Psychological Safety: What It Is and How You Create It

“The most important thing a captain can do is to see the ship from the eyes of the crew.”

D. Michael Abrashoff

Silence in a team meeting isn’t agreement. It’s information. And what it usually tells you is that your team doesn’t feel safe enough to say what they actually think.

That’s a problem. And most new leaders don’t realize they’re causing it.

A Moment Worth Paying Attention To

Following my retirement from active duty, I ran into a fellow pilot who had come to my last unit as a young pilot. We talked a bit over some frosty beverages, and when we both had to depart, he said, “It was great seeing you. I am glad you have changed so much.  All the young guys hated flying with you because you were so hard on us. I would not say a thing, for fear you would ask some question I did not know.” 

This hit me like a brick.

I knew I was hard on guys…it was the nature and culture of that unit.  I did not know how my attempts to “strongly encourage” and develop young guys were actually undermining the essential open communication necessary in Special Operations Aviation to ensure safety and mission success.  I was the stumbling block, because I did not care as much about psychological safety as I did about maintaining the cultural status quo and demonstrating my expertise.  It was hard to hear this, but life changing for me and my approach to leadership.

What Psychological Safety Actually Is

Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School has spent decades studying this. Her definition is deceptively simple: psychological safety is the shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. In short, it’s the belief that speaking up won’t cost you.

Psychological Safety is very different from just being comfortable. A team can feel psychologically safe and still have challenging conversations, high standards, and real accountability. Safety does not equate to softness. Psychological Safety is the foundation that makes all of that actually work.

What Google Found

In 2012, Google launched Project Aristotle. It was an internal study aimed at figuring out what made their highest-performing teams different. They looked at everything regarding team leadership and operations: talent, experience, seniority, personality types. None of it predicted success reliably.

The one factor that did in every case was psychological safety. The teams where people felt safe to speak up, admit mistakes, and ask questions consistently outperformed those that didn't. Google had access to some of the most talented people in the world, and what determined their performance was whether those people felt safe to use their voices.

What It Looks Like When Safety Is Missing

We have all seen it... Silence when you ask for input. Team members who figure things out for themselves rather than asking questions. Mistakes that get hidden or minimized. Nobody pushes back on a bad idea, especially yours.

Edmondson’s research found something worth chewing on: she noted that the best-performing medical teams reported more errors than average-performing teams, not fewer. It was not that they were making more mistakes; they were just talking about them. That willingness to surface problems only exists when people believe it's safe to do so.

How You Build It (and How You Destroy It)

The behaviors that build psychological safety are small, consistent daily habits. How you respond when someone brings you bad news. What do you do when someone makes a mistake in front of the team? Whether you genuinely welcome a question or whether your face says otherwise.

What destroys it happens fast. One bad reaction to a mistake. One moment of public embarrassment. One time, you punished the messenger. Your team notices. And they adjust their behavior accordingly. Remember, your words as a leader are like a bullet from a gun; once you pull the trigger, you cannot take the bullet back, and any damage will leave scars.

You can’t improve what you don’t see. So start by looking at yourself.

This Week’s Challenge

Think about the last time someone on your team made a mistake. Write down exactly what you said and did. Not what you meant to say… what you actually did say.

Ask yourself: what message did that send about what happens when things go wrong on this team?

If you’re not sure, ask someone. That conversation alone is an act of psychological safety.

Reflection

When did someone on your team last disagree with you out loud?

How do you typically respond when someone admits a mistake?

What would your team say if you asked them how safe it feels to speak up?

Lace up your Boots and Go Lead

You’ve Got This.