LeaderFactor

If your people are your competitive advantage, then you cannot afford to tolerate interactions that punish vulnerability on your team. As a rule, humans step into vulnerability to feel connected and out of it to feel protected. We will usually choose protection first over connection. In my research, I've learned that workplace vulnerability is not only necessary for inclusion; it’s central to learning, contribution, and innovation. This is why one of my favorite definitions of psychological safety is "a culture of rewarded vulnerability." We have discovered that modeling and rewarding vulnerability is the central mechanism we can use to build psychological safety in our teams. But how do you take this theory and apply it behaviorally? Take a look at the tool below. The L.I.V.E. model is an acronym you can use to model and reward acts of vulnerability. The acronym stands for: (1) Look (2) Identify (3) Validate (4) Encourage If you’re in a toxic culture or dehumanizing environment, you have to make a choice: muscle through the fear and be your authentic self, or modulate your behavior to reduce your risk. Whether you muscle or modulate depends largely on whether your vulnerable behavior was rewarded or punished in the past. What does punished vulnerability look like? While some forms of punishing vulnerability are macroscopic and clearly against organizational policy, others are microscopic and almost undetectable. This is why it’s so easy for complacent cultures with fearful employees to allow their team members to suffer. If you want to create a true culture of psychological safety, take a look at the day-to-day interactions happening on your team: ❓ Are requests for help dismissed? ❓Are mistakes punished and ridiculed? ❓Are ideas squashed at conception? ❓Do challenges to the status quo get shut down? ❓Is feedback poorly received? ❓Is the team silent? ❓Do team members avoid accountability? When any amount of vulnerability is punished at work, engagement decreases, discretionary effort is lost, creativity is stifled, and human potential is crushed. How do you reverse these effects, or hedge against them? How do you reward vulnerability instead? (1) Look at the interactions and social dynamics around you. (2) Identify the act of vulnerability that should be rewarded. (3) Validate the behavior so the person feels understood. (4) Encourage the person to continue modeling the vulnerability. What types of vulnerable behavior have you seen on your teams? Was the vulnerability punished, or rewarded? Let me know in the comments ⤵

The single most important question you can ask to determine the level of psychological safety on a team is: “Is it expensive to be yourself?” Here’s a self-assessment that includes 12 common breaches of psychological safety that routinely occur in organizations. Ask yourself if you have experienced any of these breaches in the last 24 hours: 1. Have you felt excluded in a social setting? 2. Have you been afraid to ask a question? 3. Have you remained silent when you knew the answer to a problem? 4. Have you had someone else steal credit for something you did? 5. Have you given a suggestion that was ignored? 6. Have you been rudely interrupted in a meeting? 7. Have you felt that you were the target of a negative stereotype? 8. Have you faced retaliation for challenging the status quo? 9. Have you had a boss who asked for feedback but didn’t really want it? 10. Have you been publicly shamed or made fun of? 11. Have you been punished for making an honest mistake? 12. Have you been made to feel inferior? Is there a human being that hasn’t experienced at least one of these breaches of psychological safety? Unfortunately not, they happen every day. No wonder most teams don’t perform at capacity. No wonder so many employees feel disengaged. No wonder we often feel that it’s expensive to be ourselves! When you respect your teams' innate humanity and permit them to engage across psychological safety's four stages, you create sanctuaries of inclusion and incubators of innovation. Only then will your people will feel safe to be their authentic selves and will create value exponentially.