Build Your Own Personal Psychological Safety With These 3 Tips
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Psychological Safety is a topic that has been brought back to life with the events of COVID. Companies are trying to figure out how to reopen, while we all try to make sense of this “new normal” (whatever that is).
Many people had a massive realisation that they enjoyed working from home and didn’t want to go back to the “office as usual”. I’ve heard friends say they don’t want to go back to office politics, the treadmill or the one-up-manship. COVID has proven to some that they are and can be just as effective working from home.
By creating a personal psychological safety strategy for yourself, you’ll be able to head back into the office with confidence, a new perspective and most importantly, with your authentic self.
The best bit is that companies, managers and leaders can use these tips to help their employees foster their own psychological safety, impacting team dynamics and overall organisational culture.
Tackle Blame in Yourself and Others
No one likes to be blamed for anything. As Rag-N-Bone man says, “I’m only human, don’t put your blame on me.”
Blaming is when we attack someone with our moral judgements(1). Our brain responds to blame with what’s called the “self-serving bias”. When things go well in our world, we take the credit but blame circumstances, people, and situations when things go wrong.
The thing with blame is that it’s easy. It lifts the accountability and responsibility from the outcomes, so many people blame others as the easy way out. Blame also fuels your control (you have control of the story, whether it’s true or not), it protects your ego, and most importantly, it means you don’t have to be vulnerable. Because being vulnerable, requires you to put yourself at risk.
Tip 1: Take Accountability and Responsibility
When we become accountable and responsible for our thoughts and actions, we can accept our mistakes and move on to do something about them.
Accepting our mistakes and taking responsibility requires us to be vulnerable and trust ourselves, which requires practice.
