Why psychological safety training for leaders is a valuable insurance policy.
I recently attended the British Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Forum, where an expert panel shared fascinating insights about workplace psychological safety. However, it was an audience contribution that really got me thinking. They pointed out that it is common to see office signs and posters encouraging people to stay physically safe, but not psychologically safe.
It took me back to my first job in industry where signs about physical safety were common. Hired as a corrosion engineer, my simple mission was ‘to keep the hydrocarbons in the pipe’ to prevent pollution and accidents. It is difficult to know if you are investing enough for two reasons:
- Firstly, corrosion is slow. It is different from marketing and sales, where a change in marketing quickly impacts sales. Instead, the gap between stopping a crucial corrosion protection activity and a hole in the pipe could be five to ten years. Who can remember all their decisions from a decade ago?
- Secondly, there is no signal if you are spending too much. Spending the optimal amount, and a single Euro more, results in… absolutely nothing happening. Overspending results in… absolutely nothing happening. But it really matters if you get it wrong. You can damage the environment. People can get hurt. People can die. With consequences like these, companies in hazardous industries have learned that investing to keep hydrocarbons in the pipe is an insurance policy that makes business sense, and is also just the right thing to do.
After the leadership forum, I realised these characteristics of industrial safety also apply to psychological safety.
- You don’t get instant feedback if your organisation is not psychologically safe. It takes time for a worker to be driven to frustration then secure a different job. You only find out when they hand in their resignation months after the environment became unsafe. You may only identify the real problem after many people have left.
- A psychologically unsafe workplace has consequences more serious than employees leaving. The cost of mental health problems was estimated as 4% of GDP across the EU before the pandemic, and likely increased since[1]. Beyond the statistics, the reality is stress-induced sleep and concentration problems. Sufferers may struggle to focus on their loved ones and give their children the care and attention they deserve. Training managers and leaders to maintain a psychologically safe environment is an insurance policy that makes business sense, and is also just the right thing to do.
To help companies with this challenge, we are launching a new Executive Education course at the Luxembourg School of Business – Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety and Trust. Delivered by Mirna Koričan Lajtman, PhD , this course for leaders complements her popular offering for individuals – Mental Health and Resilience.
