Is your workplace toxic? One action you can take as a leader | 002

It's about the leader's role in creating exclusive teams. This is important because you often hear about workplaces being toxic, and it's essential to create environments where team members feel valued and safe to express themselves. So we're gonna be talking about things like what it means to have a toxic workplace, what psychological safety means and steps you can take.

Psychologically safe workplace and how one of these actions in particular is critical to anything else you do to create a psychologically safe work environment. Now, the name of the podcast is Coffee with Mike, and I am here drinking coffee and I love coffee. If you ever want to get coffee, let me know.

And the type of coffee I'm drinking is from Greenwood Lake Coffee Roasters in Greenwood Lake, New York, and it's the Greenwood Lake, Sumatra and Columbia Blend. This is my favorite, favorite coffee and Greenwood Lake is in the Hudson Valley. And just really, really good, good coffees. So let's talk about what a toxic work.

Fear of speaking up or retaliation. Now this is just an overview of what it is and it gets more specific than that if you look into it. But that's roughly what we mean. Or just think of it as a place where there, there's nothing but fear in the workplace. Every, you know, fear everywhere, and it's a negative environment.

That was her name, especially in the context of high performing teams. So when psychological safety is present, people feel safe. Be themselves and they are just contributing openly, leading to better collaboration, innovation, and learning. And many years ago, I learned about what it meant to not have psychological safety be in a toxic environment.

So my career. Started as a drummer and I have to share this story and be as vague as possible. So I'm not naming specific names here, but all I will say is I was part of a music group, and I'm not gonna say the name of it, and the leader of the group was a great leader. I mean, the group made some great music but was really, really.

And I wish I would've had better memories. And I know for a fact that other members of this group struggled with the same thing as well. And you know, it was really interesting that over time the , amount of I. Band members dwindled and basically it's non-existent at this point.

And you know, I'm not blaming this person solely, but you know, it starts at the top. So that was a real lesson for me and it made me conscientious. So now as a CEO, I would love to tell you that I run a psychologically safe company. No. I'm working towards it. I'm working towards it, and we're gonna talk about that some more.

You don't see the company as toxic probably because you don't have to deal with people. I mean, you do have to deal with people, but you can quickly get off the video meeting and go do your thing.

Employees who say that their workplace is toxic are 47% more likely to cite mental health issues compared to those who do not cite a toxic workplace. For CEOs, this is even higher at 64%. So there's a relationship between the perception of workplace toxicity and the stigma associated with mental health issues.

Whew, that's a lot right there. So that is. Important to know. But there's another case here for psychological safety and it's called the case for productivity. Like great employees say they want it, but what does it do for a company? What does it do for the bottom line?

So this is important because. It makes the case for why as a leader, we need to focus on psychological safety. So now I wanna give you some pointers to get started making your workplace or home or team or nonprofit organization more psychologically safe. These are important takeaways, and the first one is the most important.

Share lessons learned from your own failures and let your team see that it's okay not to have all the answers. We come from school, which is a good place to go to when you're a kid and in school. You know, we're rewarded for having the answer, being the know-it-all as a leader. You start becoming the know-it-all, you're just gonna annoy people and piss them off.

So it's important to understand that when you're leading your job is to serve and support and empower and be strategic and move a company vision forward. And that does not mean having all the answers. So it's really important to have that vulnerability and humility. This is something I have to do a lot.

Don't interrupt. Listen to understand, not just to respond. This could be true for everybody, right? Acknowledge people's input with gratitude, even if you don't agree. Use reflective statements, like what I hear you saying is blank. Number three, invite participation. Ask for input from quieter voices in the room.

I have someone on my team who does not. Speak up, and I think it's a cultural thing, and I ask this person constantly what their thoughts are on this because it's important that they're included. Rotate who speaks first to avoid groupthink. Sometimes the loudest one in the room is the one who just dominates the conversation and use open-ended questions like, what's your take on this?

Ask your team for feedback on your leadership style. Use prompts, like, what's one thing I could do differently to support you better? Now I wanna share a story about how I did this, because this is one that just speaks to my heart here. One of our workplace mental health courses, uh, connectivity and conversations, has an assessment or several assessments.

And one of the assessments is to assess. You know, your, your leadership or ask people for your input on your leadership and get an assessment. And I decided before a team meeting with my team to do the assessment thinking I, you know, maybe not be excellent, but I should be pretty good. I mean, we created this product, right?

What I learned from that, and I specifically said, you know, I micromanage, sometimes I withhold information. Sometimes I'm not clear in my communication, and I, I could see them right now in my mind just nodding, going, yep, yep. But I think it was an important thing to do because. It shows them them that I'm human.

And number seven, respond. Don't react. Let me say that again. Respond. Don't react. Pause before responding to difficult feedback or mistakes. Ask yourself, am I creating more safety or more fear right now? It's an important question to ask yourself, am I creating more safety or fear right now? Dave Ramsey, the financial guru, talks about leadership.

Go into the bathroom and look in the mirror. It's you. And that's really always stuck with me and really sums up what's important to do and why I took that assessment. So all of this in mind, I want you to do something here. So I wanna ask yourself what's I want you to ask yourself, what's one small step that you can take today to begin improving psychological safety?

Psychological safety, on the other hand, is the belief that you can speak up. Take risks, ask questions or admit mistakes without fear of punishment, embarrassment or negative consequences to your self-image status or career. It starts with you modeling vulnerability and humility. Thank you so much for listening today.

We've got a lot more coming your way in terms of episodes here for leaders, and I look forward to getting coffee again with you sometime. Thanks again for being mikevenyhere