Empathic and compassionate leadership creates psychological safety - say what again?
Yes I know. It sounds a little abstract. But I promise you, these are competencies you would like to master now and onwards. So let me make it more concrete and give you an idea of why this is so important.
Not surprisingly, at Diversity Factor, we train leaders in these topics, since they are crucial to master if you want to create inclusive cultures, well-being, and innovation. Nevertheless - and more often than not - we experience that people find some workshop cases too easy because the answer can be too obvious for them. Let me give an example and a sneak peak into inclusive leadership training.
Workshop cases are real life cases - and not that easy
We present a case which describes a scene, where extroverts are dominating the meeting. We might spice it up with more intersectional categories such as gender, age, race, seniority to make it a little more complex. Participants often find it obvious what they would do in such a meeting. It is obvious what is going on. And therefore the casework can come across as unnecessary or too easy.
However, if the answer is easy or obvious why does this still happen on a daily basis? The answer is complex. It has to do with power relations, structures, and cultures.
I have observed, attended, and interviewed hundreds of people from corporate life, who experience a version of the case described above. In every single meeting, I have seen brilliant, young ambitious men being cut off by a woman in a senior leadership position. I have experienced how introverts, or team members with less status seek me out to voice their opinion or suggestions after the meeting. I have seen them be silent in meetings.
Hell, I have even been one of them. Just put me in the right - or wrong (!) - context, and all my knowledge, innovative ideas and experiences will be locked in. This is what happens in complex power hierarchies, where there is a lack of psychological safety.
The absence of psychological safety comes with a high cost
What are the results of this behavior and culture? We’re not pointing or shaming, however, we have to recognize that it is a culture, which has been allowed for ages and is part of our structures.
The result is that we miss out on all the creativity and innovation that comes from listening to others rather than the dominant people. We get a higher turnover in the team, we lose productivity and earnings. If we master psychological safety, it can be a potential game-changer.
Let’s hear Lene out
Last week I had a meeting with Lene. She is a really skilled, loyal, and hard working person with a lot of experience in her field. And a human being. Like the rest of us. We all have something to struggle with; Lene is anxious about presenting at meetings and therefore always prepares - a lot.
She told me about her previous meeting, where the leader talked about how the practice should be, going forward. As the performing team member Lene tried to tell her perspective and opinion, but a colleague with a more formal senior position cut her off. She had a different opinion. Whether the suggestion was good or not is not important. What is important is that Lene felt terrible the rest of the day. It added to her anxiety about presenting at meetings and the organisation risks losing all of her ideas, suggestions and experiences going forward, because of lack of psychological safety. Not to speak of the tendency to a lower productivity, higher stress level and sick days because she is not feeling heard or respected. I borrowed Lene’s example, but the results from it are pulled from research.
All the people who are shut down one way or another - for some reason or another - they are an untapped gold mine for the company. (And human beings, for God’s sake) Maybe you can relate to Lene's story, maybe not. I would be surprised if we couldn’t find situations in your life, where you felt the same as Lene did in this situation.
How to be that inclusive leader that master an empathic leadership style
We have to create that psychological safe space, where everyone is comfortable expressing and being themselves. Without fear of being embarrassed, humiliated or ignored. Our leaders have to be masters in empathy and compassionate leadership.
It is actually not that difficult to nudge our leadership style in another direction. Call it out, without shaming anyone. Simply say: “Hey, I would really love to hear Lene out, let’s not interrupt each other.” And smile.
Other things you could do in order to create psychological safe meetings:
Start by checking in on a personal level. How is everyone doing? Remind each other that you are all humans and connect with each other.
Share talking-time equally between team members.
Ask participants to prepare ideas and suggestions alone, before the meeting. Let everyone present their ideas.
Hear each other out and nudge the brain to create innovative ideas -celebrate again
Celebrate and value the whistleblower who can potentially safe the company from huge mistakes
Respect one another and insist on an inclusive meeting culture. Simply raise your voice and remind each other of the culture that you want.
Stop inappropriate behaviour even though it is not intentionally hurting others.
If you are curious for more, check out our ideas or sign up for our newsletter and let Helene, our CEO, give you an opinionated opinion.
If you want to talk more about how you can become an inclusive leader and create inclusive teams, where diversity thrives, book a call with us.
References:
Baer, Markus; Frese, Michael (1 February 2003). "Innovation is not enough: climates for initiative and psychological safety, process innovations, and firm performance". Journal of Organizational Behavior
Frese, m. & Keith, N. “Action Errors, Error Management, and Learning in Organizations” Annual Review of Psychology 66.1 (2015) 661-87.
McKinsey & Company (February 2021) “Psychological safety and the critical role of leadership development”
The fearless organization. Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Amy C. Edmondson, Harvard Business School.