A number of years ago a person in a training class of mine shared a story. I am retelling it with her permission. Let’s call her Sue. Sue had returned to work after taking a sabbatical under the Family Medical Leave Act. During her first one-on-one with her boss, Sue’s boss asked, “How are you
Newly divorced. Only 24 years old. I was raw. Trying to claw my way out of feeling like a failure, I enrolled in college for the first time. During my first semester, I mustered the courage to compete in a speech event. I practiced my carefully crafted speech in front my parents … their response
Recently I had a conversation with a high-level leader about psychological safety. She told me, “This sounds like HR fluff and honestly, it would never fly here.” I appreciated this person’s honesty, but at the same time she epitomized exactly why psychological safety is critically important in the places most resistant to it. Had I
I had a coworker who rolled his eyes when I talked and would “humph” under his breath. I remember feeling insecure and afraid to speak up. This was almost 20 years ago, and the problem was a lack of psychological safety on our team. I want to prevent this problem on your teams because it
