which they examined what led to the most effective composition of teams at Google. And, you know, they were absolutely invested in composing the most effective teams. So first of all, Google studies, everything, they study everything about their employees and the lives of their employees, you know, and that’s just how Google does things. And so they started looking at, you know, what makes the most effective teams, what does that composition look like? And so that’s what they were trying to investigate. And so it was a five year study focused on building the perfect team, they spent millions and millions of dollars measuring nearly every aspect of its employees lives. So that’s, that’s kind of what the focus was. And so what the executives initially believed about teams, right, like, was a little bit of conventional wisdom. So they long believed that building the best teams meant combining the best people, right, like, so let’s get the alphas in there. Let’s get the smartest, brightest sharpest people in there. And that’s going to that’s going to make for the best team. So some of the conventional wisdom that they held to was maybe, you know, it’s better to put introverts together. And maybe teams are more effective when everyone is friends away from work. And so that’s kind of what they started with.

Dr. Melissa Smith 12:00
But the researchers indicated that it turned out no one had ever really studied, whether, you know, their conventional wisdom was accurate or not. So they didn’t know, they thought they were right. But they certainly weren’t sure about any of that. So then, in 2012, Aristotle project, and it was the portion of the study in which Google studied hundreds of its teams, I think it was over 180 of its teams to figure out why some were thriving, and others struggled. And so they had statisticians, they had organizational psychologists, they had sociologists, they had engineers, I mean, they had all sorts of specialists looking at this, and some of the things that they looked at. And so here’s what they did. And, you know, of course, as part of any comprehensive study, with so many specialists, they started by reviewing a half century academic studies. And so, you know, some of the questions that they had were, you know, were the best teams made up of people with similar interests. Were they motivated by the same kinds of rewards? How often did teammates socialize outside of the office? Did they have the same hobbies? Were their educational backgrounds similar? And was it best for all of them to be outgoing or for all of them to be shy? And you know, what was going to be the best composition of these groups. And as they looked at this, it was almost impossible for them to find a pattern, or any evidence that the composition of the team made a difference at all. And so they were really scratching their head. And so their conclusion on that is that the who, on the team did not matter. The composition of the people on the team did not make a difference. And so you know, that they were really stumped at that point. They’re like, Okay, what is going on? And so, you know, they weren’t sure what was happening because some of their findings were really confusing them. They had so many patterns. And often the patterns were actually kind of contradictory and pointing in multiple directions. And then the researchers began looking into the psychological research and this is what they started to find.

Dr. Melissa Smith 14:51
So, they started coming up against some research on group norms, which is is a very, very common part of psychological research. It’s something that’s actually some of the research that I read about in my first semester of my master’s program in counseling where I absolutely fell in love with the profession, so it’s near and dear to my heart. But with this is some of the research that they first stumbled upon. So one team may come to a consensus that avoiding disagreement is more valuable than debate. Another team might develop a culture that encourages vigorous arguments and spurns groupthink, so norms can be unspoken or openly acknowledged, but their influence is often profound. So team members may behave in certain ways as individuals, they may shake against authority or prefer working independently. But when they gather as a team, the group’s norms typically override individual proclivities and encourage deference to the team. And so they started coming across this research on group norms, which are these unwritten rules, this team culture, that really becomes more important than the individual personalities, the individual needs. And so this adherence to these group needs. And so sometimes the norms of one effective team were really different from the norms of another very successful group. So this is where it was a little contradictory. And so sometimes the data even pointed in opposite directions. And so that’s where the researchers were kind of stumped. And they weren’t really sure what they what they were looking at, and they weren’t sure how to make sense of it. So they saw like, okay, these group norms, kind of seem important. But, um, you know, what, what do we do with this. And so as they kept digging into the psychological research, they started coming on a couple of findings.

