Radio Show #605 Psychological Safety

Guest: Gary Geogh: Leadership Coach Gary Keogh holds an MBA from the University of Bath and a Masters (MSc) in Coaching and Behavioural Change from Henley Business School. His 27-year career in two FTSE100 and two family-owned businesses includes 11 years on various boards. His Masters dissertation explored six decades of empirical evidence on psychological safety in the context of the workplace, alongside his own research. Today he dedicates his efforts to supporting leaders build psychological safety, unlocking the potential within individuals, teams and organisations. He is currently working with FMCG, creative industry, professional services and elite sporting businesses. 2 in 5 colleagues in a meeting are not speaking up about ideas, risks, or asking questions & talking about mistakes to learn. This means organisations are missing out on insights, opportunities and colleagues. And colleagues in unsafe environments become demotivated and excluded leading to higher staff turnover. Psychological Safety is the ability to express oneself without fear of reprisal – we worry less about losing face/status and focus on the task in hand. It brings diverse perspectives, better decision making, higher engagement and performance. Countless studies provide irrefutable evidence teams with psychological safety are 60% more likely to turn today’s complex business challenges into growth opportunities (PWC). Psychological safety is not about guaranteed applause for all ideas or everyone being nice – it’s about creating a candid energising environment where debate, vulnerability, diverse thinking, and contributions are welcomed for better decision-making, higher performance, and increased engagement. Challenge: 70% of leaders overestimate how psychologically safe their teams are and only 26% of leaders have the skills to create psychological safety (McKinsey) Good news: leaders do not need to guess – you can measure psychological safety, in minutes and start the work on the behaviour changes required to reap the rewards. And there is no civil war between psychological safety and accountability – you can have both. Join us as we discuss psychological safety. Host: Jo Moffatt