How Workplace Relationships Impact Our Wellbeing and Psychological Safety at Work

When we think about our relationships, the first that typically come to mind are the ones we have with our partner, family, and friends but, our work relationships also play a significant role in our overall wellbeing.

Since we spend about a quarter of our waking lives at work, it’s important that we cultivate positive relationships with the people we are expected to collaborate with and be around for a large chunk of the day. This doesn’t mean you have to become best friends with your colleagues, but it does mean showing respect for one another as a way of contributing to a psychologically safe workplace. 

This week, we’ll explore relationships at work and the importance of psychological safety.

What is Psychological Safety?

“Psychological safety describes a work environment where people are not tied up in interpersonal knots.” Amy Edmondson

An extensive two-year study at Google found that their highest performing teams all had one thing in common – high levels of psychological safety (Delizonna, 2017). Professor Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School explains that psychological safety exists when team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable with each other by speaking up and offering new ideas, asking questions,  valuing different opinions, and being willing and able to learn from their mistakes (Edmondson, 1999).

Having high psychological safety in your team or workplace is not necessarily about always being polite and nice. Rather, it’s about recognizing that your workplace relationships are built on trust and respect for one another.  True respect is being able to be honest about what you think, giving each other permission to make mistakes, getting it wrong, and being able to self-correct without fear of judgment from others. Psychological safety is not about eliminating all risk; but by taking away interpersonal risk, you can better mitigate business risk. When we have room to bring our truest and best selves to work we can be more creative and innovative. When we have positive relationships at work it increases job satisfaction, engagement, and a sense of loyalty to the collective.

How To Contribute to a Psychologically Safe Workplace

• Replace blame with curiosity. If you believe you already know what the other person is thinking, then you’re not ready to have a conversation. Instead, adopt a learning mindset, know you don’t have all the facts, and remember that generally, people are doing the best they can with what they have in any given moment.
• Approach conflict as a collaborator, not an adversary. True success is a win-win outcome, so when conflicts come up, avoid triggering a flight or fight reaction by asking, “How could we achieve a mutually desirable outcome?”
• Accept that failure can lead to growth. We’re all failing some of the time, the only question is whether we are learning from these experiences. Make it safe to take smart risks by normalizing failure and struggle as part of the learning process. Talk openly and with curiosity about what’s not working, encourage and reward people’s willingness to ask for help or mentoring, and share and celebrate the lessons being learned.

Now, reflect on ways that you can contribute to a more psychologically safe workplace for yourself and others, and consider if your words or actions are positively or negatively impacting the success and wellbeing of others. 

Keep going, keep growing…

Related posts:

Why Are Relationships So Important to Our Wellbeing?

How to Build Small Moments of Connection Into Everyday Life

Give and Take: Striking the Right Balance to Cultivate Thriving Relationships