Managing Teams: Psychological Safety, Culture and Retention

A winning team is a system, not a star

Amid the justified hype around Deni Avdija, it is worth remembering that one player’s chance of winning an NBA championship is almost nil. A team wins a championship. Michael Jordan played six seasons before his first title, and testified that without a team working together he would not have won. In an organization it is the same: focusing on the talent of a single team member is an illusion that causes deep damage.

The tool: three steps to improve teamwork

• A team contract. A shared overarching goal, and each person’s exact contribution to it.
• Values as actions and not slogans on the wall. Not courage in general, but the courage to say my opinion respectfully, and the courage to listen without defensiveness.
• An honest team diagnostic. Mapping strengths and behavior gaps as a group, for shared awareness and not personal grades.

And one warning: don’t demand innovation before there are foundations. And if you need inspiration for what this looks like, watch Ted Lasso.

Psychological safety is not cotton candy

In an online discussion the question came up whether a manager is expected to be the nurturing parent at any cost, and whether toxicity in small doses might actually be good. This dichotomy, between a manager who wraps everyone in cotton candy and a manager who demands standards and is therefore toxic, is wrong. Psychological safety is the belief that you can speak, ask, admit a mistake and offer a different perspective without fear of embarrassment or punishment. Just as you cannot set a policy of working with motivation, you cannot set a policy of psychological safety.

The data. In Google’s research on team effectiveness, psychological safety ranked first among the five dynamics that distinguish effective teams, ahead of dependability, structure and clarity, meaning and impact. According to Google, members of such teams are less likely to leave, bring in more revenue and are rated as effective twice as often by senior managers.

When there is no direction, safety erodes too. For stability, every team member needs to understand four things:

• Where we are going: a vision.
• How we get there: clear tasks.
• Who does what: roles and boundaries.
• What is expected of me: clear standards.

The tools: modeling, vulnerability and the good apples

Leadership is creating culture through personal example. If you don’t listen, don’t allow mistakes and don’t reflect honestly, don’t expect the team to feel safe doing it. The rules of the game start with you. Three tools that work:

• Show vulnerability.
• Active listening: full, conscious listening to verbal and non-verbal messages alike.
• The good apples: a list of behaviors that reflect how you want employees to act. There is no universal version, it derives from your values, your managerial vision and the organization’s vision. When you see inappropriate behavior, step into the situation and act yourself the way you would want the employee to behave.

This holds in organizations with tenure too. A manager said to me: “now imagine the employees have tenure.” In my experience, most employees do not wake up in the morning aspiring to be average. Years in the organization made them institutionalized. Only after you have created an environment of psychological safety can you offer them new perspectives on the role and the organization.

Retention: if your best people are leaving

A manager complained that his third protégé was leaving, that it is like that with everyone he nurtured, and that today’s generation just wants money. I told him that if your best people leave, you are the problem. Employees look for a manager who is a human being, who cares for them as people and not just for the KPI and Excel files.

The data. A Gallup study found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement across business units. Engagement is not leaving, but the figure shows how much of what the team experiences depends on the manager.

Retention starts on day one. At a Scouts ceremony I heard that in fourth grade there were about 135 kids, and in ninth grade about 40 were left. It made me ask whether organizations really know how to retain talent, or even try. In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle describes how much good onboarding depends on a sense of belonging that focuses on the employee and not on the company. I have failed at this too, including the time I forgot to introduce a new employee in a team meeting.

And recognition is not only for senior people. When I arrive at an organization where I am known, people stop me for hallway consulting, and the common complaint is “I’m a small cog in the system and I want more.” It reminds me of a Tottenham match: the ball boy realized the opponent’s defense was not organized, returned the ball quickly, and it led to a goal that turned the game. Mourinho hugged him, mentioned him at the press conference and invited him to the team lunch. So what do you do?

• Appreciate the contribution of all employees, not only the stars.
• Encourage risk-taking and accept mistakes as a chance to grow.
• Give authority to act independently.
• Celebrate small wins especially.

