Timothy R. Clark’s Post

CEOs, your impact and influence as a cultural architect trickle down into even the smallest interactions. That means you shape the very bedrock of psychological safety within your organization. Why? There’s a power dynamic in every room. As the leader, you are first among equals, yet your mere presence dictates the power dynamic. Positional power is consolidated in your hands. What you say and do can draw people out or make them recoil with anxiety and fear. Take the opportunity to deliberately design that dynamic. If you induce fear, seek admiration, or allow hierarchy to outrank truth, you abdicate your role. But if you nurture psychological safety to unleash the room, you magnify your role and scale your influence and impact. How do you do it? I have 10 suggestions: 1. Assign someone else to conduct the meeting. Visibly redistribute power by leveling yourself down to be more of a player-coach. 2. Don’t sit at the head of the table. In many physical settings, seating reflects the hierarchy, but you can disrupt those rituals. 3. Create warmth and informality. Create an atmosphere of psychological safety to convey warmth and encourage collaboration. 4. Model acts of vulnerability. You have a first-mover obligation to model acts of vulnerability to give others permission to do the same. 5. Stimulate inquiry before advocacy. If you move from asking questions to advocating your position too soon, it softly censors your team and signals the end of the discussion. 6. Reward challenges to the status quo. If you encourage them, your team can help you see your blind spots and tell you when you’re missing. 7. Push back with humor and enthusiasm. Humor and enthusiasm inject excitement into the process and encourage rigorous debate. 8. Buffer strong personalities. Your job is to create a shame- and embarrassment-free environment. 9. Listen and pause. When you do this in the presence of other members of your organization, you send a clear message that the individual matters. 10. Give highly targeted praise and recognition. Don’t withhold or be stingy with it. I'm curious, what would you add to the list? How are your leaders intentionally creating psychological safety in their interactions with others? #psychologicalsafety #4stages #leadershipdevelopment