Reinforcing positive behaviours highlights achievements more than failures by avoiding premature blaming and criticism, writes Rishi Kapal in his book, Managing large teams: Ogvercoming Skip-Level Frictions & Executive Isolation. An edited excerpt
Psychological safety in the workplace is felt when managers and peers do not penalize a person or think they are not good enough, just because of a mistake made by them. In an environment that is considered psychologically safe, people don’t mock others or appear as showstoppers, creating hurdles for the ones asking for help, feedback or information, to slow them down. In a safe culture, asking questions without a fear of retribution is acceptable and welcomed, which leads to confident teams that can take risks for a better future of the company.
In today’s world, driven by technology and uncertainty, a major part of organizations’ success depends a psychologically safe atmosphere, ensured by the managerial personnel. It is important for managers to create a culture of psychological safety for their teams.
When beginning to develop and manage large teams, the leaders must be able to foster open communication and conversations that can promote mutual engagement and enhance levels of cognitive safety in the organization at large.
In the absence of the culture of questioning and cognitive resilience, employees tend to consider peer and managerial pressure to be more than a transactional issue at work. They start viewing these situations as a threat to their position at the company. In turn the team starts to focus on the negative consequences of not obeying their managers. This results in lack of creative thought, as the employees are fearful of developing thinking practices of innovation and bringing new ideas on the table.
As the team starts to grow in number, it is important to develop a culture that looks beyond competence of the team members. The managers need to buckle up and put robust practices in place including regular feedback, development of effective relations, setting a proper incentive structure and development of a supportive work environment. Without these elements, the teams tend to lack the attitude for high performance and collaboration. A positive mental and emotional state psyche is conducive to developing trust and a sense of belonging in the organization. The role of managers at this juncture is to inspire the teams to be resilient and motivated.
While CXOs and venture founders develop the strategy and direction of the company, the groundwork has to be done by the skip and subordinate managers. Team members look up to their immediate and skip managers rather than the CXOs for psychological and cognitive security. When the teams feel that their managers have made the workplace psychologically safe, it leads to better collaboration and performance. Such a culture is not just good for business but also good for the employee’s health and morale.
Embracing Vulnerabilities
Managers must be open minded to acknowledge there are some tasks or situations that may not make the team members feel engaged or comfortable. In such conditions, the team members may not voice out concerns and/or share new thoughts. By understanding the way to build trust withing teams, managers can proactively address the issues that trigger fear in the employees and can pave the way for a more trust-oriented and collaborative work environment. Managers must establish forums where teams can feel comfortable to talk about difficult situations, without worrying about any consequences.
Managers must put technology to use for anonymous and genuine employee feedback. It is a good strategy that can help managers understand where the team stands in level of engagement and passion for their work and workplace. The data collected from the employee feedback can be quickly analysed to get valuable insights. However, most team members believe that employee feedback is only an annual formality, which will not lead to any action taken by the company. Hence, managers should take the initiative to organize regular pulse checks that can reveal the reasons, if any, for cracks in engagement for the employees. It can help the managers pinpoint pain-issues and develop an action plan for improvement.
Establishing a culture of trust between the teams and various managerial levels stems from the ability to practice mutual respect by not always blaming others for things going wrong but also introspecting about one’s own actions. It is a common understanding that people working with each other have a need for social acceptance and inclusion as much as respect for their competence and validation of their abilities. The managers and subordinates should be able to ask and give open feedback in a non-defensive manner, enabling positive reinforcement to reaffirm what is going well and take preventive measures to avoid any future negative impact, which can be overcome by transparent feedback. A model of openness is important across all tiers of the organization in order to build trustworthy relationships at the workplace.
The next element to demonstrate authenticity, vulnerability and credibility at the workplace is to embrace conflict. Every difference of opinion does not have to carry a negative undertone. Any conflict between teams and managers must be accepted as a part of the way things are conducted between peers. By embracing conflict, the leaders and managers get a chance to deepen their understanding of people, express empathy and figure out necessary interventions by actively listening to them. This approach leads to an acceptable and executable win-win outcome.
Reinforcing positive behaviours highlights achievements more than failures by avoiding premature blaming and criticism. Often managers are not able to view problematic behaviours objectively. They tend to focus more on the drama in the situation rather than the facts and issues that need solutions. Not too long ago, managers used to ask employees to leave their personal problems at home. However, today in the age of the millennials, the managers encourage the teams to share personal challenges and also help them figure out ways to combat them. Today, managers are quite receptive and want their executives to share aspects of their personal lives, if that can make them more effective at work. Imagine a situation where a manager is having a team meeting and the details of the data to be discussed have been shared beforehand. If the data shows the business of the manager’s division is declining, he and the team are quite vulnerable. So rather than defending the reasons for the business to have declined and pulling away a motivated team, it’s better for the managers to accept being vulnerable, expose their weakness and share the challenge to recover the business and in-turn the team’s reputation. Being vulnerable in the workplace can lead to more trust, transparency and respect.
(An excerpt from Managing Large Teams: Overcoming Skip Level Frictions and Executive Isolation by Rishi Kapal, published by SAGE Publications India)