An independent team: from control to a sense of capability

Independence is not doing things alone. It is a sense of capability, self-confidence and taking responsibility. Many managers complain about a lack of independence in the team while they themselves manage in a way that creates dependence. Building an independent team is not a technical action, but a change of managerial context: from control to developing a sense of capability.

There is a lesson here from the leadership of the Jewish community at the founding of the state, which had to build independence among hundreds of thousands of immigrants who had experienced uprooting and helplessness. Two organizational translations:

• Team identity, not only role definitions. For example: we are a team of problem solvers, not order takers. This is the principle of the Identity-Aligned Leadership model: when identity is clear, behavior becomes natural, and the employee acts on initiative because that is who they are.
• A shared language. A uniform terminology removes the dependence on intermediaries.

Periods of scarcity actually help with this. When there is money, it is easy to throw it at problems: retention solved with a raise, team building with a bonding day. Lack of resources forces managers to develop management skills they could previously do without. In such periods managers come to me with higher motivation and real openness to examine their functioning and their impact on employees. That ability is what will separate those who grow stronger from the change from those who stay behind. And this is why I don’t like the term soft skills. These skills, empowering the team, connecting it to the vision and moving it to action, are the core of the role. Organizations that failed to turn their managers into good managers lose good employees along the way. Let’s just call them skills.

Gen Z: the assumption that is damaging your team

“This generation doesn’t come to work, they’re spoiled, that’s just Gen Z.” I hear this countless times a month. It is not new. Every generation complains about the one that follows, as in the Lool sketch where the immigrants from each wave grumble about the next wave. The real challenge is to adapt management style to a changing world. Instead of blaming, ask: how can I be a better leader for this team? And do it from your values. Walk the talk is what creates inspiration and motivation.

And there is an opportunity in this generation too. Many young people look for work that lets them have an impact on the world. To make that possible, the organization itself has to be an active part of the doing, and the team has to see how its daily work connects to that impact.

A team in wartime

After October 7 I wrote about the importance of encouraging the team to keep carrying out tasks despite the difficulty, and I received private messages like “I don’t have the strength for this.” I tried to understand why on one hand it is hard to connect to tasks, and on the other people are already starting to move. I am not a resilience or trauma expert, so I turned to management models, first of all Google’s model for effective teams: structure and clarity, meaning, dependability, meaning the knowledge that I am not alone, and psychological safety. In a crisis, each of them becomes a simple action:

• Be there when an employee gets stuck.
• Hold daily team meetings and personal mid-day check-ins.
• Ask simple questions: how are you today? How can I help?

How this connects to the Identity-Aligned Leadership Cycle

In the Identity-Aligned Leadership Cycle I work with, this stage rests mainly on the impact step: trust, collaboration, performance and culture. In a team, the manager’s behavior becomes culture. What you do again and again is what the team learns is allowed and desired.

Frequently asked questions

What is psychological safety, and what is it not?

Psychological safety is the belief that you can speak, ask, admit a mistake and offer a different perspective without fear of embarrassment or punishment. It is not niceness, not agreement and not giving up standards. It is built interaction by interaction, through the manager’s personal example.

Why do the good employees leave?

Often because of the management. Employees look for a manager who is a human being, who sees them and appreciates their contribution, and doesn’t only track a KPI. And the manager matters: according to Gallup, managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement across business units.

How do you build an independent team?

Stop managing in a way that creates dependence. Define an identity for the team and not only roles, build a shared language, give authority to act, and move the focus from control to developing a sense of capability.

What do you do with an employee who feels like a small cog in the system?

Show them their contribution is seen. Appreciate also those who are not in the spotlight, give authority to act independently, accept mistakes as part of learning and celebrate small wins.

How do you build a team when there is no budget?

Precisely then. When there is no money to throw at problems, managers have to develop the skills themselves: a team contract, values translated into behavior, personal recognition and psychological safety. These don’t require a budget, they require managerial work.

Sources for the data

The tools and cases on this page are based on my LinkedIn posts, linked throughout the text. These are the sources for the data:

• Google re:Work. Understand team effectiveness
• Beck, R. & Harter, J. Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement. Gallup, April 21, 2015