Fear vs Psychological Safety: Why Safe Teams Dominate

10 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐓𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. You’re capable. You’ve led teams. You’ve delivered results under pressure. But here’s the truth no one warns you about: Even the strongest leaders can stumble—especially in a toxic workplace. The difference between staying stuck and bouncing back? It’s in the small, strategic shifts you make right after the fall. This past year I coached multiple women who turned career “disasters” into stepping stones. Here are the exact 10 moves that helped them recover—fast: 1- 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞  → Drop: “I messed up badly.” → Try: “I misread priorities and adjusted.” Own the action. Skip the self-punishment. 2- 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭  → Instead of: “Everything collapsed.” → Say: “Delivery was delayed by two weeks.” Facts shrink fear—and rumors. 3- 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐎𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞  → Avoid carrying the team’s mistakes on your back. → “I missed signals and here’s how I’ll improve” earns more respect than “It was all my fault.” 4- 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚  → Swap judgment for curiosity. → “The client’s reaction taught me to adjust tone for cultural fit.” Lesson extracted. Drama removed. 5- 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧  → Share: “Here’s how we’ll recover in three weeks.” Specific timelines make you look steady—even under fire. 6- 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 → Toxic spaces feed on oversharing. → Share details only with allies who can help, not detractors who can’t. 7- 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 & 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬  → “Since last week, we closed 60% of issues” turns whispers into wins. Evidence shifts the story. 8- 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞  → Keep a folder of positive feedback. → Review it when toxic commentary gets loud. Anchor yourself in facts, not noise. 9- 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲  → Don’t fight every battle. → Redirect your energy to a winnable goal—and claim a visible win. 10- 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝, 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤  → “I navigated high-pressure recovery in a complex environment” → Always frame it as resilience, not survival. Recovery isn't about erasing the failure. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭. 🧠 Which of these 10 do you need most right now? ♻ Share this with someone stuck in a toxic loop—they might need a way out today. ➕ Follow me, Dr. Nebila Dhieb, for leadership tools that turn setbacks into strategy. — Want my full framework for reframing failure into leadership capital? → Comment “𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐋” or check the link in comments.

Rule #17: Never Undermine in Public, Take It Behind Closed Doors Dragging your coworker through the mud during a meeting doesn’t make you bold. It makes you an insecure showboater with no clue how leadership works. Public takedowns aren’t courageous. They’re cowardly and they’re career suicide. You disagree with someone? Great. Pull them aside. Speak directly. Solve it like an adult. What you don’t do is weaponize a meeting to score points or flex on someone just because you think the room’s watching. Calling someone out publicly might feel good for 30 seconds. But the fallout lasts much longer. Trust erodes. Teams fracture. Culture decays. And guess who they all blame? Not the one who made the mistake. The one who made it a spectacle. Correct in private. Praise in public. That’s the rule. Break it, and you’re not just damaging one person, you’re setting the whole tone on fire. No one speaks up in a room where the next comment could be an ambush. Disagree? Fine. Challenge hard ideas. But challenge them privately, strategically, and with the goal of solving not shaming. If your goal is to look powerful, you’ve already failed. Power doesn’t need a spotlight.

What I would have missed if I hadn’t listened. All of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned didn’t come from a formal leadership training or reading blog posts & hyped books. They came from actively surrounding myself with people who think, feel, and live radically differently than I do – and having the openness to really listen. 🌈From a younger Gen Z team mate I learned that “work-life balance” is an unrealistic myth – but looking at it as work-life mixing can be a game-changer. Tuning into your body’s own signals, taking rest seriously, and creating space for mental health doesn’t just prevent burnout. It fuels productivity. Especially in hybrid work. 🪷From my more experienced colleagues and business partners, I gained a whole new sense of calm: No career panic. No rush. Just the deep confidence that everything comes in cycles – nothing is ever truly new. They taught me the power of a “To Be” list, not just a to-do list. And that there’s magic in letting thoughts spin and ideas breathe. 🪐And from contacts with opposite cultural and/or business backgrounds, I learned that agility isn’t a text book methodology – it’s a mindset. Fast feedback loops. Less ego. More action. Trusting the process even when the outcome is uncertain. None of this would’ve landed with me if I had stayed in my own bubble.🫧 🦚Being open – truly open – to perspectives beyond our own isn’t just nice to have. It’s where innovation begins.

Every conversation I’ve had lately, across industries, across roles has a common thread: everyone is moving at an unsustainable pace. Doing more with less has become the norm. Fewer resources. Smaller teams. Higher expectations. Faster timelines. And somehow, pride has crept into that constant stretch, like being maxed out is a badge of honor. But behind that pride? Exhaustion. Burnout. A sense that there’s no slowdown in sight. It’s not just one sector. It’s everywhere. The pressure is constant. And while it’s inspiring to see how resilient and resourceful people are, we also need to ask: at what cost? So here’s what I’m sitting with: What are we actually doing to sustain this pace? How are we making sure our teams are okay and not just productive, but truly okay? How are we making time to live outside of work, outside of hustle? And how do we start reshaping the culture that celebrates overcapacity instead of challenging it? This isn’t a post with answers, it’s a reminder to check in, slow down where you can, and make space for real conversations about what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to change. How are you and your teams navigating this? What’s helping?

