The Leader Factor – Details, episodes & analysis

When Google set out to discover what makes a high-performing team in 2012, researchers expected to uncover a set of individual demographics, characteristics, or personality traits that made each team great. What they realized, however, was that it was the interactions of a team that determined its effectiveness. But while Google's Project Aristotle made the critical link between psychological safety and high performance, their research did little to teach leaders how to foster psychological safety on their teams.

In this podcast episode, our hosts give you the practical tools you need to put Project Aristotle's findings into actual practice.

Episode Chapters:
01:28 - The Research Premise
06:56 - The Findings
12:40 - Psychological Safety as a Unifying Term
15:55 - Project Aristotle's Shortcomings
17:12 - Psychological Safety's Behavioral Mechanism
23:56 - The L.I.V.E. Model for Teams
28:43 - The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

For the full learning experience, watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xLsOjAsUbZo
Or download the episode resources: https://www.leaderfactor.com/resources/what-you-need-to-know-about-project-aristotle

If you want to implement a psychological safety initiative in your organization, you'll need to explain what psychological safety isn't. Why? Because your culture won't change unless it's built on a shared understanding.

Psychological safety isn’t artificial niceness or a lack of accountability. Unless you clarify, stakeholders might think it’s a gimmick or dismiss it because of the baggage of the implied definition of the term. They'll need to know what psychological safety isn’t, along with what it is.

On this week's episode of The Leader Factor, hosts Tim and Junior share the top 7 misconceptions of psychological safety and what to do about them.

Episode Chapters
(00:45) Start
(03:53) Psychological safety isn't a shield from accountability.
(05:06) Psychological safety isn't niceness. 
(06:30) Psychological safety isn't coddling. 
(07:55) Psychological safety isn't consensus decision-making. 
(09:45) Psychological safety isn't unearned autonomy. 
(13:28) Psychological safety isn't political correctness.
(14:30) Psychological safety isn't rhetorical reassurance.  
(16:26) Identifying The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

For the full learning experience, watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2cr1E4neXGI
Or download the episode resources: https://www.leaderfactor.com/resources/7-things-psychological-safety-is-not

Can you create value for your team? Contributor safety satisfies the basic human need to make a difference and offer meaningful contributions. When we create contributor safety for others, we empower them with autonomy, guidance, and encouragement in exchange for effort and results. 

Listen in as hosts Tim and Junior discuss how to build Stage 3: Contributor Safety individually, within a team, and throughout an organization.

For the full learning experience, watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCijFFN7t5w

Download the episode resources: https://www.leaderfactor.com/resources/how-to-build-the-4-stages-of-psychological-safety

During this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior dissect the two kinds of leaders who shy away from psychological safety: those who feed on title and status, and those who try to hide their incompetence. They encourage healthy introspection as a tool to avoid becoming one of those leaders yourself. Are you a business leader looking to introduce psychological safety into your organization? Crack yourself open with this enlightening episode.

What is psychological safety? What’s the dilemma? (1:15) Despite the transformative benefits of psychological safety, it puts insecure, mediocre, and poor leaders to the test. It becomes a leveling device that redistributes influence. For leaders who feed on title and status, it threatens their positional power. For those lacking in competence, it threatens their exposure.

Leaders who feed on title and status (9:50). Tim and Junior reference Ralph Linton and differentiate between ascribed and achieved status in the workplace. 

Do you encourage constructive dissent? (22:30) Tim and Junior talk about dissent and how healthy leaders welcome it, while unhealthy ones avoid it. 

Leaders who try to hide their incompetence (28:30). Incompetent leaders try to blend into the hierarchy they belong to. While hierarchies aren’t inherently bad, they’re also not all created equal. Tim and Junior talk about the advantages and liabilities of power hierarchies.

Who gets to participate, and who gets to decide? (37:30) Decision-making rights? Not everyone has them, and that’s on purpose. But participation rights? Everyone should have them. Why?

Imposter syndrome and psychological safety (41:00). Tim and Junior discuss when you should let self-awareness ignite change, and when you should realize that you’re not going to be perfect all the time. 