Dr. Melissa Smith 17:15
And so, two findings in particular, helped them to make sense of everything that they were seeing. And so this is, first of all, in a study of group intelligence, researchers found two key behaviors, that all good team share that less effective teams do not have. So the first finding is that members speak in roughly the same proportion. Okay, so they, they take turns speaking, they give each other an opportunity to talk. And, you know, you don’t have one team member, stealing the floor. And so that was one finding that they came across. And then the second finding that they came across that all good teams share, that the less effective teams do not have, is that the members have a good sense of what is happening for other members of the group. So another way of putting that is that there is a sensitivity to other team members. So they they have high emotional intelligence, they’re sensitive to one another’s, they know if, if another group member is upset by something that’s being said, and they care about one another. They’re aware of what’s going on with one another. And so these are the two findings, that really stuck out to the researchers at Google, because this, you know, these two findings, and we’re, we’re really the linchpin that pulled all of the patterns together for Google. And so, you know, when we think about the conversational turn taking, so that’s the first finding, and then that the social sensitivity, which is the second finding, this is known as psychological safety, and it is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. Now that term comes from Amy Edmondson. She’s a Harvard Business School professor and a researcher on psychological safety.

Dr. Melissa Smith 17:56
And it is a sense that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. It describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves. And so these two findings are what really are composed of psychological safety. And so when the Google researchers came across this definition and these findings, they said everything suddenly fell into place. And they said, you know, for one, one of the participants, they said that, he said his team leader was direct and straightforward, which creates a safe space for you to take risks. And that team, the researchers concluded was among Google’s most accomplished groups. So the the teams talked about feeling safe. They talked about feeling heard, they, they talked about feeling relaxed and energized by their teams. And so there’s not one effective way to be on a team. But the key is that the the team members felt safe, and they felt respected, and they felt like they had a voice. And so that’s really the key when we consider having when we consider effective teams, and that is what psychological safety is all about. And so I’m going to include this definition, again, psychological safety, it describes the team climate characterized by interpersonal trust, and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.

Dr. Melissa Smith 21:49
Other thing that also helps with effective teams is making sure teams have clear goals, and creating a culture of dependability, you’ve got to count on one another, you’ve also got to know what you are working towards, right? So you got to have clear goals, you got to know what, what you are working on, and why it matters. And so, um, but Google’s research indicates that psychological safety more than anything else, was critical to making a team work. But that having the clear goals and creating a culture of dependability, also, were very helpful. So that’s why psychological safety is so incredibly important. So you know, one of the things that I talk a lot about in my work with CEOs and leadership teams, is what the Harvard Business Review in 2016, identified as a host of silent killers that prevent learning from happening in most organizations. And these silent killers combined, and result in a lack of psychological safety at work. And so, you know, what does that mean? And, you know, it’s exactly what we’re talking about here, that in order to grow, in order to create and in order to contribute meaningfully, we must feel safe. So I’m not talking about safe spaces, I’m not getting into that argument at all. But it’s got to be okay to be vulnerable. It’s got to be okay for us to be authentic and to mess up without being shamed by our colleagues. So we need to learn and to give and receive feedback in order to grow. So unless and until these minimum requirements of psychological safety are met, employees will not have the bandwidth to contribute meaningfully at work. Because what happens is when there is not psychological safety at work, people are in survival mode.

Dr. Melissa Smith 24:13
So they are protecting themselves, they are armoring up to use the language of Brene Brown, which her dare to lead research is all focused on creating psychological safety at work. So people are armored up, which means they can’t be authentic, which means they are freed up to innovate, to create to contribute meaningfully. And so, psychological safety is what helps you to root out the silent killers at work so that organizations can then become fertile ground for growth and purpose driven leadership. And so that’s what we really want to pay attention to. And so now let’s focus on some solutions.