at mckinsey, i saw the most brilliant people fall apart over a single piece of feedback fragile egos tied to one thing: • what their manager said about them • what rating they got • what project they staffed on when your identity depends on one source … you start mistaking momentary opinions for permanent truths want a strong mental? diversify your sources of meaning ideally with things no one can take from you: loyalty, integrity, good vibes, etc. self-worth is a portfolio don’t go all-in on other people’s opinions someone tell me how i’m wrong

Do you have a negativity bias? When I was healing from trauma, I realised how quickly I could find the negative in absolutely anything. You could have handed me a million pounds and a gorgeous puppy, and I’d still have found something wrong with it. From a trauma perspective, this made sense. Negativity bias is your nervous system’s way of trying to keep you safe. The problem is, when it becomes habitual, it shapes how we think, feel and act. We start scanning for flaws, dismissing positives and assuming the worst and that mindset carries straight into the workplace. As a female CEO and leader running my own businesses, I’ve seen first-hand how negativity bias can creep into teams and organisational cultures. It shows up in endless fault-finding on projects, in dismissing successes as “not enough,” or in assuming colleagues’ intentions are negative. Left unchecked, it erodes morale, innovation and collaboration. That’s why I consciously integrate Positive Psychology and trauma informed trainings into how I lead and how I support other organisations. I encourage my own teams to celebrate progress, stay curious and explore alternative perspectives rather than jumping to the negative. It doesn’t mean ignoring challenges and it means not letting the negative lens dominate the entire picture. The shift is powerful. When people start asking themselves, “Is this the only way to see this?” “What else could be true?” they often find possibilities, solutions and resilience they didn’t know were there. I’ve lived this shift personally and now I see the ripple effect professionally. By reducing the hold of negativity bias, we create psychologically safer workplaces where people can thrive, innovate and perform at their best. So let me ask, do you see negativity bias at play in your workplace culture? #traumainformed #leadership #workplacewellbeing

"It’s like you have me in mind!" I hear this a lot whenever I correct a team member’s mistake in public. In one of the institutions I work in, one of their workplace culture is public offences are addressed publicly, while private matters are handled privately. Everyone knows this. Still, I often get that comment — and it makes me wonder: What do people think goes through a leader’s mind when they correct an error? Do you think they’ve been thinking about you all night? Plotting the “perfect moment” to call you out? Truth is — no. A leader has a team to run, processes to streamline, and decisions to defend in a stakeholder meeting where 75% of the room is already against their idea before they even speak. They may be battling a four-day headache. Or dealing with a client threatening to destroy the company’s reputation unless the impossible is delivered. In other words — it’s not about you. If you feel personally targeted when corrected, it may be a sign you’re wrestling with unhealthy assumptions or a lack of trust. And when trust breaks in a team, vices creep in quickly. So here’s a quick framework for handling public correction like a pro: - Pause & Listen: Don’t defend immediately; capture the full context. - Clarify: If unclear, politely request specifics after the meeting. - Extract the Lesson: Identify exactly what to improve. - Follow Through: Apply the correction quickly to rebuild trust. - Reset Emotionally: Don’t replay the moment endlessly; move forward. Because, friend, you’ve got work to do. If your team values trust, share this. Every professional should master this before their next meeting. I am the Mind Economist 🚀 #Leadership #TeamCulture #Feedback #WorkplaceEthics

"We cannot understand a system from the outside; we can only understand it by becoming part of it." – Donella Meadows Humans are systems — layered, dynamic, non-linear. We live within and across multiple systems — families, organizations, cultures, invisible belief structures — and each of these shapes how we see and respond to the world. The more I work with people, the more I realize: no two systems are ever the same. What looks simple on the surface usually has a much deeper story underneath. One powerful reminder of this came while I was debriefing a #Hoganassessment for a client. At first glance, some of their scores — like Adjustment or Empathy — seemed similar to patterns I’d seen before. But as we started connecting the three Hogan reports, and then linking those patterns back to formative life experiences, something shifted. The #drivingstories behind those scores were completely different. And that changed everything — the meaning of the score, the way behaviors showed up, and the context in which they made sense. That reflection stayed with me. No matter how similar things appear “on paper,” they are never truly the same. Every behavior is #contextual. Without context, any diagnosis or understanding is incomplete. And unless we wear the lens of #curiosity, our own lenses — our values, beliefs, cultures — can end up coloring the entire world we see. This isn’t just about assessments. In organizations too, I see the same truth: ✨What looks like “resistance to change” may really be the system protecting trust. ✨A “performance issue” might be less about skill, and more about fear embedded in culture. ✨A “failed strategy” may actually have been undone by the rhythms of informal networks. Systems ask us to go beyond the surface, to notice patterns instead of fragments, and to remember that every action ripples in ways we cannot fully predict. So I hold a few questions close — and I wonder how they land for you: 👉 How often do we pause to see the system in ourselves before interpreting another? 👉 What might we be missing when we label something as a “problem”? 👉 And can we hold the humility that our understanding will always be partial — and still act with compassion? #SystemsThinking #ExecutiveCoaching #OD #HumanSystems #ConsciousLeadership #ContextMatter

This reminds me of what Adebayo Adegun mentioned during the emotional intelligence webinar, which Crosstie Solutions hosted on Thursday. I asked a question about what to do when you find yourself in a workplace / environment that doesn’t support empathy also known as “Toxic workspaces” “You risk becoming a product of toxic workplaces if you stay in that environment for long time.” I really admire how you showed empathy and gave your colleague room to be honest and vulnerable with you.