What is Psychological Safety, Really? Four Leadership Lessons to Consider

In today’s culture-driven world of work, psychological safety has become a headline topic. Nevertheless, many leaders remain hesitant to integrate it into their core strategy, dismissing it as a “soft concept” or an intangible—and thus inconsequential—ideal.

But psychological safety can, in fact, be observed—and its impact is substantial. Especially in an age marked by rapid transformation and constant disruption, psychological safety is what allows organizations to pivot—to continuously meet and adapt to the moment while still achieving long-term business goals. Crucially, it’s what enables organizations to generate the best ideas; to continuously improve and expand on their capabilities, and to outpace the competition.

Such was the focus of the last day of the Workplace Options Center for Organizational Effectiveness’ June 2025 summit, Thriving in Uncertainty: Leadership and Wellbeing in Tumultuous Times.

In a pair of stirring presentations delivered by Gana Diagne, Chief Knowledge Officer, and Oliver Brecht, VP and General Manager of Enterprise Solutions at WPO, leaders gained case-driven insights into what psychological safety truly means and looks like—and how they can build psychologically safe workplaces themselves.

With that said, here are four ways psychological safety makes a real impact in the workplace—and what they mean for leaders—as outlined during the summit:

Lesson 1: Vulnerable leadership builds a culture of accountability

Lesson 2: Consistent leaders guide rather than command

Lesson 3: Thoughtful communication fosters strong peer relationships

Lesson 4: Intrinsic motivation comes from purpose alignment

Impact: Employee Accountability 

Cause: Leadership Vulnerability

Perhaps one of the most overlooked yet undeniable impediments to a high-performing, innovative team is the blame game—when there’s a habit of scapegoating, finger-pointing, obfuscating, and a general lack of clear ownership.

In psychologically unsafe environments, employees are afraid to make mistakes. As such, they will often try to pin their mistakes on others—or cover them up entirely—rather than take accountability. At the same time, when the safety and freedom to take risks or act autonomously isn’t there, even good decisions and successful initiatives, too, may be shrouded in secrecy or shame—or distorted by blame.

Whether it’s the fear to err or the fear to undermine another’s absolute authority, a lack of psychological safety is characterized by this detracting goose chase of trying to figure out who did what, and when, and with what result—rather than keeping the focus on what lies ahead.

Yet within psychologically safe environments, there is clear accountability. As Brecht explained, employees who feel safe to make mistakes—or, put another way, to learn and grow—are those who surface errors early, when solutions can still be configured and the path forward rerouted. With the permission to take risks and incorporate their own ideas or judgment into the work that they do, these employees will also be inspired to make bolder, opportunistic decisions, and—importantly—communicate them clearly to their teams.

So how can leaders cultivate an environment where employees feel safe to own their mistakes—and their good ideas?  Simple: By taking ownership of their own missteps—their own fallibility—themselves.

As Brecht proposed during his presentation, leaders create psychological safety when they position mistakes as learning opportunities—and use their own as examples:

“A practice that I’ve used is this: I write every mistake up on a whiteboard in a shared space, including who did it and its impact—low, medium, or high. What this does is it shows that ‘Mistakes are going to be a part of what we do. We’re not going to try to be or pretend that we’re perfect.’ 

Then, at the end of each month, we revisit each mistake and ask, ‘What did we learn? How did we improve? What changed as a result?’

Now, when I first introduced this, I made sure that my name, as the leader, was up there the most—and made sure that I kept listing my mistakes throughout the process. This signaled to my team: ‘If I, as the leader, can own my mistakes, grow from them, and move forward, so can they,’ which cultivates a more forward-thinking mindset around risk-taking, making mistakes, and continuous learning.”

In addition, when leaders actively seek input from employees at all levels—recognizing that they don’t always have the best ideas or the credibility to act alone—they send a powerful message to their teams—especially middle managers—that the glory of a good idea isn’t limited to the one who came up with it; that it’s okay for anyone to put forth an idea, and just as okay for someone above them to run with it. No one’s position will be undermined if everyone has a voice, just as no one’s position will be undermined if they make a mistake—so long as they own it and rectify it.

With this truth established, leaders will begin to reap the benefits of more innovative, collaborative, and high-performing teams.

Impact: Guidance Instead of Commands

Cause: Leadership Consistency 

Another hallmark of a psychologically safe environment is a workforce that knows what to do—and feels confident doing it. In workplaces where employees are afraid to speak up, ask questions, take risks, or act independently, confusion around roles and responsibilities often follows. In response, leaders may resort to issuing more commands and micromanaging, rather than trusting employees to handle challenges and perform on their own.

