Psychological Safety

I know what you are thinking…I thought the same thing, too, when I heard the words psychologically safe environment. Keep reading, it will not be a waste of time…I promise.

Mental toughness is key to success in any field. In order to be successful, we need to be able to withstand the pressure and keep going no matter what. But how do you develop mental toughness? One way is by creating a psychologically safe environment. So as coaches, let’s look at a few things that could help us create a safe space for our players to grow and thrive.

There are 6 attributes that we are going to examine for creating a psychologically safe space, and they are as follows:

1. Providing athletes with choices
2. Providing rationale for tasks
3. Acknowledge our athletes’ feelings (super important)
4. Give players the opportunity to do independent work
5. Provide non-controlling competence feedback
6. Prevent ego-involvement in athletes vs. task involvement

Team psychological safety is defined as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. When players on the team are in a psychologically safe environment, they will play in a power channel. When players play in a power channel, they will be trusting, calm, loose, relaxed, focused, confident, powerful, inspired, and feel challenged and purposeful. When players are not in a psychologically safe environment, they will play in a weak channel. In a week channel, players play heated, tight, tense, overwhelmed, shaky, tired, panicked, rushed, angry, frustrated, worried, anxious, doubting, feel threatened, confused, and overloaded.

Now, let’s examine the attributes of creating a space that is psychologically safe for our team

Giving our players the opportunity to have a choice is essential. We need to remember that our players are individuals with their own set of experiences, values, and beliefs. Consequently, they will have their own way of seeing the game and approaching competition. It is our job as coaches to provide them with the resources and support they need to be successful in their chosen approach.

When we provide our players with the rationale for the tasks they are being asked to do, it allows them to understand the “why” behind what they are doing. It also allows them to see how their individual role fits into the bigger picture of the team’s success. If we can create an environment where our players feel like they have a real purpose or role on the team, it goes a long way towards creating a psychologically safe environment.

As a coach, you will struggle with this one, but trust me when you incorporate how you feel into skills and drills, something spectacular happens to their performance. The more you isolate but don’t overuse this tactic, the more the player will begin the transition to becoming a world class athlete that loves to practice. Our players should know that, on and off the ice, we have their backs and will stand in any fight for them. When we take the time to listen to our athletes and understand how they are feeling, in turn, it builds a relationship of trust and respect. Sometimes, as coaches, we can be so focused on getting our athletes to perform at their highest level that we forget to acknowledge how they might be feeling and if that could be affecting their performance. Acknowledging and validating an athlete’s feelings are key components of creating a psychologically safe environment.

Giving our athletes the independence to make choices allows you as the coach to be their trusted advisor on the journey with them as they fail and succeed.  You will create a relationship that will last a lifetime. Creating space for indepence shows that we trust them to be able to work on their own and that we have faith in their abilities. It also allows them to take ownership of their training and performance. This is a key attribute in creating psychological safety because it gives athletes a sense of control and empowerment.

CONTROL YOUR MOUTH…in simplest terms. Empower them for a lifetime, not in the moment, play the long game here. When we provide feedback, it is so important that we do so in a way that does not make the athlete feel controlled. We want our athletes to feel like they are in control of their training and their performance. One way to do this is to provide what is called “non-controlling competence feedback.” This type of feedback is when we give the criticism in a way that does not make the athlete feel like we are making decisions for them. That can easily push players to feel insecure in how they operate in performance. Use “I” statements when providing feedback. For example, instead of saying “You need to work on your mental toughness,” we could say “I noticed that you seemed to get frustrated. How can we fix this and move past it in an effective way?” This approach allows the athlete to take accountability but also feel like we are in this together. Creating an “us” instead of a “them and us” is the objective.

In other words, ensure the athlete is focused on the task rather than their self-image. This can look like ensuring your body language is open and that you are engaged with what they are saying. Perhaps avoid crossed arms or looking at your phone while they are speaking. In actuality, it really comes down to showing our players respect. Ego involvement creates an environment where athletes feel like they have to prove themselves, which puts unnecessary pressure on them and a strain on their performance.

Creating a psychologically safe environment and creating the right team only helps to push our players past the limits of what they believe is possible, and that’s a huge win because a lot of our limitations are self-imposed. An important point to keep in mind is that fear helps explain why. Most of our players, out of fear, would rather risk underperforming than ask a question, fearing judgment. So, as coaches, it is our duty to create spaces that groom physical fitness, mental strength, and the readiness to tackle anything that stands against our teams.

Yes, I know. That was A LOT! Take it one step at a time, be patient with yourself and them, it’s a new day of building a trusting environment.

For more on creating a psychologically safe environment, feel free to read the journal article below.