Leadership Book Review Blog: The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

Author: Timothy R. Clark

Think of a time when you felt dismissed, passed over, judged, cut off, embarrassed, or ridiculed. What did that feel like? How did it impact your ability to contribute?

Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild explains that these are not neutral events. They are demoralizing and they activate the pain centers of the brain. They impact our confidence and sometimes the fear of these events can be more debilitating than the event itself. How we feel very much influences what we think and do.

Now, think about a time when you made someone else feel this way. Chances are, you may not even know you did because the likelihood someone will step up and tell you is slim, especially if you are in a leadership role.

At one point in my career, I had a supervisor on my team who demonstrated high empathy and emotional intelligence. We balanced each other well because my brain worked in more of a logical, process-driven way. We were such a great team, she asked me to help coach her daughter’s softball team and we became friends outside of work too. One day at work, I commented on how much she coddled her children. A few days later, she approached me and told me that she didn’t appreciate me making such comments at work and that it was hurtful to her. I could tell it wasn’t easy for her to bring this up and challenge her boss in such a way. I was taken aback. Primarily because I never meant to offend anyone on my team, but also because I was impressed with her strength to bring up that hard topic.  I thanked her profusely and ensured her that I would be more mindful of my comments about family in the workplace.

Leaders, we don’t always get it right. However, if we create a safe environment, our team will let us know when we are getting it wrong. Not only will they challenge behavior that doesn’t align with core values, but they will challenge processes, policies, and product ideas to create a rich culture of inclusion and innovation.

In this book, Timothy R. Clark describes four steps to achieving psychological safety.  Much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you need to achieve level one before you can create level two, and so on.   The four levels described are:

Inclusion Safety, simply put, is acceptance.  We accept you for who you are.

Learner Safety is our ability to engage in all aspects of the learning process without fear of being rejected or neglected.

Contributor Safety is the point when you’ve demonstrated competence and your leader gives you the “go-ahead” to contribute with autonomy.

Challenger Safety is providing cover for candor by encouraging your team to challenge the status quo and ensuring they know you have their backs.

If your team agrees with everything you say, they only give you positive feedback, they do just enough to get by, or they have been caught saying, “I just do what I am told,” these are signs that the team lacks psychological safety. Your job is to find out where the breakdown is happening and correct it. This will be hard to do on your own and you’ll likely need someone else to facilitate the process. This could be your boss, HR, or depending on the structure of your organization, an outside consultant.

Reading this book could be a great start to your journey. The in-depth breakdown of each level is insightful and thought-provoking. If you lead a team, this book should certainly be on your shelf.