Dr. Melissa Smith 25:00
So how do we help you cultivate psychological safety at work? So first of all, the first solution is acknowledge and recognize that we bring our whole selves to work. And Brene Brown talks about that, you know, we do not have a work life, and a real life, you know, like, we bring our whole selves to work, we, you know, we need to be authentic, we need to be genuine, we need to lean into vulnerability, I think it’s also really important to acknowledge that vulnerability is not the same thing as disclosure, and Brene Brown talks about that really well. So sometimes that vulnerability can mean disclosure, but it doesn’t have to be disclosure. So vulnerability means being genuine and authentic. It means not guarding, not filtering, or hiding behind a facade, it’s sharing your life, sharing your experiences, not feeling like you have to put on a mask. I’m not talking about a literal mask, because we all you might have to put on a mask when you go to work, but not not hiding behind a wall when you go to work. And, and, and really, just feeling like you can share your life with those you work with, rather than, you know, pretending, because that pretending takes up a lot of energy, and it gets in the way of contributing your best work. So the second solution is to empathize with others. So empathy is not responding to an experience, it’s connecting to the emotions that underpin an experience. So you do not have to have gone through the same experience in order to empathize with someone, it’s really just connecting with the emotions, of an experience to be able to say, I’m so sorry, that sounds really challenging. So we know what emotions feel like, even if we don’t know the experience. And so, Brene Brown teaches us that empathy includes five skill sets. So four of these come from Theresa Weisman. One is perspective taking. So can you? Can you take the perspective of another? So if a colleague is sharing something with you, can you step out of your own shoes and step into theirs? And consider Wow, what would it What would it be like to have that experience that’s perspective taking to stay out of judgment? You know, it’s not your job to judge them? Can you just show up? Can you listen? Can you have some empathy? Have some care for what they are sharing with you? Three, recognize emotion, when a colleague is sharing something with you? What is the emotion? Ooh, that sadness? Or that anger? Or that frustration? Or I got some resentment there. So recognize emotion and Four, communicate emotion. And what is the emotion that you’re recognizing in the other person? And can you communicate that back? So to be able to say, Wow, that sounds really frustrating. You know, if that’s the emotion that you’re recognizing, can you communicate that emotion back. So those are four skill sets from Teresa Wiseman, that can be very helpful for empathizing with others.

Dr. Melissa Smith 25:08
Solution three, take turns in conversation. So this was one of the key findings. That is foundational to psychological safety, the best teams share the floor, and they have awareness of one another in the room. So they make room for one another in conversation and recognize when a member may be upset, checked out or in need. So you’ve got to have situational awareness, you’ve got to, you’ve got to take turns, and monitor yourself and monitor others

Dr. Melissa Smith 29:20
Solution Four, Be mindful during meetings. Okay, so group settings, and I think this is made even more challenging with remote work. So I just want to acknowledge that it’s more challenging with remote work, that group settings can be really challenging for team members, especially if they’ve been publicly shamed in the past, or have been in hostile work settings or, you know, survive junior high. So pretty much that’s all of us. And so, of course, psychological safety is the idea that we create some safety in there in the room that it allows the free expression of ideas without fear of recrimination, judgment or shame. So that’s what we think about when we think about psychological safety. So this, I want to be really clear about this, this does not mean that your ideas won’t be challenged. Okay? Because in a work environment, when you’re growing, when you’re innovating, when you’re leading change, you should expect your ideas to be challenged. We’re not talking about, we’re not talking about Sunday school here, we’re not talking about Kumbaya. It’s not that your ideas won’t be challenged, but you shouldn’t fear personal attack when you share an idea in a meeting. So when we talk about psychological safety, what we’re talking about is you should be free of fear of recrimination, judgment or shame. But here’s the thing, ideas are just ideas. So we don’t, you know, like, we should feel free to challenge ideas in meetings. But we should keep a, you know, we should challenge ideas, but we should not attack people. Right, there’s a big difference there.

