Why should you need a hard hat in the office?

Psychological safety is something that people have been talking about much more these days as part of developing an effective team.

But how do you create a culture where there's no need to take a metaphorical hard hat to every meeting?

Essentially, it starts with a foundation of trust, but I don't mean trust about the quality or timeliness of someone's work.

This is vulnerability-based trust, where everyone puts this team's objectives above their own. No personal agendas, no grandstanding, no power grabs.

Crucially, as the name suggests, it needs everyone on the team, including the boss, to be vulnerable:

- to accept they personally don't know everything, and

- to value the fresh insight and perspective that others bring, even if it's totally different from their own.

When you trust your colleagues like this, it allows the best ideas to surface and helps you avoid becoming personal or taking things personally. When different and diverse ideas are robustly discussed in an atmosphere of vulnerability-based trust, that's when the best decisions can be made.

As my clients also find, it also stops meetings being boring and makes them much more productive. And no need for a psychological hard hat, either!

#leadership #team #leadershipcoaching #executivecoaching #trust #psychologicalsafety #teamcoaching