Psychosocial Safety Isn’t Automatic: It Takes Leadership Skill, Not Just Will

Psychosocial hazards in Australian workplaces have garnered increasing attention due to their significant impact on employee mental health and organisational performance.  Claims for psychological injury are rising at a rate that far outpaces physical injury claims. In New South Wales alone, there has been a 30% increase in psychological injury claims over the past four years. Contributing factors include bullying, harassment, and inadequate support prompting SafeWork NSW to introduce stricter compliance measures.

Psychological safety refers to an environment where individuals feel safe to express opinions, suggest ideas, ask questions, raise concerns, and admit mistakes without fear of negative consequences.

According to Harvard Business School – Dynamic Teaming, psychological safety is built on four key elements:

• Willingness to help:  Employees believe it is appropriate to ask for help, and trust their colleagues will support them.
• Inclusion and diversity:  Employees feel a genuine sense of belonging, and that their diverse experiences and perspectives are valued.
• Attitude to risk and failure:  Mistakes and failures are viewed as opportunities for learning rather than reasons for blame.
• Open conversation: Employees perceive discussions as open, candid, and safe to participate in.

For a workplace to be truly psychologically safe, all four dimensions must be present.

While many leaders believe their teams operate in psychologically safe environments, research indicates otherwise.  It is important for leaders to develop and hone their interpersonal and leadership capabilities, that are required to foster and maintain this kind of culture.  This is not a question of will but of skill.

“We rarely teach people how to speak up or listen effectively – skills that psychological safety requires.” – Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School, The Fearless Organisation

In April 2025, Marana facilitated a two-day Leadership Forum for a State Government client, building on an internally delivered session on psychological safety.  The forum explored practical skills and strategies to support a psychologically safe workplace culture.  Key topics included:

• The concept of risk in a public sector context
• The courage and vulnerability required to ask for help, and the acceptance of mistakes and failures as part of learning
• Risk management frameworks
• Problem-solving skills
• Communication strategies to encourage staff to contribute more openly and constructively including techniques to uncover what may not be openly expressed by individuals or groups.

Some discussion points covered and practices to build psychological safety include:

• Make “helping” behaviour the norm.  Institute “reciprocity rings” (Baker & Baker, 2016) where team members regularly share what they need, how others can help and how they can help others.
• Define what team-orientated and/or collaborative behaviour looks like in practical specific terms.
• Frame mistakes as opportunities for shared learning: “This didn’t work.  What can we take from it?”
• Teach teams to expect errors, detect them early, and learn from them.
• Discuss unrelenting standards, what “over-servicing” might look like.  Evaluate your own levels of perfectionism and/or unrelenting standards.
• Train people in how to actively listen as opposed to talking about what active listening is.
• Anticipate what might go wrong in advance to reduce the stigma if it does.  Consider “What is the worst that might happen? What is the best outcome?  What is most likely?
• Lead with vulnerability.  Share when you don’t know something.  It gives others permission to do the same.

Creating a psychologically safe workplace is not about grand gestures or abstract ideals it is about building specific, learnable skills.  Leaders and teams need to practice curiosity, empathy, humility, and courage in tangible, everyday ways.

The good news is that these are not personality traits, they are capabilities that can be developed. With the right tools, support, and intention, teams can build cultures where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and grow.

Start small. Practice often. Reflect together. Psychological safety is not a destination it is a discipline.

What is one thing you can do this week to make your team feel safer, more supported, or more heard?

Tags: #Leadership, #LeadershipDevelopment, #PsychologicalSafety, #SafeWorkplaces, #WorkplaceCulture, #WorkplaceWellbeing

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