Psychological Safety - Unlocking the Keys of Kaizen - Wings of Emotional Intelligence (Part 2)

In the previous article, we explored the relationship between Psychological Safety and how systemic conditions unlock the keys of Kaizen by aligning our actions towards achieving a common goal of a system.

This article shares some insights on how to surf on top of our vulnerability waves, dive deep into the depths of the emotional intelligence ocean, and become an anchor for any psychologically safe relationships.

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” - Rumi

Vulnerability Quotient:

In his wonderful book " The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety - Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation", Timothy R. Clark beautifully explains the 4 ladders of the Psychological Safety Ladder of Vulnerability and how to nurture an environment of high levels of Psychological Safety by building a culture of rewarded vulnerability. He further defines "Vulnerability is an inherently human experience (meaning that every person experiences vulnerability, although they might experience it differently than you do). Every time you do something that exposes your insecurity, makes you feel uncertain or otherwise pushes you out of your comfort zone, you’re committing an act of vulnerability".

Common Acts of Vulnerability :

• Being your authentic self
• Interacting with other people
• Expressing your emotions
• Sharing something personal
• Connecting with your team
• Asking for help
• Admitting you don’t know
• Trying something new
• Making a mistake
• Giving an incorrect answer
• Accepting more responsibility
• Receiving feedback
• Contributing to a discussion
• Clarifying expectations
• Asking for more resources
• Raising a concern
• Expressing disagreement
• Challenging the way things are done
• Pointing out a mistake
• Offering a different point of view

Punished Vulnerability = Evidence of Low Psychological Safety

Rewarded Vulnerability = High Levels of Psychological Safety

Forced Vs Authentic Vulnerability :

Where there is coercion there is no collaboration!

We can't force anyone to be vulnerable and build a bonding with others. The true leader knows everything needs its own space and time to blossom and spread its fragrance. It should come with an invitation, not by brutal force.

Authenticity flows when there is no expectation or satisfying some process compliance. It starts with ourselves first and flourishes when we are honest with each other. Vulnerability is mutual.

Mutuality and Contextual:

Nowadays, vulnerability becomes a buzzword and people are creating more hype about being vulnerable and expressing our true selves! It is great to have a culture that rewards vulnerability, but can everyone express their vulnerability to others in all situations? Applying the blanket rule does not make any sense! Being Vulnerable is contextual!

Vulnerability is good but only when we understand the difference between vulnerability and oversharing.

In Daring Greatly, Brené Brown explains

Vulnerability is based on mutuality and requires boundaries and trust. It's not oversharing, it's not purging, it's not indiscriminate disclosure, and it's not celebrity-style social media information dumps. Vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our experiences with people who have earned the right to hear them. Being vulnerable and open is mutual and an integral part of the trust-building process.

We can express vulnerability only when there is an environment where people listen and respect each other's emotions. It needs immense inner strength to be humble and curious to embrace the emergence of what life offers to us! To express our vulnerability, emotional intelligence is essential!

Emotional Intelligence :

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is our ability to interact with other humans. Interpersonal effectiveness comes from 3 things:

• Awareness (what you perceive about yourself and others),
• Beliefs (what you believe about yourself and other people), and
• Behaviors (the way you act, what you say and do).

I listened to a meaningful conversation on the "Culture by Design" podcast episode "Why Psychological Safety Is Impossible Without Emotional Intelligence". In that episode, Junior and Tim discuss how EQ plays an important role in creating conditions for psychological safety.

EQ as an individual metric leads to psychological safety as a group metric. When we're talking about EQ, we’re talking about you as a person, your self-regard, social regard, self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and social management. So when we measure emotional intelligence, we don't do it in groups, we do it at the individual level. But psychological safety? That gets measured at the group level since it's essentially the collective EQ of the group. EQ at the individual level leads to psychological safety in a group which leads to business impact for the organization and career impact for the individual.

Without EQ, there is no psychological safety!

Coaching :

If we analyze two interesting surveys from Google "Project Aristotle" and "Project Oxygen", they clearly tell us about Psychological Safety and Coaching are the primary success factors.

ICF defines coaching as

Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.

Professional Coaching which is rooted in systems thinking plays a valuable role in fostering the EQ of an individual which makes the team experience the value of psychological safety and become a high-performing team. And, provides an opportunity to identify themselves with the bigger system.

The role of any coach is to help the individual to remember his wings called emotional intelligence and fly high in a spacious sky of Self Confidence.

"A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because its trust is not on the branch but on its own wings.” ― Charlie Wardle

Authentic vulnerability expresses itself when the room is energized with the Emotional Intelligence field which is crucial for a Psychologically safe environment!

In the next article, we explore various frameworks of Psychological Safety and learn the practices from the insights of great thought leaders.

References:

Psychological Safety Pillar e-book

Sincere thanks to the inspiring work from Tom Geraghty!

My hearty thanks to all my well-wishers Katrijn van Oudheusden  Gab Ciminelli Mohammad Umar Farooq Piers Thurston John Sambrook Naresh Datta HP Sairam Venkataraman  Dr.Viswanatha Sivam Krishnamurthy Carlo Mahfouz Matthew Sutcliffe  Salvador Bosque for the continuous encouragement

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