Related Links:

Why Some Leaders Are Afraid of Psychological Safety Article

How Psychological Safety Cures Imposter Syndrome

The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety

What's at stake? (0:00) If we do this well, we’ll create sanctuaries of inclusion and incubators of innovation. But if we do this poorly, we’ll be perpetually dissatisfied, we’ll create toxic cultures, and our organizations will suffer.

The current state of hiring, firing and promotion (9:00). Do most organizations make these decisions based on technical or cultural criteria? Tim and Junior talk about the process, outcome, and consequence of both.

What role does psychological safety play currently in the hiring, firing, and promotion of most organizations? (16:00) For most, it's a back seat role. If leaders aren't accounting for psychological safety, what are they looking for?

Technical competence isn't everything (19:40) Tim and Junior discuss the cultural and interpersonal components of hiring and why they should be considered in conjunction with technical skill and experience.

Psychological safety is at the heart of healthy culture (24:15). Tim gives listeners an overview of what psychological safety is and how it fits into the HR space.

The difference between cultural fit and cultural competence (29:30). Tim and Junior talk about why using the term "cultural fit" can be dangerous. Cultural competence, rather, has to do with your ability to contribute to a culture of psychological safety.

Firing and psychological safety (34:00). Tim and Junior make the claim that organizations aren't letting people go that should be let go because cultural competence is not a criterion for evaluation.

Promotion and psychological safety (44:45). Turns out, you get what you tolerate. What promotion criteria should we use to ensure that they will perpetuate healthy norms and build a vibrant culture?

Measure psychological safety on your team for free (59:45). Tim and Junior give listeners the chance to put this into practice with a totally free 4 Stages™ Team Survey license.

The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety

Hiring, Firing, and Promotion Webinar

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

LeaderFactor Note #12: 3 Most Deadly Hiring Mistakes

The culture dilemma (00:45). Many organizations tell us that they want to improve their culture, but often don’t know where to start. What does an unhealthy culture look like? What symptoms need to be identified and treated?

The definition of culture (02:30). Culture is the way we interact. It exists anywhere where there are humans. Parts of it are visible, while other parts of culture, not so much.  

How does culture work? (16:00) You don’t fix a culture at the top of an organization, but you can influence it at the team level. Teams need to improve their interactions by modeling and rewarding the vulnerabilities of their colleagues. 

What’s the solution? (31:00) If you want good culture, you need high levels of psychological safety. Psychological safety solves for culture at the level of interaction. 

Building great culture is a process (50:00). Just like fostering trust takes a certain level of consistency over time, psychological safety is delicate and dynamic. It requires consistent effort and deliberate action in order to build and maintain.

The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety

The Ladder of Vulnerability

The 4 Stages Behavior Guide

Vulnerability and interaction are inseparable (03:00). The workplace is vulnerable because it’s full of humans.

Why does vulnerability matter? (08:30) There’s a spectrum of vulnerability and a spectrum of responses to vulnerability. You can reward it, punish it, or do something in between.

How do we create healthy company cultures? (11:30) If we want healthy cultures where inclusion and innovation are the standards, we must reward vulnerability.

What are red zones and blue zones? (13:15) Red zones are environments of punished vulnerability, and blue zones are environments of rewarded vulnerability.

Vulnerability occurs across the 4 stages of psychological safety (24:30). Tim and Junior share common acts of vulnerability found in inclusion, learner, contributor, and challenger safety. 

Vulnerability and inclusion safety (26:00). Inclusion safety satisfies the basic human need to be included, accepted, and belong. It means it’s not expensive to be yourself. 

Vulnerability and learner safety (43:00). Acts of vulnerability in Stage 2: Learner Safety relate to learning and the discovery process. Because learning is fraught with uncertainty and risk, every person brings some level of inhibition and anxiety to the learning process. 

Vulnerability and contributor safety (48:50). Acts of vulnerability in Stage 3: Contributor Safety relate to making a meaningful contribution and reflect a willingness to be held accountable for your performance.

Vulnerability and challenger safety (53:20). Acts of vulnerability in Stage 4: Challenger Safety relate to challenging the status quo and creating value in new and different ways through innovation. 

