Encourage Your Brain: The Neuroscience Behind Psychological Safety & ICF Core Competency #3

Susan Britton with the Academies and a neurocoaching tip. Today we're talking about psychological safety. There's been a lot of discussion around that for the last number of years, certainly in coaching because it's one of the ICF core competencies, but in addition it's also made its way into all sorts of corporate organizational environments. Amy Edmondson is probably one of the most respected and known thought leaders around this concept of psychological safety, and she describes psychological safety as the shared belief that we can be honest, we can be vulnerable, we can ask stupid questions in a relationship and not have any fear about negative consequences as a result of that. We know that when we are in that space as a coach and we are in the blue zone, that place where we are cognitively and relationally fully functioning, we're not in a fight-flight state, we're in a flow state, that we're in a much better position to be able to create that psychological safety. If we're in the red zone, conversely, we know that we can feel a little bit anxious, a little bit nervous, perhaps maybe even a little negatively emotional, frustrated with the client, whatever it might be. That red zone is definitely not going to create the psychological safety that we need to have so that the client can come to us and be able to share with, with us places where they might feel vulnerable, places where they might feel like they want to be able to ask stupid questions. So it's important to recognize that in creating agreements that have this sense of psychological safety, that there are actually kind of two components of that. There's a what component and a how component. So I'll start with the what. The what is that the coach conveys that they understand that whatever the client is bringing to the session may feel vulnerable, and the client can trust that there will be no negative consequences for revealing mistakes or missteps or insecurities insecurities, or other sensitive concerns that they might have. We know certainly that there are some caveats around that as it relates to ethics, but in general, this exploration of topics that are vulnerable or uncertain will often lead to breakthroughs that the client can have. If we stay on the surface and we talk about things that are safe, it's quite unlikely that the client is going to have the breakthrough that is going to be most valuable for them. The other component is the how of creating relationships, or excuse me, creating agreements in that process. So we talked about the what, which is the topic, and then the how is that the coach gives the client space and direction within the coaching conversation. We bring this respect and a nonjudgmental support to the client and give them the ability to navigate the conversation in a way that they want to, how they want to approach the conversation that might be vulnerable, that might be uncertain, that might be sensitive. So when we combine that what and the how together in that sense of psychological safety, you're going to get below the surface. You're going to talk about things that might not normally be brought up in normal conversations with friends or coworkers, and that's where we can really bring the depth of an understanding of how the brain and the body really can be on board and contribute to clients having success in that process of coaching.