In our recent post on Team Trust, we talked about the importance of creating a culture of psychological safety and trust with your teams.
In that post, we discussed how you might do this, using our definition of leadership: Leadership is the willingness to influence your world and the willingness to be influenced by your world, regardless of role or title.
To further support you, we’re sharing some scripting examples for various situations.
When work challenges arise, we understand it can be difficult to Pause and take a breath. Yet, when you can do this, you’ll be more effective at looking for new possibilities together.
Examples:
“Given the challenges that we’re facing, let’s brainstorm new ways to still get this work done in a way that we all feel good about.”
“There are many unknowns/things are changing fast/this is complex stuff…so we will make mistakes. The goal is to learn from those mistakes and move forward together.”
When emotions flare, it’s more important than ever to help the team pause by reminding them that you’re in it together and encouraging them to approach the discussion with curiosity and respect.
Example:
“Okay, I know we have some strong opinions and I’d like everyone to take a moment to pause. Our goal here is to have a good conversation that’s informative and advances our understanding of the topic.” You may also want to repeat the goal or reason for the meeting here as well.
If tension is too high, pausing may require a literal break to deal with the high emotions offline, and then reconvene the meeting to do the work.
When you want feedback and the team isn’t giving you their input, it’s can be helpful to provide a framework to get the conversation going.
Example:
“I’d like to hear what each of you think about this idea. Let’s all take a few minutes to make notes about these three questions: What are the benefits of this idea? What concerns do you have about this idea? What suggestions do you have to make this idea successful?”
When you recognize that some people need your support, it’s important to check in with them to see how they’re doing.
Example:
“I’m sorry that you’re struggling, and I really appreciate you bringing this to me. I’m sure it wasn’t easy. What would support from me look like? What would support from the team look like?”
We’ve certainly had people question whether or not it’s really worth it to spend efforts on “the people stuff”. Our answer? While culture work may seem daunting at first, it’s a must-have for true success!
We love this quote about it by Brené Brown,
“Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time
attending to fears and feelings,
or squander an unreasonable amount of time
trying to manage ineffective
and unproductive behavior.”
The teams that have created a culture where people feel they belong, are some of the most productive, motivated, and engaged.
As you look through these suggestions, consider how you might create a culture of psychological safety and team trust. What would you need to do to contribute to a foundation of trust and safety?
If you’d like support
creating a foundation of trust,
contact us today.