The biggest asset of any company is People. Their Employees, but also their Customers or Suppliers, always People – always interpersonal relationships. As such, I would say that it’s relatively easy, and right, to say that the success of companies depends on, and is based on People, on relationships with each other. Says Richard Branson, with enough property, that “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your Employees, they will take care of the Clients.”. Emotional capital, i.e. “the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment in the hearts of everyone connected with the business”, as Martyn Newman writes, is, so, the most important asset in organizations today.
So, if this is what happens, what should the focus of Leadership be? That’s right, People!
The question that arises, which I ask you, is this: which of us would rather be criticized than praised? Which one of us would rather participate in tense, aggressive and even threatening conversations than in meetings or conversations where the tone is positive, calm and quiet? Which one of us feels better after something negative than after something considered positive? I help answer: no one! And which of us, in a work logic and organizational sphere, after which of the circumstances mentioned feel more motivated, committed or available? Exactly, that’s the answer!
Psychological Safety (PS) conception emerged in last century’s mid. Investigation shown that PS has direct influence on work performance and that organizational support, safety climate, and performance are indubitably related – decisively influences work engagement, affects business risks and begins to be increasingly identified as one of the most relevant contributions to Team’s success.
Amy Edmondson, one of the biggest experts on Leadership and Organizational Learning, defines PS in her book “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth” as “… a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking – belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.”.
In this work she develops what PS is, why it’s so vital for organizations and what we can do to strengthen it. The key is to create an environment where people are comfortable expressing and being themselves, without any fear of embarrassment or reprisal. Psychological Security has 4 basic pillars:
- expressing oneself;
- interacting;
- learning;
- belonging;
Edmondson took some examples and case studies to explore this content, and to warn leaders.
The biggest one is “Project Aristotle” by Google, which after an analysis of its teams, came to the conclusion that PS was crucial for achieving better business results, due to the perceived security and greater communication among each other. The Project revealed 5 determinant keys for successful teams: 1) psychological safety, 2) dependability, 3) structure and clarity, 4) meaning of work, and 5) impact of work.
Team PS (TPS) – as Edmondson pinpointed – is the engine for organizations top performances. Describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves – admitting mistakes or pointing out other team member’s mistakes.
Recently Gallup revealed that, with PS “…organizations can achieve 27% reduction in turnover, 40% reduction in security incidents and 12% increase in productivity.” With Organizational Culture is what better motivate and retain talent. Great teams are not product of great workplaces, but great workplaces are product of great teams.
I confess this issue has always made me very confused. If all of us, without exception, whether personal or professionally, like more of what’s positive than what’s negative, why in Leadership the great majority of “leaders” continues to insist on the negative side – to the detriment of the positive. If it’s clear to everyone that praise, appreciation, more calm and serene conversation (although, of course, with situations to point out and correct) has a much more positive impact on employees, gives rise to much more significant outputs, enhances individual capacity, and consequently also the collective force, why leaders continue to privilege the “whip”, intimidation, the reign of fear? Why? Even what’s “negative”, which has to be corrected and needs attention, can be treated and worked positively – it “costs” the same. If people do more, better, with increased availability, when the surroundings are positive, what’s the reason for following the negative path – in which people end up being, or staying, conditioned, demotivated, working on embers, afraid of not fulfilling their tasks and objectives, and where everything is nothing more than an obligation, and whose tendency to go wrong increases widely? They end up having as an almost exclusive concern the accomplishment of the task by simply performing the task, and not for any other reason – what matters, in these cases, is to keep the whip pointed to someone else. Everything is momentary, immediate, to “dispatch” – no longer lasting bond is assured. This lack of empathy generates aggression, detachment and disinterest.
In the short run this “law” ends up working – however it doesn’t lasts long, and the collateral damages are severe. In the long term, will this then be a strategy and modus operandi that interests some organization? I don’t think so…
Trust is contagious, but the lack of it too – in organizational relations that’s evident. There’s a proven link, and contagion effect, between positive attitudes/feelings with positive results too – the same happens in the opposite direction, relatively to negative phenomena.
Let us not forget that we’re human beings, and as such we are emotional beings – we live from, for and with emotions.
Bad news often have a greater impact than good ones, and often draws more attention too – negative events have a greater impact on our brain. We call this “The negative bias” – also known as tendency of negativity or positive-negative asymmetry. Negative bias can have a great effect on our behaviors, decisions and relationships. Implicit to this phenomenon is the notion that, even in equal intensity, things of a more negative nature have a greater effect, on the state and psychological processes, than neutral or positive things. It’s also our (natural) tendency either to register negative incitements more readily or to persist in them. This is an evolutionary heritage – it was once a question of survival. This also means, in practical terms, that we feel the pain and weight of a lecture more powerfully than we feel the satisfaction of a compliment. In almost all interactions, we’re more likely to notice negative things, and later we’ll remember them more clearly. This tendency towards the negative leads us to pay much more attention to the bad things that happen, making them, commonly, seem much more important than they really are. Negative thoughts are linked to depression, anxiety at work, while positive thinking is associated with better performance and mood improvements. Therefore, positive states, attitudes and relationships are urgent.
In “Inner Work Life: Understanding the Subtext of Business Performance” Teresa Amabile settled that “… at least in the realm of knowledge work, people are more creative and productive when their inner work lives are positive – when they feel happy, are intrinsically motivated by the work itself, and have positive perceptions of their colleagues and the organization (…) people are more committed to the work and more collegial toward those around them.“. She concluded that person’s Inner work life quality (emotions, perceptions, motivations) is the central driver of creative, committed and productive performance.
She also found that the sense of being able to make progress in workplace – simply making progress on meaningful work – is, here, the single most important differentiator, and contributor. As simple as that – although, as we know, not as simple as it should be in reality.
Great Inner work life so consists in consistently have and feel positive emotions, be guide by strong motivation and auspicious perceptions of the organization, work and colleagues.
At this point it’s also necessary to introduce the Flow. Flow it’s the supreme performance state, a mental state in which the person who carries out an activity is totally plunged in an optimized concentration feeling, total involvement, commitment and fulfillment. Organizations should worry more in assuring that everything Flow (29 Leadership skills that enable the creation and maintenance of an organizational culture). The idea is help creating a Flow-promoting work environment – allowing leaders helping their colleagues reach their own Flow-state and raising the performance of the organization.
Another variable we need to consider to better and positive wellbeing at work is Emotional Salary. Are all non-financial advantages we obtain from working that impact our motivation, change our perception of work and lead us to better personal and professional performance. Reaching emotional balance between life and work is the goal. It’s something intangible, because different for each individual. For some, the most important aspect of working may be the opportunity to socialize and make friends at work, whilst for others, the most important can be having the opportunity to become an expert in their chosen field or maximize their creativity or other ways of intervention. On this, each one has “his price”, and nowadays this parcel of our total wage is increasingly important and decisive – to capture and retain talented workforce, mainly.
So, PS has to be with positivity and most with working freedomness – allows to unleash not 100 but 200% of our capacity (only if and when we feel free we are able to boost our strengths). And freedom is the ability to act on oneself, is self-determination, independence, autonomy and free will (autonomous capacity for choice), not anything else. Has to be with positive thinking – be ok with failure, celebrate small wins, optimism, self-care.
“When everyone is equal it’s the mentality that makes the difference and defines performance.” – Tom Bates (performance psychologist).
Publicado no site/blog da Apricot Corporate Mental Health, Junho 2021