How can Leaders create an emotionally safe workplace!

Trust is the most important element of any relationship. It is said to be the glue that binds people in a relationship. This is no different when the context is of a workplace where people come together and work for a common goal. Therefore Trust in the leadership can go a long way in building a positive and a productive workplace. While lack of trust in the leadership results in? the following

1. Low morale among the employees-
2. High attrition
3. Disintegrated team
4. A negative work environment?
5. Lack of belongingness to the workplace among team members.?
6. Lack of enthusiasm in the group goals.
7. Lack of consistency in performance by the employees

A Leader can foster a trustable environment when he ensures certain fundamental aspects form its pillars. They become the foundation on which the business operates. These fundamental aspects are:

1)?Design an environment where interaction is direct:?

A Leader should foster a trust-worthy environment where an expectation from an employee is communicated directly and no cross-talk takes places in the team. Any form of gossip about the employee by another should not be accepted. Months of efforts taken to build rapport can go down the drain?when an employee learns about a cross discussion regarding him, which is negative, not in his awareness and for which no efforts were made to communicate?to him directly.

2) Approachability:

A safe space is fostered when an employee feels comfortable and confident in approaching his Leaders. He should not only feel safe to talk about his achievements and when the going is great but also when he is vulnerable.. An employee should be made to feel comfortable to open up about the vulnerabilities he has whether it has to do about his personal life and is impacting his work, his mental health, his emotional states, the concerns about his career or specific workplace issues, the feedback about the leadership policies, actions or the mistakes he made. . An employee should be made to feel safe in sharing the information. Trust gets built when he?can confide in his leadership and safely treat that space as the 'Go To' place for sharing his concerns without inhibitions.?

3) Non-Judgment and use of information:

A welcoming policy and demonstration of a neutral position, to opinions, ideas and to the diversity of background that employees come from, help to elicit the best out of the employees and earns their trust. 'No judgement' means looking at things without adding personal meaning, assumptions to it and looking at things from communicator's frame of reference, not from the Leader's frame of reference. Calibrating the communication to genuinely seek and understand what the employee shares, chunking it down to specific points when it is generic and chunking it up to understand the larger picture of what need is the employee referring to and how the problem has emerged, and connecting them to the relevance of the matter are the necessary skills that leadership should develop to?make an uplifting and meaningful interpretation of communication rather than personal inferences and viewing it from their model of the situation. The response from the communicatee should not be subjected to trivializing, magnifying or generalizing the issue, mindread. The information shared should be used to obtain elements which can be channelized towards meaningful direction. ?

4) Sandwich Feedback:

A True Leader acknowledges that beliefs and behavior are distinct from the person. Beliefs can be refined, restructured; uplifting beliefs and behavior can be developed by anyone by being mindful and practicing.? A Leader understands that behavior is?not permanent and certainly does not mix up the person with his behavior.

The most impactful and constructive feedback begins by acknowledging and giving credit to the contribution the person has made. It is followed by bringing focus on the specifics of areas of improvement and third element of the feedback ought to demonstrate trust in the employee's commitment and making way for the employee to come up with and get on the journey of?specific actions to progress towards?the?desired outcome. The Trust earned by showing confidence in the employee's commitment along with supporting him in that journey begets positivity?and builds a loyal workforce.?

Acknowledgement of contribution should go beyond the scope of work?. The Leadership can foster an environment where the qualities and attitude that an employee carries, which contributes to a positive workplace could be appreciated. When appreciated, it automatically gets the recognition and is picked up by?the rest of the people for modelling the same behavior. Some Companies have the?system of 'Value Cards' which is given by one employee to another?by?recognizing and celebrating the quality he has. This promotes camaraderie and mutual trust among the team members.?And a place where the person is treated for being him and not only as a resource. Therefore, the recognition is not only from the Leader to the employee but from all the people that he interacts with.

5)?Tying the team in togetherness:

Being together in taking credit for success and?responsibility for failure?of the team efforts go a long way in building a positive and a progressive environment. 'We successfully completed', 'we did it'??and 'We won, ' We did not do?it'?'We could not do it yet' - statements as these show shared responsibility for success and failure. Therefore, any individual team member's success does not become more important than the team's success. Likewise, an individual failure would also mean team failure. With such a value strongly built in the environment, mutual co-operation and uplifting each other towards common goals is a natural occurrence. ?

The sense of belongness that is hence fostered, leads to synergy where 2+2 is not 4 but beyond that. The collective strength and attributes they bring surpasses their cumulative strength.

6) Respect:

An environment which operates from a place of mutual respect is fundamental to building a progressive, happy workplace. Respect should be accorded to the team members unconditionally. Respect is extended to employees even if there is difference of opinion, disagreement to ideas, time of the employee, the feedback the employee shares and?irrespective of the background he comes from.?

7)?Belief in the intention of employees to take ownership:

Belief in the potential of employees to take ownership along with the necessary addition of guidance and review for?course correction is very crucial. No employee needs to be fixed. A Leader interested in building a safe space goes with an assumption that the employee has true?intentions to lead the course of his journey and gives him necessary nudge. He does not control every and micro-level actions of the employee.?

8) Caring to Listen:

Effective Leaders understand that trust is built when they listen genuinely and not by advising.?More often than not, giving an advice leads to adhering to the advisor either to conform because he is an authority figure or ends up in borrowing advisor's brain and creating dependence. On the other extreme ,when it is followed and fails, it leads to defensive behavior and shifting of responsibility of failure to the advisor.?

Leaders genuinely listen to understand the frame of reference of the communicator. And play the role of catalysts in eliciting the empowering beliefs, resourcefulness and course of actions that their team members can take and do not advise. Thereby enabling the team member to own the insights and actions he comes up with.?The biggest advantage of this is the employee grows.

9) Genuine Interest:

Trust is built through communication. Communication does not take place only when things are expressed. When people come together, they communicate in verbal and non-verbal ways, even when they don't actively communicate. People communicate through auditory, visual, sensory modes which are primary modes of communication.

Taking interest to build rapport through eye contact, use of amicable and matching tone, the words used, gestures that demonstrate inclusion and acceptance, understanding the personality type of the employees- mirroring it, taking them into confidence by maintaining confidentiality and sharing the information got through conversations only within the framework of company's policy, giving introverts and extroverts similar opportunities to harness their strengths and to work on areas of improvement, will certainly boost the trust in the leadership.

If there is anything else that has worked in building a?emotionally and psychologically healthy workplace in your Organization, do share in the comments.?

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