Let your team fail

+ 3 ways to create psychological safety

Fitness is a huge priority of mine...

And within the walls of the gym, 'failure' has an entirely different meaning to the rest of life.

In the gym, failure is what we aim for.

Because ONLY when we reach our point of failure... Can our muscles break, and then repair.

In the gym, my GOAL is to FAIL. Because ONLY then can I grow.

I take this everyday into leadership - and we can ONLY grow if we pursue failure.

And as a result… My team ultimately felt much more psychologically safe.

Psychological safety is a shared belief in your team that they won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions or mistakes.

But this doesn’t happen naturally - we HAVE to actively build a culture of psychological safety.

Sounds exciting, but how do I actually do it?

I had learnt my failure lessons in the gym, and reflectd on the fact that all my personal failures were the biggest moments of growth in my life…

So here’s are the 3 ways I built a culture of psychological safety in my team

1. Build it into your reporting
   
   In monthly reporting meetings with my team, these are the questions I asked:

   • What went well, and how are we going to do more of it?

   • What didn’t go well, and how are we changing it?

   • What are we experimenting with this month?
     

   These questions will hold your team accountable, and encourage them, to fail regularly.

2. Actively search for personal rejection
   
   If I am not constantly being rejected, I am not asking or pushing for the greatest opportunities.

   If every answer is ‘yes’ - My ask is not big enough.

   If every project is a success - I am not pushing the boat out far enough.

   Seek rejection, log them, be proud of them.

   Celebrate knowing each NO gets you and your team a little bit closer to the right YES.

3. “Bad ideas only”
   
   This is a fun exercise I used to do with the team when we needed to be creative.

   Launch a new product, need new ideas of how to hit a target... anything.

   I’d start the meeting by saying “bad ideas only”

   Then everyone had fun bringing their (ordinarily ignored) thoughts to the table.

   So much comfort was created in those sessions - and we got the most innovate ideas from them too.

Summary

My journey in the gym taught me that failure is not ‘bad’ - but a vital part of growth.

I took this into leadership to build a culture of psychological safety within my team.

Through structured reporting, actively seeking rejection, and encouraging “bad ideas only” brainstorming sessions, we created an environment where everyone felt safe to innovate and grow.

Embracing failure not only strengthened our team, but led to some of our most significant successes.

Do you feel your team has the freedom to fail?

And how do you create' ‘psychological safety’? Let’s share ideas in the comments

All the best,

H

P.S. My course for new managers (Fresh Start) is well underway and enrollment is now closed.

We’re opening up for Cohort 2 in a few months time - don’t miss out on all the early bird pricing, get yourself on the waitlist here.