5 Myths About Psychological Safety That Hinder Your Team's Growth

Popular truisms about psychological safety backfire when applied without questioning – let's challenge these assumptions

In this week’s post, I challenge five psychological safety truisms and invite you to expand your view on:

1. Leaders should always speak last

2. Anonymity encourages honesty

3. Aim for equal participation

4. Creating a psychologically safe space is the leader’s job

5. People need to feel safe to speak up

Psychological safety is a term that’s thrown around a lot these days. It’s hailed as the secret sauce for building high-performing teams, sparking innovation, and creating a culture where people speak up without fear. But here’s the thing: In our rush to achieve this ideal state, we’ve adopted certain “truisms” – supposed rules that define how to build a psychologically safe environment.

Yet these well-intentioned rules of thumb often backfire, creating a rigid approach that stifles – rather than encourages – genuine connection and courage. Let’s explore five popular truisms about psychological safety and why it might be time to rethink them.

Truism #1:

Leaders Should Always Speak Last

One of the most common…