Make choice visible

Over the last few weeks, my contributors and I have positioned safety as the third skill associated with choosing grace, alongside authenticity and creativity.

Together, these skills allow a leader to balance the need to build healthy relationships and to provide the kinds of support that lead to results.

Safety serves as a way to encourage people to work within their humanity and ensures they're able to bring forward the best ideas and solutions.

Safety is both a means of avoiding harm and providing a barrier from harm.

It is the choice to champion authenticity and creativity so that we can perform in the face of the realities of being human at work.

human frailty, human needs, and human error.

In acknowledging these and managing with them in mind, leaders create and sustain three forms of workplace safety.

To address human frailty, we need to consider physical safety.

This means leaders recognize risk and the potential for harm and take steps to prevent or mitigate it.

Human needs exist in the sphere of financial safety.

It involves leaders understanding compensation systems and practices, paying attention to disparities, and recognizing that employees' basic material needs depend substantially upon money earned at work.

And finally, we account for human error when we create psychological safety, when leaders normalize authenticity and welcome creativity, as well as acknowledging that mistakes will happen.

All of this to say, safety is ultimately a leadership responsibility, something that must live and breathe beyond a discussion of policies, programs, or benefits.

It means recognizing three unavoidable facts about people at work – We can be injured.

We have material needs.

And we make mistakes.

Leading well in response to these facts requires taking a practical approach that is both preventative and protective.

We need to recognize hazards, understand systems affecting employees' livelihoods, and respond constructively to moments of error.