Links: 
The Ladder of Vulnerability webinar: https://www.leaderfactor.com/webinars/the-ladder-of-vulnerability
The Ladder of Vulnerability ebook: https://www.leaderfactor.com/resources/psychological-safety-ladder-of-vulnerability
The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety: https://www.leaderfactor.com/resources/what-is-psychological-safety
How to Connect with a Person Not Like You: https://www.leaderfactor.com/notes/how-to-connect-with-a-person-not-like-you

How do you create a deeply inclusive environment? (1:15) Tim explains that there's a process and a sequence, and it starts with a focus on your values and beliefs. Once you lay the foundation, you can focus on behaviors and skills, then policies and procedures. In essence, you need to advocate for humanity over human characteristics. 

What are junk theories of superiority? (8:00) To create deeply inclusive cultures, we have to eliminate biases and preferences towards certain characteristics, which ultimately create exclusion. 

The four stages of psychological safety build inclusive cultures (10:33). As a function of respect and permission, the foundation of psychological safety is inclusion. We want to know that we belong. 

Inclusion is a human right (20:45). You shouldn't need to think about it. It's a safety that isn't earned, it's owed. 

How to create a culturally flat organization (27:15). Regardless of position, title, or authority, you should be allowed to contribute, participate, and create value. 

The definition of psychological safety (2:00). Tim and Junior discuss how vulnerability plays into the definition of psychological safety and what it means to create a culture of rewarded vulnerability.

Defining culture is like squeezing Jell-O (6:05). If culture is human interaction, psychological safety gives us the terms of engagement to interact. 

It's impossible to not have any culture (11:45). Just like fish have water, humans have culture. You're in it, and it's in you. 

The history of psychological safety (13:20). Numerous social scientists and psychologists have contributed to the psychological safety space, and Tim and Junior synthesize their contributions to a timeline.

How did the four stages come about? (30:00) Tim explains how his professional career in the world of leadership and culture contributed to The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety framework.

What factors drive and contribute to the demand for psychological safety? (45:00) Mental health, social justice, and a variety of other social and cultural factors have played a hand in the demand, and Junior and Tim give us their take on the what and the why.

Resources available at leaderfactor.com/resources. 

What is challenger safety? (1:12) Challenger safety is the fourth and final stage of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety. Do you feel like you can be candid about change? Challenger safety satisfies the basic human need to make things better.

What does challenger safety look like across industries? (4:00) Whether you’re an executive at an up-and-coming startup in Silicon Valley, a nurse in a state hospital, or a tenured professor at a prestigious university, every job needs challenger safety.

What’s the social exchange for this stage? (8:00) When we create challenger safety, we give air cover (protection) in exchange for candor. Tim and Junior discuss why we should value candor in the workplace. After all, what’s the point of bleached, sanitized feedback?

What happens when organizations try to hide their lack of challenger safety? (16:00) Silence is expensive. When teams claim they have a speak-up culture, but do everything in their power to keep their teams quiet, their ruse quickly becomes obvious. Eventually, the candor will come out.

How do we avoid echo chambers? (20:00) If all a leader wants in a meeting is validation that they already have the best ideas, they should have a meeting with themself. Tim and Junior explain that avoiding the dangerous traps of groupthink involves harvesting the power of candid feedback.

Where does the word innovation come from? (22:00) Junior and Tim are surprised to learn that the Latin root of the word “innovate” means to renew or alter. 

What is pride of authorship? (27:00) It’s exactly what it sounds like: the sense of ownership that someone feels over their idea, solution, comment, or deliverable. It suffocates feedback and encourages echo chambers. 

Is innovation an engagement issue or a culture issue? (34:00) As the precursor to employee engagement, psychological safety creates a culture of rewarded vulnerability that allows innovation to happen.

How do I neutralize the power difference of hierarchies? (40:45) Hierarchy can easily stifle innovation. When superiority and hierarchy dominate your company culture you definitely won’t innovate.

What’s the difference between social and intellectual friction? (46:30) In these moments of collision, a leader’s task is to simultaneously increase intellectual friction and decrease social friction. High intellectual friction lets your team harness creative abrasion and constructive dissent and arrive at real innovation. 

What happens if you fail to have challenger safety? (53:40) You’ll want to hear it straight from Tim and Junior themselves. Listen to the end to find out.

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

The Psychological Safety Behavioral Guide

LeaderFactor Note #26
HBR Article: Don’t Let Hierarchy Stifle Innovation

Podcast: Don’t Let Hierarchy Stifle Innovation

Or learn more at leaderfactor.com