Dr. Melissa Smith 31:23
And so if you are running the meeting, you need to be attuned to the individuals in the room, whether that’s virtual, whether that’s face to face. So who are the quiet ones who might need to be drawn out a bit more, who are the loud ones who might need to quiet down so that others can share. So this can I suppose, right? Like full disclosure, this can require a lot of energy. But it’s all part of making meetings more effective, and also creating and cultivating psychological safety, so that everyone on the team can fully participate. Because in order for the team to perform at its best, you’ve got to make room for everyone. And so as a leader, as the one, you know, really, whoever is the leader, you’ve got to be, you’ve got to have your pulse on this, you got to have your, your, you’ve got to have your eye on this. And so there can be a few ways to take a look at this. If you notice, like boy, our meetings are kind of off the rails, or we’ve got a really domineering group member, or one that’s always talking, I’m just going to throw out some ideas that, you know, could maybe be helpful. So one I did, and this would be hard to do virtually. But I bet there’s a way that you could apply it virtually. So I’m just going to, I’m going to share these and then maybe you can think about ways that you could apply it virtually. So what I did is to actually have cards on the table during a meeting, especially if you’re working with a new team or wanting to create new norms of behaviors, okay, so it can kind of be silly, but that’s half the point. Because it is silly, and it gives team members permission to be playful with the cards. So don’t you know, it’s okay to be silly. We don’t we don’t need to be serious all the time. But so you could maybe have one card, that’s a challenge card. So it’s a challenge, and you need to have have another solution, or it’s a disagree card. So maybe that’s your red card. So if someone is talking, and so you pick up the challenge card or the disagree card, you’re saying like, Hey, I I challenged that point, or I disagree with that point. And it’s a way to kind of shift those norms, especially if that person is someone that intimidates other members of the group, this might be kind of a cool way and a playful way to start shifting the power dynamicsin the group.

Dr. Melissa Smith 34:18
Another card that you could have is an all in or an Ask me why card so this could maybe be green, so it could be a support a point of view card. So you know, ask me why and tell me more information. And, you know, like let’s talk about this more kind of card and that could maybe be a green card. And you could also have a shiny objects alert. And so maybe this is a card or maybe it’s just a little shiny toy or something. And this is your get back on track. card. So maybe it’s a gray card, maybe it’s just a shiny little object. And it’s, it’s a refocus card for a colleague who’s going off track. That never happens, right. But that could be just kind of a fun and maybe playful way to also say like, Hey, come on, like, we gotta, we gotta focus. And then this one could also be kind of fun. But it could be a toy horse, and people could toss it at a speaker. And basically, what it means is you are beating a dead horse, like it’s time to move on now. And that could be kind of playful.

Dr. Melissa Smith 35:42
So what’s cool about the cards is that team members can start with these cards as an invitation to the team to be challenged. So this can change the nerves, the norms, and invite dissent. Especially if you have a timid group, or a people pleasing crowd. So you know, I think there are lots of ways to kind of play with this, and just start shifting some of those norms.

Dr. Melissa Smith 36:10
So solution five is to be crystal clear about the purpose and agenda of your team. And then to stick to it. So that was also one of the findings from the Aristotle project. And you, you know, why is the team meeting, what’s the overall purpose of the team, and then to also have a specific purpose and agenda for specific meetings, and make sure you have the space and time to support the purpose and the agenda. Otherwise, you know, you’re undermining your team. And if you can, you know, definitely communicate the purpose and agenda of the team in advance. So you have support, because otherwise, you’re not going to have buy in from your team. And so invite agenda add items, as appropriate based on the type of meeting, communicate, if and why certain add items were not added, and close that loop. And that’s really important, because, you know, you as the leader shouldn’t be, shouldn’t be dragging everyone along. So that’s actually a really important one to pay attention to.

Dr. Melissa Smith 37:22
And solution six, don’t be afraid to fight teams that are willing to fight fair debate issues, challenge issues, consider alternatives. And listen to minority views. Having a devil’s advocate and challenging assumptions typically get to better ideas and better solutions. So I don’t know if that just raised your blood pressure to hear everything that I just said there, that you’ve got to learn to tolerate some disagreement. This allows each member to have a seat at the table, and it elevates the performance of the entire team. So like I said before, you know, we want to challenge ideas, not necessarily people, so I just kind of think about attack ideas, but not people hit above the belt. So challenge the rationale, assumptions and conclusions, but never, never ever, ever challenge character smarts, or integrity of the individual that is hitting below the belt. And there is no place for that. And teams that encourage rigorous debate, and who can push to a decision also require fewer meetings, and that is a win win. So you want to be productive. And so if you push, right, like if you push for more debate, and for decision making, you’re going to be more efficient and more productive. And that’s good, because you’re busy, and you don’t want to spend your wills by refusing to make decisions.

