What a Trusting Team Feels Like | Simon Sinek

Basically, when I talk about building psychological safety on a team, what that means is leaders create an environment which the people working in the company, the people on a team, feel safe enough to raise their hand and say, I made a mistake or I don't understand what I'm doing, or I'm struggling at home and it's affecting my work, or I'm scared or I need help without any fear of humiliation or retribution. In fact, they can say these things with absolute confidence that their boss or their co workers will rush to support them. That's what a trusting team feels like. We've all been on one before. We also all know what it feels like not to be on a trusting team where we would never admit mistakes for fear of humiliation or getting in trouble. We're never going to say, I don't understand something. We're not going to admit we're scared. We're not going to tell anybody that we're struggling at home. It's affecting our work. And we're definitely not asking for help because these things make us vulnerable or weak. And it might put us on a short list for the next round of layoffs or worse, my boss, it might hurt my career chances. I won't get promoted because I've said I don't understand something. So we keep quiet. Might work in the short term, but over the course of time, a company where no employee ever admits mistakes or worse, they hide their mistakes. Eventually those cracks grow and grow and grow and cause great damage to the organization and its ability to succeed. So this is a leader's responsibility. It's a leader's responsibility to create an environment in which people feel psychologically safe. And if somebody makes a mistake, we can help them fix it. As Alan Mullally used to talk about when he took over Ford Motor Company, you are not the problem. You have a problem. And if you can tell me the problem, we can all rally together to help you fix it.