Psychological safety is one of the most talked-about concepts in leadership today. But what happens when growth, change, and pressure begin to test the trust organizations have worked so hard to build?
In this episode of Beyond the Class, Chapman Foundation Chief Program Officer Katie Trotter explores a common misconception: psychological safety is not a cultural perk or a leadership personality trait. It is a strategic capability that must be intentionally built, reinforced, and practiced over time.
Throughout the conversation, Katie highlights how trust becomes sustainable when leadership behaviors, team norms, and organizational systems work together to create environments where people feel safe contributing, learning, challenging ideas, and growing.
Six Strategies That Help Trust Hold:
- Shared Language Creates Predictability
- Trust Is Built Through Consistent Leader Behavior
- Clear Expectations Reduce Unnecessary Fear
- Feedback Normalized as a Skill
- Recognition Signals Belonging
- Systems Reinforce What Matters
LEVEL UP OPPORTUNITY
Before your next team meeting, ask:
“What is one thing we might be hesitant to talk about that would help us move forward?”
Then:
- Listen without interrupting
- Thank the person for raising it
- Stay curious before becoming corrective
Small moments of curiosity and openness can send powerful signals that honest input is welcome and valued.
RELATED RESOURCES
BLOG: Trust That Holds
WEBSITE: Caring Workplace Program
AUDIOCAST: 006-Rebuilding Trust When You’ve Messed Up
CHAPTER MARKERS
1 – 00:00 – Why Psychological Safety Matters More Than Ever
2 – 01:56 – Psychological Safety Is a Strategic Capability
3 – 03:43 – Strategy #1: Shared Language Creates Predictability
4 – 06:06 – Strategy #2: Trust Is Built Through Consistent Leader Behavior
5 – 07:08 – Strategy #3: Clear Expectations Reduce Unnecessary Fear
6 – 08:17 – Strategy #4: Feedback Normalized as a Skill
7 – 09:48 – Strategy #5: Recognition Signals Belonging
8 – 13:09 – Strategy #6: Systems Reinforce What Matters
9 – 14:06 – What Psychological Safety Looks Like in Practice & Misconceptions
10 – 17:15 – Level Up Opportunity: Asking the Question No One Wants to Ask
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Psychological safety is built through consistent practices, not programs.
- Trust grows through consistency, not charisma.
- Clear expectations reduce uncertainty and improve performance.
- Feedback and recognition help people feel valued and supported.
- Systems reinforce the behaviors and values that shape culture.
- Psychological safety supports honest conversations, learning, and growth.
AI-generated dictation of the podcast audio
Please note that this transcription was completed using AI software. Occasionally, unanticipated grammatical, syntax, homophones, and other interpretive errors are inadvertently transcribed by the software. Please excuse any errors that have escaped final proofreading.
Adam Salgat 0:00
What’s one misunderstanding you wish more leaders would let go of?
Katie Trotter 0:04
The belief that psychological safety means comfort. It doesn’t. Psychological safety isn’t the absence of accountability, tension, or difficult conversations.
Adam Salgat 0:16
Welcome to Beyond the Class: From Knowledge to Action, the audio cast that helps Chapman Foundation alumni turn skills into practical, intentional actions for everyday life. I’m your host, Adam Salgat. Today we’re talking about psychological safety, a concept that’s become central to conversations about leadership, trust, and workplace culture. Let’s look at a few data points to frame our conversation. Google’s landmark Project Aristotle study found that psychological safety was the single most important factor separating high-performing teams from the rest. It mattered more than team composition, seniority, or individual talent. According to McKinsey, 89% of employees say psychological safety is essential in the workplace, and decades of research from Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson have shown that when people feel safe speaking up about concerns, mistakes, and new ideas, organizations learn faster, collaborate better, and adapt more efficiently. So, if psychological safety is that important? Why does it disappear when organizations face growth, uncertainty, or pressure? To help us answer that question, I’m joined by Katie Trotter, Chief Program Officer at the Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities. Katie, welcome back.
Katie Trotter 1:38
Thanks, Adam. It’s great to be here, and I think that question gets right to the heart of the challenge. Most leaders genuinely want people to feel safe and valued, but psychological safety isn’t sustained by good intentions alone. It requires shared strategies that help organizations maintain trust even when things become difficult.
Adam Salgat 1:56
And that’s really like the focus of your most recent blog titled “Trust That Holds. One of the things that stood out to me was your statement: the psychological safety is not a cultural perk; it’s a strategic capability. What do you mean by that?
