Make It Safe (Episode 10)

Transcript

Hello, friend.

In a previous episode, we talked about how it was the leader, not the team, that made the most difference. You could have the same team with different leaders and get totally different results.

So today, we’re going to talk about one of the steps, one of the things you can do to build, as a leader, more high-performing teams, to build a culture that’s more productive and more engaged and so on.

 So what is that? What is one of the steps you can take?

One of the most important things you can do…

Well, one of the most important things you can do is to build a culture of safety, an environment of safety. And Simon Sinek talks about this in his books, at least some of his books, especially the Leaders Eat Last.

And in the book, what always kind of stuck with me was when he talked about how people were looking inward or outward from the company.

So for example, if people feel safe in your company, if they feel protected, supported by you, safe, they’re going to face outward, toward the world, toward, toward their customers, toward whatever they need to face outward toward to help the company reach its goals, to reach its mission.

However, when people don’t feel safe, when they feel like they have to protect themselves from inside, from the people inside, they don’t face outward, they face inward.

And because of that, they can’t face outward and deal with the problems from the outside. They’re not directly focusing on the customers and all the things in the world they need to focus on. They have to focus on protecting themselves.

And that’s dangerous for our company. That’s ineffective, that’s unproductive. It’s not good for the customers. It’s not good for the employees. It’s not good for you as a leader or for the company as a whole.

You want your people to feel safe, supported, protected, so they can face outward and face whatever problems come their way in regards with your business.

What makes employees feel unsafe

So here are some ways that people don’t feel safe. Here are some practices or actions or things that happen that make people not feel safe and feel like they have to face inward.

So one is a gotcha environment where people are about finding the wrong that their employees do. Oh, you did wrong, I’m going to get you. Oh, you’re going to get a write up. Oh, you’re going to get this.

You’re treating them in such a way that you’re just out to get them instead of supporting them. People fear making mistakes because of that because they don’t want to get gotten. People will also less likely take risks or innovate or do anything new because then if they make a mistake, they’re going to get gotten.

So people generally play it safe in those kind of environments and just try to get by doing what they know is safe, doing the work they know they can do. Things don’t progress like they should, people aren’t productive, the morale is lower, people are not engaged because of that fear of making mistakes, the gotcha environment.

Some companies, some people, some leaders, see people as cogs and machines as tools. And if you treat people that way, people know they’re going to be treated that way and that creates a disengagement.

When they just feel like tools, they don’t feel safe. They don’t feel like you’re out for them to help them, support them. They feel like you’re, again, just treating them as cogs and they can just easily be replaced. It doesn’t matter. They don’t matter to you.

Questions to ask yourself

So let me switch it up a second and I’m gonna be asking the rest of these kind of as questions toward you as a leader. So I guess going back a little bit…

• Do people fear making mistakes with you?
• Do they fear you’re gonna be out to get them?
• Do people feel like they’re cogs just in the machine for you?
• Do people feel disagreeing with you?
• Have you created an environment where disagreement is okay and it’s encouraged?
• Or do people fear disagreeing with you because you’re going to get angry at them or respond negatively or you don’t like it when anybody disagrees with your ideas as a leader?
• Do people feel safe speaking up?
• Do people feel talking to you about issues?
• Are they going to be afraid if they bring bad news to you, you’ll respond negatively to them?
• Or do you encourage that?
• If people fear bringing up problems kind of for the same thing, are they afraid to say, “Hey, this is going on” because of how you might respond or how you might lay blame on them or somebody else?

All those are negative actions that often happen in companies and businesses with managers and in all sorts of situations. So the question is, does it happen with you as a leader? Do you create that kind of environment where people don’t feel safe speaking up? They don’t feel safe disagreeing. They don’t feel safe making mistakes.

Or do you do the opposite? Do you encourage innovation? Do you encourage risk taking, which sometimes brings mistakes?

When we try new things, when we make experiments, when we take risks and try to improve and pursue innovations, ideas… mistakes are going to happen. That’s just part of learning. Do you encourage and support people through that and help them learn through it? Are you out to get them?

How to make it safe

So here are some things you can do, thinking of all that we’ve kind of talked about, to help make it safe.

Well, one, to really kind of open the door for people to disagree, to give feedback to yourself and to others, and to even accept your feedback more is to ask for feedback and criticism yourself.

Ask them how can you be better. What can you do differently? How can you support them? And sometimes people won’t want to say anything, but sometimes you just kind of have to press.

And when they do, don’t react negatively. Don’t argue with them, disagree, just say “thank you.” Think about it, but accept that feedback.

In meetings encourage dissent and disagreement. Encourage it, welcome it. People may at first not want to do that. They don’t feel safe. Help them feel safe.

If you present an idea, ask someone to argue against it. Say, “What could go wrong with this?” Get it to be a norm where people disagree, and it’s OK.

Encourage risk-taking, new ideas, innovations, mistakes that come with it. When people do make mistakes, don’t be out to get them, be out to support them and help them learn from it. When people make mistakes, show that support.

Ask for problems. Make sure when people bring you stuff, watch your reaction to it. Make sure that you actually really do care about your people, and that you’re there to support them, and you’re about helping them.

Remember, as a leader, your job is to serve them, to help them, and the team reach the goals of your team, your company, and so on. Be about helping and support them.

New Amsterdam

This kind of reminds me of the first episode of the show on Netflix, New Amsterdam. I think it’s on some other network, probably.

But it was really cool for me to see this on the new Amsterdam show, the first episode. The new hospital manager comes in and his whole mentality is, “How can I help you?”

And people didn’t want to speak up when he asked for solutions, “How can I help you?” Until one person did and he’s like, “Sure, let’s do it.” Another person did.

It may take some work on your part to get people to speak up, to share the ideas, to show disagreement and argue different viewpoints, to make them where they feel safe.

But the effort’s worth it.

Be about helping your team. How can I help? Be about supporting them. Make them feel safe in the environment so they can face outward to face the problems because they know you have their back and that you support them and you’re there for them.

In your company, on your team, no one should fear saying, “I made a mistake.” No one should fear saying, “I have a problem.” No one should fear saying, “I don’t know how to do this.”

I hope this helps. I’ll see you next time.