Does Your Team Feel Understood?

In his book, ”Don’t Just Manage, Lead,” Arthur F. Combs III writes:

No one is going to speak up if he fears a reprisal. No one is going to suggest a better way of doing things if she thinks her ideas will be trashed. In fact, no one will feel safe enough to challenge you or your ideas—even in the most respectful way—if you’ve created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation

Today’s competitive landscape can bring out the worst in some of us, and by extension, lead us to bring less than our full selves to the organizations we’re a part of. Change can come to our workplace for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes, an internal event like a change in organizational structure, process, may lead to a shift in priorities. Other times, an external event like a downturn, a shift in the landscape, an environmental or health catastrophe or a large-scale technological change can force an organization to make decisions that really challenge it to consider the way it operates.

How Fear Undermines Organizations

Natasha Tamiru published an article on the Think With Google blog, ”Team dynamics: Five keys to building effective teams” that explained that inside of organizations, executives, team leads and individual team members all viewed what it meant to be “effective” differently, and that ambiguity can be particularly dangerous to a workplace during a time of change. Bozoma Saint John explains in ”Why global marketing executive Bozoma Saint John celebrates bold decisions” that:

Senior executives have long been making decisions based on fear. Fear of making a mistake, fear of disappointing audiences, fear of losing sales. That fear only grew when the pandemic hit because suddenly going by what worked in the past was no longer an option.

The leaders who were able to keep their businesses afloat — and even transform them during this time — were those that dared to jump into the dark. They didn’t know the answer, but made their decisions based on how they felt about it.

That’s a scary thing to do.

Studies of psychological safety in organizations and amongst teams received renewed attention as organizations increasingly began to re-examine methods of working during 2020, and have varied results. Some findings report teams with increased psychological safety see a greater sense of ownership in projects. Others studies have suggested that high levels of psychological safety may decrease in-role performance. The truth is, every group of humans is made up of individuals. We all value different things, and our organizations thrive in different ways. The literature is, as Rafael Ireneo and Shirley De Chavez wrote, ”highly interesting,” human behavior often is.

One of the best ways for an organization to learn of the impact fear is having on its members is to ask them, and be prepared to earnestly, honestly, listen to the results. Leaders communicate the values and priorities of the organizations they represent through both conscious actions and silent behavior. Organizations rely on these interactions to model the behavior that communicates values to customers and to the broader marketplace. A culture that is overly dependent on fear can undermine those goals. Your organization’s values are never secure, they will always require your protection—especially when your team is facing an environment that has the potential to change the organization’s direction in a profound way.

Impact on Employee Experience

Amy C. Edmonson points to four key ways fear limits the psychological safety of employees:

\ First, when individuals ask questions or seek information, they run the risk of being seen as ignorant…this phenomenon is particularly troubling in organizations where lives are at stake, such as in hospitals…Second, when admiting…the high probability of failure that comes with experimenting, people risk being seen as incompetent…Reluctance to take interpersonal risk can create physical risks…This silence limits the ability of hospitals as organizations to improve through collective learning from mistakes, a goal most health care professionals would heartily endorse, the perceived need for impression management to protect one’s professional image is extremely high in medicine. Third, to learn and improve – as individuals and collectives – it is essential to reflect critically on current and past performance. The risk of being seen as negative often stops people from delivering critical assessments of performance, which limits the thoroughness and accuracy of collective reflection (Edmondson 2002). People strive to maintain their own and others’ face, a tendency that inhibits sharing negative feedback. It is well known that bad news rarely travels well up the hierarchy, such that in the presence of supervisors and bosses, the risk of being seen as negative has been shown to be more acute than it might otherwise be (Reed 1962). Fourth, to avoid disrupting or imposing upon others’ time and good will, people will avoid seeking feedback, information or help (Brown 1990). In particular, individuals are often reluctant to seek feedback about their performance. Despite the gains that can be obtained from feedback (Ashford and Cummings 1983), many fail to take advantage of the opportunity. Although this can be driven by avoidance of the possibility of hearing something we don’t want to hear, it also stems from a wish not to be seen as lacking in self-sufficiency, or as intrusive.

Dr. Edmondson expands on these ideas in her book, ”The Fearless Organization,” but suffice it to say, safety has a profound impact on the employee experience. Great employees will help to make suggestions to help the organization make the adjustments to its vision and mission necessary to defend the values they share with the organization, but it is important they are listened to when they do so.

Impact on Customer Experience

The customer experience is, ultimately, defined by the way your organization treats its customers. Customer interaction often begins before a prospect interacts with your business for the first time. A business is differentiated in the marketplace by the way it makes decisions, and what those decisions reveal about the way it values the people it serves. Employees who feel unsafe will find it difficult to make customers feel safe. Employees who share the values of the organization they work at, and who are engaged in work that contribute to building the vision of an organization will want to deliver engaging customer experiences. When your team is aligned on what matters, and feels cared for, they are more likely to approach times of change with a sense of trust.

Trust is hard to build and easy to lose, and today’s customers have more access than ever before to peak “behind the scenes” and learn about what employees are really experiencing. In our hyper-connected world, it’s more important than ever to treat people with genuine care—because people are going to notice if you don’t.

Impact on Reputation in the Marketplace

Businesses have good reason to be skeptical of the idea that any publicity is good publicity. as Hamed Qahri-Saremi explores, reviews can influence consumer sentiment. Online reviews may shift consumers towards different businesses, too. A study from Wael Jabr and Mohammad Saifur Rahman suggested that consumers often turn to tools like “top reviews” on review sites to manage information overload.

Employee review sites often enjoy great prominence in search engine results pages. The barrier of entry to content creation has never been lower. If employees don’t feel “heard” at work, they have a lot of opportunities to in the broader communications landscape, and that can impact a business’s reputation in a way that has a serious impact on performance.

Adapting to Change

Turbulence provides us with an opportunity to rethink every aspect of our organization, including both our customer and employee experiences. While this can feel daunting, one place to start might be by considering precisely why it is so difficult to think up new ways of delivering value to your customers. You may find that you’re doing something that you don’t need to be, and you may also find that your employees have a pretty good idea of a change that may help you to better meet your objectives. You might also find it beneficial to consider the ways in which the current environment is impacting both your employees and your customers—there’s no better way to do that than to start a conversation.

Organizations that thrive in changing environments often prioritize meeting customers where they are by looking for strategies that help them to deliver calm, well organized experiences. Ask yourself, is your organization slowing your employees down? Does your website make it difficult for your prospective customers to engage with your organization? Do you engage your team in their work? Do your customers feel excited by your partnership? Are your team members empowered to adapt to the change you’re asking them to? Are you demonstrating how the change will help to bring a new vision to life?

Valuing Resilience

Building resilience in organizations and teams has long been a topic of study and training. As Catherine Cote explains, our attitudes, and motivations change over time—and that can impact the way we connect with audiences. Dr. Carol Dweck expands on this idea in ”Mindset,” where she asks the question:

“How can one belief lead to all this—the love of challenge, belief in effort, resilience in the face of setbacks, and greater (more creative!) success? ”

Setbacks and trials provide us with an opportunity to refocus our efforts on what really matters. When we face change, we are asking a lot of our team members, and our customers. The way we react to this reality communicates a lot—whether we’re aware of it or not.

Resources for Cultivating Safety in your Workplace

Fortunately, today’s business leaders have access to a wide variety of tools that can help to cultivate and develop a culture of safety in the workplace. Developing a team that reflects your customer base can help to make sure that your team thinks through the problems your customers are likely to encounter. Valuing processes like retrospectives, empowering team members to make decisions, and celebrating the process of learning from mistakes can go a long way to helping team members feel valued and heard, but real safety is as much about what we do when no one is looking.

Listening to your Employees

While every organization is different, there are some practical tools that can help to increase your organization’s effectiveness at listening.

• Create & Engage With Feedback Channels

Does your team have a clear path to communicate feedback? Do you actively seek it out? In today’s hyperconnected landscape, we can often confuse availability with communication. Tools like 1:1s, open chats, and team all-hands can all provide opportunities for employees to engage and provide feedback throughout an organization, but each organization will have to find the solution that works best for the people who make it up. There are no one size fits all solutions when it comes to connecting with one another, but a genuine desire to connect is always something to value.

• Acknowledge Team Member’s Contributions By Celebrating Wins

Celebrating wins and thanking team members for their contributions can help everyone to feel empowered. The trouble is, it can be challenging to have an accurate understanding of how each individual contributed to a complex project or initative, and often times that means that some team members make contributions and heroic sacrifices that go unnoticed. Overtime, this experience can be incredibly demoralizing and lead to a sense of feeling unsupported. The strongest teams lift and support one another, and by looking for (and expressing gratitude for) moments like this, you’ll help to strengthen the connection in your organization.

• Acknowledge Team Member’s Contributions By Celebrating Losses

It feels great to celebrate a win, but we often learn as much more from our losses than we do our victories.

We’ve all heard a common quotation, attributed to inventor Thomas Edison, but we have, perhaps lost the precise wording to time. In ”How Failure Taught Edison to Repeatedly Innovate,” Nathan Furr suggests the quotation may more accurately read:

“I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”

When we demonstrate that we value the process of identifying the 10,000 ways that do not work, our organizations will celebrate each step we take towards finding the “way that will work.”