Katie Trotter 2:11
I think a lot of organizations treat psychological safety as something that leaders create through things like personality, approachability, or even empathy. And don’t get me wrong, Adam. Those qualities absolutely matter. But psychological safety isn’t something that leaders perform. It’s something that organizations cultivate. We know that people feel psychologically safe when they experience consistency over time. Things like consistent expectations, feedback, consistent leadership responses, consistency that comes to signals about what matters, and when those experiences are present, trust grows. So then it makes sense if trust grows when they’re there. When they’re missing, people start to become cautious, and then when your people are so busy protecting themselves, they’re focused on that instead of contributing their best thinking,
Adam Salgat 3:02
yeah, that’s interesting because I think many leaders assume that if I care about people, they’ll naturally just feel safe, right? But you’re saying care is important, yet it isn’t sufficient by itself.
Katie Trotter 3:15
Exactly, care without structure can become inconsistent, and then trust, as I mentioned, struggles to grow in that inconsistency. People aren’t sitting around simply asking, “Does my leader care? What they’re asking is, “Can I predict how this environment works? Is it okay for me to raise my concerns? Can I ask a question? Is it okay for me to make a mistake and learn from it? Psychological safety emerges when those answers become reliably clear.
Adam Salgat 3:43
So your blog outlines six strategies to help psychological safety spread and hold throughout an organization. Let’s start walking through them. Strategy number one: shared language creates predictability. What’s the connection between shared language and psychological safety,
Katie Trotter 4:03
Adam, I feel like I’m having flashbacks because I think we’ve covered this in a few different audiocasts that we’ve done together. Because the shared language is so powerful, when you have teams that lack shared language, people end up spending a lot of energy just trying to interpret conversations. They are wondering what someone really meant. They question whether it was safe to raise a concern. They worry about how their words will be received. It takes so much energy away from where it could be spent. Shared language is a way to reduce that uncertainty. When teams have common ways to talk about emotions, impact, expectations, and needs, communication becomes way more predictable, and in that space, people start to gain confidence that they can express themselves without creating unnecessary conflict.
Adam Salgat 4:49
Right. So instead of spending so much energy decoding a conversation, people actually spend their energy contributing to conversations.
Katie Trotter 4:57
Exactly.
Adam Salgat 4:59
What is one. Of the ways that the Chapman Foundation helps organizations create a shared language,
Katie Trotter 5:04
a lot of this comes through our work through the Caring Workplaces. We do learning and development trainings with teams, and what that allows us to do is just kind of level set with what are some terms that we can use, what are some common definitions that we’re able to all come back to, and it just creates a great foundation for teams to navigate.
Adam Salgat 5:24
Also, what about our foundational class? How our community listens. Our community serves. Are those some of the first stepping stones that organizations or individuals end up taking as well?
Katie Trotter 5:33
Absolutely, especially when we think about psychological safety. Our community listens talks a lot about how do we really understand the strengths that different people bring to the team, how to listen while staying out of judgment, and even in serves, we really work to have some common language around things like accountability and some of those more challenging topics for teams to talk through.
Adam Salgat 5:54
Awesome. Let’s move on to tip number two. You’ve mentioned this: trust is built through consistent leader behavior. Tell me why consistency matters so much.
Katie Trotter 6:06
Because leaders are emotional reference points. People are paying attention to how their leaders respond, especially when pressure is high. If a leader reacts one way on a Monday and a completely different way on Tuesday, people begin to feel uncertain, and when people start to feel uncertain, that’s when we start to see a lot of silence creep in. And again, what we mentioned earlier, people are so distracted using their energy to try to decode what their leader actually wants. Trust grows when leaders regulate themselves, respond instead of react, and provide steady signals during difficult moments.
Adam Salgat 6:41
There was a statement in your blog that I really loved: trust grows through consistency, not charisma. The concept here of building trust through consistency, not just like all the promises in the world from someone who’s got lots of energy. I love this concept.
Katie Trotter 6:59
Yes, and nothing against charisma, right? Charisma might do a great job of attracting people, but consistency is what helps people stay engaged and speak up.
Adam Salgat 7:08
So, moving on to tip number three: clear expectations reduce unnecessary fear. How does clarity play a role in creating psychological safety at work?
Katie Trotter 7:20
One of the fastest ways to create anxiety is ambiguity in what success looks like. If people don’t understand that, or how decisions are made, or who owns what, they naturally start protecting themselves. Human instinct kicks in. Ironically, many leaders think being caring means removing discomfort, but it is more than that, and often the most caring thing we can provide is clarity. Clear expectations reduce guesswork. They help people take risks because they understand the boundaries they’re operating within.
Adam Salgat 7:48
So psychological safety isn’t about lowering standards, really, or making it easier for the team.
