Dive Brief:
- Senior leaders want feedback from their teams but won’t ask, fearing they’ll come across as vulnerable and compromise their reputation, according to a survey by Harris Poll and Turas Leadership Consulting.
- Almost two-thirds of 317 senior leaders (directors and above) surveyed in January said they would seek input more often from their teams to help make big decisions if they didn’t think it would make them appear weak. That sentiment was more pronounced among male leaders; while 71% of male leaders said they worry about the cost of asking for their team’s input on big decisions, only 46% of female leaders said the same, the survey found.
- There’s a deeper issue at play, Turas emphasized. “Leaders strongly believe in collaboration and challenge — but many don’t feel safe enough to actually initiate them. And adding to the double-bind, many employees still don’t feel safe to speak up,” the firm pointed out in a Jan. 27 media release.
Dive Insight:
For years, the focus has been on “psychological safety as something leaders create for their teams,” Turas CEO and Founder Emily Scherberth noted in the release.
But the January survey “suggests that psychological safety may be breaking down at the leadership level first, and when leaders don’t feel safe enough to model vulnerability, openness, curiosity, and shared decision-making, those behaviors may not take root anywhere else,” Scherberth added.
For instance, the survey found that 90% of senior leaders say they wish their teams would more often share constructive feedback questioning them or the status quo.
Establishing psychological safety is not a quick fix, a McLean & Co. director previously said. Instead, it requires acknowledging that employees’ unique characteristics influence how they experience psychological safety and enforcing shared standards of acceptable behavior across all levels, a March 2024 McLean & Co. report noted.
The McLean & Co. report also said senior leaders need to adopt certain actions and values, such as being humble and able to apologize, instead of acting defensively.
It’s an issue preventing many executives from mobilizing their teams and leading their organizations through change, according to a recent report from leadership development firm DDI. Only 11% of executives effectively address resistance from their workforce, because they’re often shielded from dissent, take it personally or view it as disruptive, DDI said.
“When leaders fear that asking questions, inviting dissent, or admitting uncertainty will undermine their credibility, it has a potentially chilling effect on the entire organization,” Turas explained in the release.
“However, building psychological safety for leaders is not about making those in power more comfortable. It is about developing their capacity to stay present, grounded, and lead through uncertainty without defaulting to control — which is what actually creates safety for everyone in the system,” Turas said.