Want to Build Psychological Safety? Do these Five Things in Your 1:1s
Ensuring the Psychological Safety of your employees is key to excelling as a manager in today’s world. An employee feels psychologically safe when they are able to speak their mind, challenge the norm, ask for help, and make mistakes without the fear of being reprimanded.
Teams with strong psychological safety perform better in many ways. They can:
Challenge the status quo
Take risks
Be vulnerable
Contribute to innovative solutions
And bring their authentic selves to work
In 1:1 meetings, you get the opportunity to check in with your employees on a more personal level. Here’s are five things you can do in your 1:1s to improve your team’s psychological safety:
1. Take some time to really listen
In the rush of back-to-back meetings and tasks, try to section out a portion of your 1:1 to ask your employee about how things are going for them. This doesn’t have to be work-related. Just giving them your full attention and listening actively is enough to give them a chance to be heard. Be sure to show genuine interest and absorb the information they share with you. If they need clarification on something, this is a good chance to provide it.
2. Ask for ways that you can support them
It’s as simple as “What can I do to better support you?”. This applies to the workplace and beyond - because people don’t stop being themselves after they enter the workplace. Make sure to ask about what’s blocking them at work and in general. This is also a great way to find out if they need any accommodations - e.g. accessibility tech, caregiving-work balance etc. Giving them the flexibility, fair accommodations, or listening ear that they need is essential to cultivating strong psychological safety.
3. Give them an opportunity for autonomy
Autonomy is key to job satisfaction - this is a fact. 1:1s are often used to delegate tasks, but they’re also the perfect time to give your employees some of their own decision-making power. This could mean giving them a chance to set some of their own goals, decide on some next steps according to the feedback they received, or come up with tasks to complete that meet their capacity. Giving them autonomy shows that you trust their judgement and work.
4. Approach the meeting with transparency
Employees like to be kept in the loop. No one wants large issues or projects to be sprung up on them out of nowhere. Try to keep your employees well-informed and be clear about your expectations. It comes full circle too. If you’re transparent to them, they will be more likely to be transparent to you.
📝 Tip: Write things down! Write down what you discussed in each meeting so that you can both be on the same page for the next one. You can keep track of what you’ve informed them of, as well as any particular challenges they're experiencing.
5. Ask for feedback
Collect feedback about how you hold your 1:1s or even your leadership style in general. Employees will see that you’re interested in listening and improving, and you’ll get deeper insight on what you can build on. Getting real feedback can be tricky though, because of the pressure employees feel to agree with their manager. Our resource on How to Invite Real, Honest Feedback from your Direct Reports can help with this.
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Along with these tips, it helps to have other important features at your workplace. Comprehensive benefits, fair pay, fair treatment, an inclusive team environment, and flexibility are just a few examples. Having these in conjunction with a system of supportive 1:1s with your team will elevate the psychological safety of your employees.
For general ways to improve your meetings to fit a team with diverse social preferences, here’s our resource on 5 Ways to Make Your Meetings More Introvert-Friendly.