Katie Trotter 7:53
Not at all. It’s about helping people clearly understand the standards. And I feel like in those spaces where people have a clear understanding of where they’re at. Their head’s not distracted by ambiguity. That’s when you really start to see people’s best skills get contributed to the team. They’re bringing their ideas, their concerns, and people are really productive.
Adam Salgat 8:12
I’m guessing that really helps feed innovation and growth.
Katie Trotter 8:16
Absolutely.
Adam Salgat 8:17
Our fourth strategy is feedback normalized as a skill? This one feels particularly relevant because feedback often carries so much emotional weight. It
Katie Trotter 8:28
does, Adam. In many organizations, feedback only appears when something goes wrong, and as a result, people start associating feedback with criticism. But psychologically safe organizations normalize feedback as just a part of the learning process. When feedback is regular, timely, and expected, it becomes a lot less threatening. It shifts from correction to development, and over time, again, when people see that consistently done, they start to become more comfortable being seen as works in progress, rather than believing they have to appear perfect.
Adam Salgat 9:04
Do you think leaders ever struggle with setting a good example in this space where they feel like they have to be perfect? I
Katie Trotter 9:11
think that happens a lot, Adam. I think for leaders, sometimes there is this expectation they place on themselves that they’re going to be more respected or that their team members will feel better if they never see their leader make a mistake or always know the right answer, and we’re just not seeing that in the research.
Adam Salgat 9:30
So leaders making sure that they open up and take accountability and be vulnerable, I suppose, helps.
Katie Trotter 9:36
Yeah, overwhelmingly, what we’re seeing is that sets the standard for the rest of the team to really acknowledge that going through work and trying new ideas and and learning from our mistakes is really a way to create high performing teams.
Adam Salgat 9:48
Another way that leaders can consider being vulnerable is by showing recognition. So that is our fifth tip: recognition signals belonging, and I think. Recognition is another form of feedback, isn’t it?
Katie Trotter 10:02
Yes, it’s an incredibly powerful form of feedback.
Adam Salgat 10:06
Interesting. So, if we make giving feedback a skill and use it to also give recognition, I’m guessing that helps remove the stigma of feedback. That feedback is always going to be something that’s deep in criticism. What else does recognition do?
Katie Trotter 10:21
Recognition is an incredibly powerful tool. People are more likely to contribute when they believe their contributions matter, and recognition is a way to help communicate that exact message. And I’m not talking about generic praise. Great job! You’re awesome. Rocking it. Specific recognition is powerful because it helps people understand the value that they bring to the team. When effort, growth, and impact are acknowledged, people gain confidence that their voice belongs in the conversation.
Adam Salgat 10:52
Have you ever seen or picked up on blind spots that leaders might have when it comes to the type of recognition that they’re putting out there for people?
Katie Trotter 11:00
Oh, I I can give you a case study, Adam, because I was definitely aware of a blind spot after I went through our transforms training. Because as a leader, we often recognize the things that are most important to us or that we notice the most. So for me, as a leader, I was constantly in meetings around outcomes, things that were produced, the number of people in classes, and so I was constantly delivering recognition about these outcomes. What I was not having on my radar were the people who were stepping out of their comfort zones to try something new, people who were growing into a new skill set that they’d never had before, and when recognition can be verbally given in those spaces equally, you start to see people really come to the table feeling like their effort belongs there.
Adam Salgat 11:48
So that’s that was for you. The blind spot was the idea of like the work being done to get to these outcomes, and I suppose that sometimes even if an outcome fell short, it might have you might have lost track of you know rewarding the hard work or recognizing I should say recognizing the hard work that someone did.
Katie Trotter 12:06
Absolutely, I remember being in a team meeting one time where we had a project that didn’t go the way we anticipated, and the leader of the group thanked us for failing quickly and learning some great lessons from it. And I remember that really sticking with me through the years.
Adam Salgat 12:20
Whew, whew! Are those sirens? Is that the FBI? Katie, tell me why I might be bringing up the FBI right now.
Katie Trotter 12:30
I’m guessing, Adam, that it’s because I mentioned specific recognition and not generic phrases.
Adam Salgat 12:36
Ding ding ding! Feeling, behavior, impact, and I have written a quick feeling, behavior, impact statement for you. A quick recognition statement. When you tell me you’re excited to see me to record these episodes, I feel appreciated and seen, and it makes me want to excel in the execution of our audio casts.
Katie Trotter 12:55
Adam, that was perfect. And even in this context, just hearing kind of that specific feedback on what it is that I did, not only does it make me feel good, so that that actually did work, but it also makes me want to do more of that the next time we get to work together.
