Work It Podcast: Psychological safety at work is not about giving nice feedback

Here’s an extract from the audio:

Tiffany Ang: &nbsp,
Some managers I spoke to say that,” But then in my team, maybe some people might be a bit more sensitive to feedback, and maybe in a team setting, we’ve already tried to apply some of these techniques that you have suggested, but then this person might feel psychologically unsafe” .&nbsp,

Gerald Tan:
I have an example to drive on Tiffany’s level. I am aware of a situation where a ) manager had to give one of the people feedback on a specific behavior during a workday, and I believe it was done one on one with the employee.

Then at the meeting, ( the person ) was like,” Okay, I understand”. But after the conference, the man came back to say,” You know what? What you said to me made me feel quite psychologically uneasy.

Jasmine Liew:
The challenge is, after we form (teams ), we expect them to perform.

So one of the techniques is norming. Norming, you can use mental health as a rule so everyone can feel secure to share thoughts, ask issues, share their concerns, and ask for help without the fear of being judged, punished or reprimanded. &nbsp,

With this norm, people feel that- I am safe to take this interpersonal risk taking, ( and ) I’ll not be judged by my peers or my leaders. With creative or evolutionary feedback, we can feel at ease with these standards.

I think people are okay with positive feedback, but when it comes to development feedback or constructive feedback, that’s where we shared here ( that ) psychological safety ( is ) not about being nice. There’s a lot of mistake. &nbsp,