The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human

by Karolin Helbig, Minette Norman

Overview

*Nonfiction Book Award Silver Medal*

*2023 NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite*

The how-to guide for transformative leadership

Every employee, at every level, wants to feel seen, heard, and respected. If we don't feel safe, we can't be our best selves or do our most creative work. This is why leaders must ensure psychological safety for everyone in their team. Whether you're a manager, CEO, or entrepreneur, The Psychological Safety Playbook is the guide you need to lead your team to the highest levels of performance and innovation.

The Psychological Safety Playbook invites you to explore twenty-five specific actions that will create more psychological safety in your workplace. These are all moves that every leader can adopt and practice. Each move features a description of why to try it, instructions on how to do it, and a nutshell summary. You can start anywhere in the playbook-all the plays and moves are self-contained!

Written by Karolin Helbig, a highly respected executive mindset coach with a doctorate in human genetics and extensive consulting experience, and Minette Norman, a sought-after leadership consultant with thirty years of experience in the tech sector, The Psychological Safety Playbook is the essential guide for leaders who are committed to fostering psychological safety in their teams.

In their combined years of business and applied practice, the authors have continually observed how creating a high-performing, innovative workforce starts with building a foundation of respect and shared humanity. When we hold back our true thoughts because we're afraid of the consequences, everyone misses out. By contrast, when we can ask a naïve question, propose a wild idea, or share our honest emotions-that's when psychological safety fuels team performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774583098
Publisher:	Page Two Press
Publication date:	02/22/2023
Pages:	166
Sales rank:	96,678
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Karolin Helbig is an internationally recognized leadership consultant who coaches diverse, high-ranking clients to reach their full potential. Guided by her conviction that true leadership begins from within, Helbig's workshops and team coachings are rooted in the foundations of mindfulness and emotional intelligence. With this foundation, psychological safety is the essential vitamin needed by any ambitious team. With a PhD in human genetics, extensive consulting experience at McKinsey, and clients from diverse industries, Helbig offers an innovative, empathic approach that yields high-impact results.

Minette Norman is an accomplished speaker and consultant who brings decades of leadership experience in the software industry to her dynamic speaking engagements and impactful consultancy. A believer in the power of vibrant and diverse professional landscapes, Norman's workshops and consulting engagements focus on developing inclusive leaders who bring out the best in their global, multicultural teams. A celebrated keynote speaker on inclusive workplaces, transformative leadership, and psychological safety, she was named one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times. She is the author of The Boldly Inclusive Leader.

Editorial Reviews

2023-04-06
Helbig and Norman declare that it’s time to make the office friendly to dissenting ideas, diverse employees, and human foibles in this leadership primer.

The authors, leadership consultants who were formerly a management consultant and a corporate executive, introduce readers to the corporate “psychological safety” movement, which seeks to enable employees to fully participate in the organization, speak their minds, and pursue novel initiatives without fear of punishment, enabling them to counteract the tendencies toward groupthink and institutional sclerosis in organizations that are rigidly hierarchical. Helbig and Norman present a series of “plays” that can be developed by learning practical skills. These skills include “communicating courageously” with underlings about uncomfortable issues; listening attentively; managing one’s reactions and avoiding getting defensive and angry when co-workers disagree with you; tolerating risk and failure as the necessary prices of learning new things; admitting when you need help and thanking people for their contributions; and knowing how to “design inclusive rituals”—like appointing an “Inclusion Booster”—to make sure that everyone gets heard. The authors convey all this with a mix of concise theory, bullet-pointed tips, and Helbig’s sprightly stick-figure illustrations. The book in large part boils down to a hands-on manual for running team meetings, a central institution of corporate life, in a productive fashion. Writing in lucid, evocative prose, Helbig and Norman offer a deep analysis of the manager’s leadership role in meetings, covering everything from individual psychology (“notice your feelings and your bodily reactions”) to the nuances of group dynamics (“Be aware of people who look as if they want to contribute but are having trouble figuring out how to jump in, and invite them to speak”). The authors provide simple, deft scripts (“Rhonda didn’t get to finish what she was saying; I’d like to hear what she has to say before we move on”) that leaders can use to keep everyone involved in the conversation. The result is an enlightening look at improving corporate cultures at their roots.

A useful, pithy guide to a respectful and welcoming workplace.

Kirkus Reviews