Adam Salgat 13:09
Awesome, awesome. Well, as we’re getting through this, we’re almost near the end of this episode. This is our final strategy: systems reinforce what matters. Why did you save systems for your last tip?
Katie Trotter 13:25
Because systems are often the hidden factor. Organizations can talk about trust and care all day long, but employees learn what truly matters by watching the systems around them. They look at things like your hiring practices, onboarding experiences, performance reviews, how promotion decisions are made, and different recognition programs. These systems quietly teach people what behaviors are actually valued. When you have systems that reinforce trust, accountability, and care, psychological safety becomes sustainable and consistent. Like we talked about earlier, when systems contradict those values, trust becomes much harder to maintain.
Adam Salgat 14:06
All right, Katie, let’s take this into practical space. Let’s make this feel a little more real. If a leader wants to know whether psychological safety exists on their team, what are some signs they should look for?
Katie Trotter 14:19
It’s a great question, Adam. And there are a few different things that you could look for when you have an organization that has high psychological safety. You often see people asking questions without worrying about appearing uninformed. You’ll hear people raising concerns before problems become crisis because they know people want to hear their thoughts. People speak up and admit mistakes and focus on learning instead of beating themselves up for it. You’ll hear people offering different perspectives in a respectful way. There’s a lot of giving and receiving of feedback without becoming defensive. And another thing that you’ll commonly see is people staying engaged during healthy disagreement rather than withdrawing. All of those different behaviors are signals that people are really trusting the environment.
Adam Salgat 15:04
I can think of a few complete opposites of what is going to be seen when I ask this following question. So, but I want you to spell it out because I think it’s good to say them right. So, when psychological safety is missing, what can a leader see?
Katie Trotter 15:18
You’re absolutely right, Adam. You often see the opposite. People are staying quiet. Meetings feel safe on the surface, but you can tell that there are important issues that never get discussed. Feedback gets delayed instead of being delivered in a timely way, or maybe not delivered at all. Mistakes get hidden because people are fearful of the consequence, and as a result, innovation slows down. And I want to point out that the end result isn’t always going to lead to an outward conflict because the warning signs of silence can linger for a long, long time.
Adam Salgat 15:49
So your blog highlights where leaders commonly get stuck. What’s one misunderstanding you wish more leaders would let go of? The
Katie Trotter 15:57
belief that psychological safety means comfort. It doesn’t. Psychological safety isn’t the absence of accountability, tension, or difficult conversations. In fact, psychologically safe organizations often have more honest conversations because people trust that they can navigate disagreement productively. The goal is not comfort. The goal is creating an environment where people can contribute, learn, challenge ideas, and grow without fear of humiliation or punishment.
Adam Salgat 16:31
All right, Katie. Let’s quickly recap the six strategies that help trust hold inside an organization.
Katie Trotter 16:37
Number one: shared language creates predictability. Number two, trust is built through consistent leader behavior.
Adam Salgat 16:47
Number three, clear expectations reduce unnecessary fear. Number four, feedback normalized as a skill.
Katie Trotter 16:57
Number five, recognition signals belonging, and our last one, number six, systems reinforce what matters. And when these six elements work together consistently, psychological safety becomes something people experience, not just something leaders talk about.
Adam Salgat 17:15
All right, Katie. Always, always, always, my favorite question: What’s one level up opportunity listeners can try this week.
Katie Trotter 17:24
Before your next team meeting, ask one simple question: What is one thing we might be hesitant to talk about that would help us move forward? And then do three things in the meeting: Listen without interrupting, thank the person for raising it, and then stay curious before becoming corrective. That small moment can send a powerful signal that honest input is welcome and valued.
Adam Salgat 17:49
If today’s conversation resonated with you, share it with a colleague, teammate, or leader who is working to build stronger trust within their organization. Katie, thank you for joining us and helping us understand more about psychological safety. If someone wants to bring more of these skills into their team, into their organization, what can we do for them?
Katie Trotter 18:10
If a person wants to check out our website to see our different learning sessions, we would love to work with teams or organizations that are interested in a learning session on psychological safety. We also love to have the bigger conversation around how psychological safety fits within a bigger cultural strategy,
Adam Salgat 18:25
and that would be learning more, I suppose, about our caring workplace program.
Katie Trotter 18:29
Yes,
Adam Salgat 18:30
Katie, thanks again for being here. Always so grateful to spend time with you and share these skills.
Katie Trotter 18:35
Thanks, Adam. It’s been great to be here.
Adam Salgat 18:38
Until next time, we’re inviting you to walk your path with intention, because you are the message. Take care, my friends.
