Can Effective Feedback and a Psychologically Safe Environment Coexist?

    

The employee made another bad mistake on an assignment. The manager, who believes she hasPsychological-Safety-feedback been patient, understanding, and nurturing in previous feedback and coaching sessions prepared for another GROW coaching dialogue by listing all the facts of the situation and listing out the different potential “ways forward” in solving the problems related to solving the continued mistakes.

The coaching dialogue didn’t go well. The employee felt that the manager is picking on her and blowing a little mistake out of the water. The employee also felt that the manager’s plan forward of going to a remedial training program was insulting and unnecessary. Several days later the employee filed a complaint with Human Resources claiming that the manager was creating an “unpsychologically safe environment” that was impacting her mental health and ability to perform her duties. The manager was shaken to her core and told the HR Business Partner that all she was doing was following the best practices of providing coaching and feedback in a fair and positive way.

This story, shared with me during a virtual leadership development training session last week, is something that happens millions of times a day and raises an important business question, “Can giving effective feedback and creating an environment of psychological safety coexist?”

Over the past year, Advantexe has designed, developed, and deployed new leadership development business simulations in the areas of Coaching & Feedback and Creating an Environment of Psychological Safety. One of the things we did early on was to make sure that the two topics were not mutually exclusive meaning that one cannot work without the other.

Based on the work that we have done, I wanted to share three key learnings that you can use to make sure your coaching approach is not impacting psychological safety:

Be consistent

Being consistent in your approach to leadership is critical. Understanding that every situation is different, and there are great models out there like Blanchard’s Situational Leadership II that provide tools to address different situations in different ways, you must make sure you are being equitable and fair in your coaching. Consistency matters and the only way your team will know and notice a consistent approach is to do it over time.

Do some self-reflection and look at your past coaching conversations to make sure you are treating everyone the same even if the actions are different. It’s hard, but critical if you want employees to feel safe in the work environment.

Be strong

Coaching is hard work. It is easy to put it off or hope things get better on their own. Leaders who don’t like conflict are actually making the situation worse because someone else in your world will probably step up and address situations and give your people the feedback you are neglecting. And remember, everyone is watching. You need to be strong even if the coaching is uncomfortable and the person receiving the coaching may feel it is too harsh. Being strong and believing in yourself and your coaching will also create the perception of consistency.

Be empathetic

Effective coaches who are also creating an environment of psychological safety are empathetic listeners. They see things from the other person’s perspective and adapt to the needs of the person receiving the feedback. It’s critical that you do everything possible to take emotions out of the conversation. Check your anger at the door and realize that being angry at the person you are coaching will solve nothing and only serve to make things worse.

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Robert Brodo

About The Author

Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience.