As Booz Allen celebrates Pride Month, the firm takes a moment to highlight insights from panelists at Booz Allen’s 2022 Unstoppable Together Summit, including Senior Vice President Linda Asher. Asher heads Booz Allen’s pricing, procurement, and contracts team. serves as the executive sponsor for the firm’s GLOBE+ LGBTQ+ business resource group (BRG), and is a member of the firm’s Women’s BRG.
People sometimes think about psychological safety as feeling comfortable or being in an environment with no conflict. But the true definition is more complex. Dr. Amy Edmondson, the Harvard Business School professor who coined the term, describes it as “the belief that you can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation.”
Those who feel psychologically safe are more likely to take risks, express their ideas, and be their full self at work, ultimately reaching higher. In turn, psychologically safe working environments experience less turnover, more productivity, more innovation, and increased diversity.
Yet minorities tend to feel psychological safety at disproportionately lower rates, limiting opportunities and exacerbating gender and race pay disparities. Women tend to experience lower levels of psychological safety, as do working parents. A July 2021 study by Workhuman found that just 26% of workers felt psychologically safe during the pandemic.
How can leadership teams better evaluate and elevate employees’ levels of psychological safety? And how do hybrid work environments affect psychological safety?
Panelists shared their stories about times they felt an absence of psychological safety. One panelist feared showing vulnerability as the only woman on a naval assignment. Another hesitated to ask for special accommodations for a disability until he was well into his career.
They also shared stories of what psychological safety looks like and how it makes a difference. For Asher, it was feeling encouraged and supported during a career- and life-changing move.
“I was relocating my family from the Washington, DC area up to New Jersey for a professional opportunity,” she recalled. “There were some really candid conversations with folks on both ends of the relocation and a lot of questions and curiosity. The relationships built and the institutional trust factor enabled me to make that kind of life change, and it was truly a rewarding chapter in life both professionally and personally.”
To create such relationship-building and trust in the workplace, panelists advised:
Psychological safety is also about the overall environment and culture in which sensitive or important conversations take place.
Asher reflected upon this “nonverbal aspect” of psychological safety when she interviewed with Booz Allen. “I was really struck by the diversity of the interview team. I met with men, women, people who were ethnically diverse and LGBTQ+. The environment established an element of psychological safety. There were two things that I left with: My family and I are welcome here, and I want to be a part of this organization.”
It’s important to maintain this sense of belonging as work continues in a hybrid mode, panelists emphasized. For example, make sure to offer career opportunities and paths that are equitable and open to everybody regardless of their location or work setup.
Also be mindful of the signals your company sends to employees beyond official policies, such as what is rewarded and what is not. Are only fully in-person employees receiving opportunities and promotions? If there are no fully remote senior leaders, employees may come to conclusions about what’s rewarded and what’s not.
As the pandemic introduced blurred lines between work and life, “we invited colleagues into our homes,” in Asher’s words, which serves as an important reminder of our employees’ lives and responsibilities that exist outside of professional roles: caring for parents or children, adopting a pet, pursuing a degree. “As leaders, we need to be mindful and open to creating space and giving people that space and flexibility,” Asher said. “Check in and adjust—I think this really speaks to the future of work.”
