What tips do you have or thoughts around really trying to draw people out to speak up if they have concerns, challenges, questions, if they disagree in a safe space but they're not quite there yet?

Yeah, two things here.

One, you've got to really consider how you're asking people to speak up.

Because just saying speak up, not everyone's good at that.

Some people will speak up in writing.

Some people will speak up one-on-one.

If the only opportunity you're giving people is saying in a meeting, speak up, that will appeal to your more extroverted or assertive communicators.

there's a risk if we upset that person and rock the boat but they're in the old world and they don't want to come along necessarily or maybe they do but it's early days a tiptoeing behavior a bit of people pleasing or it can even the extreme of that just completely ignoring and you know very dictatorship kind of leadership this is the way it is and that's just it what tips do you have for people that are listening or watching that might resonate with this shift

To just build quickly on what you just said, it's funny.

The same leaders who will say to me, I don't have time for that or I don't do feelings, they just need to get on board with it and, you know, go, go, go, you know, that real old school command and control style.

They will also be the very same leaders who will come to me and say, Leah, How do I get better performance out of my – I need to get them on board.

Why is all my time spent dealing with people problems? It drives me nuts.

And, again, it's exactly that point.

It will cost you time but it will cost you more time because you're reactively then trying to put out spot fires because why aren't they just coming with me because you've steamrolled right ahead.

Yeah

... and the, the legislative part for a moment.

So if we look at psychological safety, essentially all that means is that anyone feels safe to speak up, to contribute, to be heard, without fear of being blamed, shamed, humiliated, belittled, you know, made to feel insignificant.

Where it has been confused, and p- sometimes weaponized, is people are confusing feeling unsafe with feeling uncomfortable.

So done well, psychological safety means we do speak up, we have robust debate and discussion, that we don't all just agree.

But somewhere along the way, um, it has been misconstrued, not by everyone, but by a lot of people, to go, you know, it's all about harmony.

Mm.

Decisions often build on each other and, you know, "Oh no, I don't like that bit, but, you know, I could take that and if we did this." So that, um, willingness to sit in the discomfort and have that resilience and understand that we're okay.

Is that kind of getting left behind?

It's a mixed bag, I would say.

Some organisations, some HR leaders, you know, are all over this.

They realise that at a time when AI is exploding, developing the human skills of people has never been more important because they are what set us apart from the robots.

So those skills become increasingly important because of that.

For example, I recently... spoke at the Australian New Zealand Accounting Conference, right? Accounting is one of those industries that has been earmarked as going to be hit really hard by AI.

So if you want to future-proof your career and you're in an industry that's going to be hit hard, making sure that you can communicate effectively, empathise, build trust is becoming increasingly important.

And so, you know, for HR and for people in culture, you know, it creates, I guess, you know, some real questions about how best to not only prevent some of this behavior from occurring, but then also being able to react to it in meaningful ways, you know, for those who feel like they don't know what to do.