Dr. Melissa Smith 38:53
And then solution seven, this is where we think about those group norms. We want respectful norms, those are the unwritten rulesthat strengthen the trust of the entire team. So specifically, when we think about meetings, you know, some of the norms that I would recommend would be to show up on time and be prepared. Be willing to have difficult conversations, but have them respectfully, provide a clear rationale for your position, but support it with data. be persuasive, but know that the listener ultimately decides how persuasive you are. So right, like, make your argument that ultimately you you know, the listener is the one that decides if you won them over, let the best argument win, even if it’s not yours.

Dr. Melissa Smith 39:50
And so with that, you know, my invitation is to support the final decision. And sometimes that can be kind of hard because we get wedded to our idea. But being a good team player is showing a willingness to support the final decision. Feel free to get energized, stand up and shout, but never make it personal. Always listen. So seek to understand more than waiting for your turn to speak. Now, this is a big one for teams where they kind of struggle. You know? Are you actually listening? Are you actually seeking to understand? Or are you just waiting for your turn to expound? Or are you just waiting for your turn to speak, and never pursue consensus? for its own sake, that’s a big one, we want to get to what’s best, we want to get to the best solution. consensus is a dangerous goal. So be really cautious about that. And learn to tolerate silence, learn to tolerate discomfort, your team will be way more effective. If you can do that, I would also encourage you to put your screens away unless it’s absolutely necessary for the meeting, when screens are in the meeting, unless they’re, you know, absolutely part, you know, required for the meeting, and people are just distracted and less engaged.

Dr. Melissa Smith 41:25
Okay, so solution eight is invite the quieter group members to speak up. And this is so important in group settings, which can sometimes be overwhelming for the quieter group members. So one thing you could say is, you know, during the meeting, you could say, hey, before the meeting, Sue and I were talking about this, and I loved her thought on this as a way of inviting her into the conversation in maybe a more non threatening way. And you could have a talk with one of the quiet ones in advance of the meeting and ask them directly to participate during one specific point in the meeting. And so that might be a way to kind of prepare them in advance, but you’re just asking them to share during during that one point. And, you know, that can maybe help them prepare for it. But also, you know, you’re not asking them to do a full scale presentation to the rest of the team. And so just think about ways that you can invite quieter group members into the conversation because in, in a larger group or in a group with plenty of extroverts, those quieter group members can sometimes get lost. And so we want to just think about ways to gently invite them in, you could also just have a conversation and say, Hey, what’s going to be helpful for you? Right? Obviously, you want to respect their wishes on that. So as you can make room for the quieter group members, this will help cultivate psychological safety, it makes the group safer for the quieter ones, it makes room for everyone in the group. And of course, that’s what we want to do. And so, of course, all of these things help to cultivate psychological safety. And the research is really clear that psychological safety lays the foundation for more successful, productive and efficient organizations. They’re also way more profitable. And so there’s a strong argument on every front for cultivating psychological safety, and there’s a lot that we can do, and that we need to be doing every single day to cultivate psychological safety.

Dr. Melissa Smith 43:58
But here’s the thing about psychological safety, it is not a one and done. These are small daily habits. I mean, just think about your most important relationships. These are small, daily actions that you need to be taking. It’s like tending a garden, you need to be attending that garden consistently to cultivate that psychological safety. So head on over to my website to check out the show notes and the resources for this episode at www.drmelissasmith.com forward slash episode dash 74 one more time, that’s www.drmelissasmith.com forward slash episode dash 74. I’m Dr. Melissa Smith. Remember love and work, work and love. That’s all there is. Until next time, take good care.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai