Psychological safety

What is psychological safety?

Psychological safety is a belief shared by a team that it is safe to take interpersonal risks, such as raising a concern or admitting a mistake. Organizational scholars first explored the idea in the 1960s. Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School applied it to teams in a 1999 study of 51 work teams, which linked it to learning behavior and, through learning, to team performance.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

Sales teams depend on bad news arriving early. A seller who expects blame for a slipping deal may keep it in the forecast until the last week of the quarter, and the miss lands on the CRO. How a manager reacts to the first lost deal of the quarter shapes what the rest of the team reports afterward. In a PE-backed company where the sponsor reads the forecast closely, a team that surfaces risk early gives the leader time to act.

A sales manager at a fire and life safety company hears in a team meeting that a seller lost an inspection contract after missing its renewal date. She thanks the seller for raising it and asks the group what would have caught it sooner. Two other sellers then flag renewals they are worried about, and both are saved.