A chameleon in a forest of snakes: vulnerability without psychological safety
Photo by Luke Brugger on Unsplash
Vulnerability is a leadership superpower. It is the willingness to be exposed, admit what you don’t know and be brave in the face of potential criticism. It opens up meaningful connection, creativity and innovation. While in the ‘soft’ skills category, it is hard. So so hard: risking our deep rooted need to belong.
From the acorn of Brene Browns’ 2010 TED talk, it is has become a fully grown entry into jargon bingo. I even saw it in a recent job ad: ability to be vulnerable. Shipping news style, vulnerability loses its identity when it becomes performative, and when it is demanded solely at an individual level.
Because our ability to be vulnerable doesn’t exist outside the systems we inhabit. We can’t expect someone to operate with vulnerability without ensuring that conditions are safe to do so. We would be demanding a chameleon not change colour in a forest of snakes.
Our metaphorical chameleon needs psychological safety to stay in its naturally vulnerable state. Psychological safety, a term coined by Dr Amy Edmonson in the 90s, is an absence of interpersonal fear and an understanding that people will not be punished or humiliated if things go wrong.
Away from the rainforest, psychological safety describes an environment where people feel able to take risks, speak up and voice different opinions; a workplace where conflict is seen positively as a way to work through organisational issues but is not personal (Patrick Lecioni illustrates this brilliantly in his work on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team). It is not about being nice, lowering accountability or standards. It is about fostering creativity, healthy conflict, integrity and transparency.
In teams which lack psychological safety, the focus is on avoiding blame and mistakes at the expense of outcomes and openness. Things are hidden, performance is curated and much remains unsaid. Obvious friction may be absent but so too is diversity of thought, innovative solutions and willingness to try new things. Fear becomes the thought leader.
In reflecting on the dynamics of vulnerability and safety, I’d encourage you to watch Jodi Ann Burey’s dismantling of the myth of authenticity (which could stand for vulnerability), where she unpacks far better than I could do here the role of privilege, the misreading of assimilation for authenticity and the structural conditions - rather than individual responsibility - that genuine authenticity/ vulnerability requires.
Strategies to build psychological safety include:
promoting and rewarding self awareness as critical to high performance
providing multiple channels for staff to provide their views, showing how those views are considered
consciously adopting an organisational growth mindset so that mistakes are learning opportunities rather than failures (and this often takes some exposing vulnerability on the part of leaders to reset mindsets)
conscious decisions about who speaks in meetings and elsewhere, and how they are heard
disrupting hierarchies so the opinion of junior as well as more senior team members is sought and respected.
Some questions for reflection:
How does conflict show up in your organisation/ team?
Who feels able to speak up, and what happens to dissent?
What are the consequences of mistakes or error? How is risk dealt with?
What is your role in creating a psychologically safe environment?
What small step could you take to increase the psychological safety of your immediate team and colleagues?