In contrast, a psychologically safe environment provides employees with the comfort they need to seek clarification, and the consistency to know what’s expected of them, how their leaders are likely to respond, and what outcomes they can anticipate from different actions. In other words, when employees know how their leaders will react to a question asked, an idea raised, or an initiative taken, the more likely they are to do these things and act independently.

As Brecht emphasized, leadership consistency is essential to building psychological safety:

“When leaders are able to consistently exercise strong emotional intelligence—responding rationally rather than reacting emotionally; when they demonstrate level-headedness in the face of challenges, enthusiasm for employee participation, and trust in their team to carry out their goals without constant oversight—it encourages people to take initiative, because they can trust how their leaders are going to respond.”

“The more people can trust the way you are going to respond,” he concluded, “the more they’ll trust you overall.” And with that mutual sense of trust in place comes greater confidence in one’s abilities and place within the workplace, a stronger sense of connection to their work, their team, and the “why” behind it all, and the motivation to meaningfully engage at work.

So, what does leadership consistency look like? According to Brecht, it starts with self-awareness and honesty.

“Whatever identity or leadership presence you establish for yourself, you need to exhibit that 365 days a year,” he explained. “So don’t overpromise and underdeliver in regard to who you are and your authenticity.”

This means being honest about one’s openness to new ideas, feedback, and concerns. As Diagne explained, psychological safety isn’t about saying yes to everything; rather, it’s about creating an environment where employees feel comfortable bringing their ideas, feedback, or concerns forward, trusting that—even if the answer is no, their concern isn’t shared, or their feedback isn’t implemented—they will still be treated with respect.

By setting the tone for how and when employees can freely offer input, take initiative, or challenge decisions—regardless of how structured or flexible that freedom may be—leaders provide the predictability and security employees need to perform, resulting in empowered, self-reliant teams who merely need guidance rather than commands to deliver results.

Impact: Healthy Peer Dynamics 

Cause: Thoughtful Communication

Of course, few things signal psychological safety more clearly than positive peer dynamics. In a psychologically safe environment, as Brecht explained, employees are motivated to work together to realize each other’s ideas, solve problems constructively and logically, and provide support when a peer is struggling—all behaviors that simply aren’t present when psychological safety is not there.

When employees’ sense of security is compromised—when a fear of making a mistake outweighs their passion for the work, or a fear of humiliation undermines their motivation to take risks—workplaces can quickly devolve into cutthroat rivalry, adversarial behavior, bullying, and siloed, uncooperative teams. In such environments, employees are unlikely to want their peers to succeed, especially if they believe that success could reflect negatively on them—a mindset that often takes hold in cultures marked by abusive leadership, intolerance for mistakes, inconsistency at the top, and role confusion.

By contrast, in high-trust, psychologically safe environments—where employees understand their role and trust that their leaders and peers are ready to support them through mistakes and help bring about and celebrate their successes—collaboration becomes second nature. When the best idea is prized above rank or seniority, when the strength of the team matters more than the strength of any one individual, and when success is shared rather than competed for, debates lose their personal edge, differences of opinion are met with curiosity and respect, and people begin to advocate not for their own ideas, but for the ones most likely to move the team forward.

Leaders ultimately bring these dynamics to life through how they communicate. By communicating constructively rather than critically, inclusively and transparently rather than through exclusive or siloed channels, and with curiosity and compassion for others’ opinions rather than cynicism or disdain, they set the tone for how employees, too, should treat one another—with warmth, acceptance, and respect.

Impact: Intrinsic Motivation

Cause: Purpose Alignment

Perhaps the defining differentiator between psychological safety and its absence, according to Diagne, is intrinsic motivation. In psychologically safe environments, employees are driven not by perks, benefits, or external rewards, but by a clear sense of purpose and personal investment in their work.

“While extrinsic benefits may perhaps improve performance, this is often only for the short term. Because once they’re integrated, they no longer have any effect,” Diagne explained. “Whereas with intrinsic motivation, the mission continues to have a long-term impact because the person continues to enjoy and find meaning in what they do.”

Leaders foster this kind of motivation by connecting individual efforts to the broader organizational mission. This ties back to the idea that in a psychologically safe environment, employees understand what’s expected of them—and feel confident and empowered to deliver on it.

When leaders consistently tie individual and team contributions to quarterly or annual goals, spotlight personal wins as shared organizational achievements, routinely check in—both emotionally and practically—with their teams, and embrace personal wellbeing as a core organizational priority, they create a culture of inclusion, trust, and belonging—one in which employees are driven to contribute as a way of participating in something larger than themselves: something they believe in and want to give back to for all it has given them.

In psychologically safe environments, as Diagne explained, work becomes an act of meaning-making, motivation a given, and performance a personal—and purposeful—priority.

Ready to create enduring psychological safety for your teams?

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