I have two little dogs, one of whom is named Munchie. He's cute,
sweet, and a great companion; unfortunately he has an incredibly weak stomach.
Every morning I give them each half of a hard-boiled egg to start the day. I started doing this while covid stay at home orders were first put in place and the
boys liked it so much I've just kept doing it.
The other morning I got an egg out of the fridge, peeled off the shell, and cut it up into little pieces for each of them. Munchie trundled over, ate his first piece out of my hand
and immediately barfed right into my open palm.
My mind went blank for a second and then quickly cycled through a carousel of possible reactions - should I get mad at my little friend? Give up
on morning eggs forever? Barf myself? Thankfully I settled on calmly getting up, washing off my hand, and giving the dogs the rest of their eggs.
Why... oh why am I telling this story? I think there's a lesson about leadership in all that
puke.
In 2012, Google
started a project - dubbed Project
Aristotle - to understand what makes a team really work. They looked at all sorts of things like the specifics of individuals in the team and team processes and found that one thing impacted a team's likelihood of succeeding more than anything else: Psychological Safety.
Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor, defines "phycological safety" as a "shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking." These effective teams were made up of people who trusted that their teammates were open to new ideas and weren't looking to backstab or find fault for ego's sake.
Psychological safety gives people energy from understanding they have the freedom to try, be themselves, and sometimes fail without the rest of the team falling upon them like Brutus and his friends on the Ides of March.
An important disclaimer: This is not a recommendation that you should let people
overstep your boundaries. Boundaries are healthy and folks violating clearly set boundaries are likely not people you should engage with.
To create these psychologically safe environments, leaders have to be conscious of whether our reactions to
mistakes, failure, and different approaches create an environment that is supports team members in the midst of a challenge, or tears them down.
Sometimes your team members, you
friends, and your family are going to barf in your hands. The way you react is going to shape how comfortable they are coming to you and collaborating with you in the future.
✨🎇🎆
Other Stories.
- Vans Stab High Central America - I love surfing, and do it poorly. This web series from Van's is such a fun look at a group from all over the world ripping in an off the wall surf contest whose rules seem...
flexible.
