Are you a safe and effective leader?

Safe and Effective Leaders have a dual focus on people and outcomes.  They understand that the two have a symbiotic relationship and the needs of both must be met.

Safe and Effective Leaders step up to the plate to have those tricky conversations, actively look to identify and assess work related stress risks and act as a positive and motivating influence to get the work done.

Safe and Effective Leaders aren’t about being all soft and fluffy – there’s no indulgent comfort zones here – but there is a human centred approach and an understanding of how to bring out the best in their teams.

Leadership support is one of the most critical factors for a mentally healthy workplace. Here’s seven ways you can model being a safe and effective leader and demonstrate your support:

1.  Invite thoughts/ideas from your team during team meetings.
Actively listen and be open to other perspectives.

2.  Listen to “hear” not to respond.
Hold the space and still your mind.  Often, we are busy formulating solutions or responses when someone is sharing something with us.  This stops us actively listening to what is being said.  Just listen. You might be surprised what else you learn through this simple (yet surprisingly difficult) action.  Practice helps with this technique, keep trying!

3.  Help your team to learn safely – without fear of punishment.
A critical element of psychological safety is practicing mistake tolerance. This is essential for fostering learning and growth. Allow people to ask those silly questions, encourage people to ” have a go ” and reassure them you’ve got their back.  And if someone makes a mistake (not through negligence or sloppiness but through being human) calmly explore what went wrong in the execution of the task rather than blame the person.

4.  Share your own vulnerability or failure with your team.
If you want to kick learner safety up a notch with your team – share an example of when you made a mistake.  When leaders model vulnerability you build trust and demonstrate that to err is human. You’ll also deepen connections and release the shame you may be holding onto from that mistake or failure.

5.  Monitor and have an open conversation about workload.
How are your team travelling?  Do they have work volumes and timelines that keep them actively engaged?  Or are they under utilised? Keep a special eye out for when people are distastefully overloaded, particularly if this is the norm. This is where stress becomes severe, prolonged and unmanaged and contributes to poor psychological wellbeing.  Be open to renegotiating timelines and really listen if someone says they’re struggling with their workload.  Don’t brush it off purely because you’re not sure how to respond.  Reach out if you need help on what to do if your team member says they’re overloaded and you’re not sure how to respond.

6.  Invite your team to challenge your thinking.  You don’t want an echo chamber.
Beware the team that nods and says yes to everything you suggest.  Whilst this may feel really comfortable you need diverse perspectives around the table. Invite your team to challenge your thinking or be devil’s advocate.  Ask them to look at your idea from various perspectives.

7.  Promote inclusive behaviours in and out of your team and stamp out exclusive behaviours.
Inclusion is at the heart of a mentally healthy workplace and a high performing team.  Inclusion is the first stage when building psychological safety in teams.  Everyone has a need – and basic human right – to be included.  watch for signs of exclusive behaviours in your team and extinguish those behaviours.  Not only will morale improve but so will productivity.

These seven prompts are part of my Safe and Effective Leadership notepads that I give to participants during my psychological safety and psychosocial hazards workshops and in my leadership programs. 

They serve as a reminder of the simple ways we can build positive aspects of work and reduce the more intolerable demands that may exist for our people.

Choose one of these seven and focus on that for a week.  See what happens.

Then add another to it.  Small, incremental shifts over time create enormous change.

Let me know how you go – and if you’d like one of the notepads reach out and we’ll get some out to you.