• Train New Leaders in Communications and Management Skills

Rapidly growing organizations often seek to transition strong individual contributors into leadership roles. This can be challenging under the best of circumstances, but it can be particularly difficult during times of change. Developing key skills like goal setting and feedback loops can help new managers thrive. The transition requires every person to find their stride, and organizations have a responsibility to help facilitate this process. It may look different for every team—including one you inherit.

• Seek Feedback

Often, we’re afraid to ask, and the truth is if we’re willing to involve others in our decision-making in a way that really values their expertise, we find that others are much more willing to help than we might fear. Providing your team an opportunity to be involved in the big decisions demonstrates that the organization understands “big decisions” don’t just impact leadership—the biggest decisions impact everyone.

• Follow Up On Feedback

It’s great to ask for feedback, but you’ll find that if you ignore it, your team isn’t going to want to keep offering it. By following up on the concerns you’ve heard about, you’re doing more than demonstrating your team members have an impact, you’re actually demonstrating the trust and respect you have for the person who had the courage to challenge the status quo. In a time of change, knowing you are seen and valued can make all of the difference in the world.

• Show That You Care

We have all had an experience with someone who just didn’t feel genuine. Do you value your team? If so, it will show up in the way you interact with them. Your example is one of the most powerful tools you wield for impacting your organization’s culture, and regardless of the role you sit in, showing genuine concern for your team members, work, and clients will always help those individuals feel heard. Your example will resonate across the organization.

Listening to your Customers

Research into the way brands respond to reviews is an ongoing area of interest, but some early studies suggest that the wrong response can have a detrimental impact on your business’s growth. Some brands have found great success in embracing customer complaints, as Jay Baer explores in ”Hug Your Haters.”

If you’re working on a product, you may be able to apply the principles of user research to talk to your users directly. While this can be a little more challenging to do in a service focused organization, you’ll find that your most enthusiastic customers are often some of your biggest supporters.

Many businesses rely on tools like focus groups and surveys to collect feedback from customers. These tools, when properly implemented, can provide valuable insights into both quantitative and qualitative metrics that help to measure how well you’re meeting customer expectations, but today’s customers often volunteer their opinions on their own—and you should be paying attention. Social listening tools can help you to monitor mentions on social media at scale, and you should also devote some time to paying attention to your organization’s presence on online review platforms.

If your organization provides support to customers, you may also be sitting on an untapped gold mine of potential feedback. The people who are closest to the customer in your organization should be involved, and can help to develop a culture that really values customer feedback. When an organization is really customer obsessed, the results can be overwhelming.

Communicate Honestly

58% of respondents to a 2016 study were more likely to trust a stranger than they were their employera crisis of confidence. The truth is, that when we try to hide our own short comings, we do a lot of damage to our efforts to build a culture of safety. If we’re going to expect the people around us to communicate honestly, we need to communicate honestly with them, too. Vulnerability is a form of open communication on a team.

One way of being more approachable is to be honest about the challenges and setbacks you’re facing. By communicating realistically, you highlight that obstacles are something that can be overcome, and demonstrate that you have a commitment to enduring uncertainty. Admitting you’re ok not having all the answers can help others to feel more comfortable when they have a concern to address or are worried about something that may have a big impact on their work. Communicating with others isn’t always as straightforward as we might want, but we being genuine with our thoughts and feelings can go a long way in helping us to connect with anyone.

Ask For Help

Building a vibrant culture is a team effort, and making a safe workplace is, too. Nurturing honest communication is essential for fostering trust, resilience, and success within organizations. By acknowledging the impact of fear on employees and customers, leaders can pave the way for a culture of safety and openness. Embracing transparency, actively listening to feedback, and valuing contributions from all levels empower teams to navigate change with confidence. As organizations adapt to evolving landscapes, prioritizing genuine communication is critical. By fostering a collaborative environment, businesses can cultivate a culture where every voice is heard, valued, and contributes to collective growth and success in the face of uncertainty.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. From academic resources to accelerators, consultants to tools, and everything in between, there is a wide world of resources available to help guide you on your journey to developing a safer, and more productive workplace. We’ve included some of our favorites below to get you started!

Explore Some Great Reads

”Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t” by Jim Collins

This book explores some of the habits of companies that develop cultures that grow.

“The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth” by Amy C. Edmondson

This book explores some of the ways organizations can develop and promote a culture of psychological safety at work.

“Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well” by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone

This book explores some of the ways in which we can get better at receiving and acting on feedback.

“The Power of Resilience: How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected” by Yossi Sheffi

This book explores how companies are adapting to and preparing for the rapidly evolving landscape we live in today, and how new tools and processes can help to develop corporate resilience in a time of change.