Psychological Safety - with Amanda Potter

Colin is joined by leadership executive coach, chartered occupational psychologist, and certified business principle psychologist, Amanda Potter. Amanda discusses the concept of psychological safety, why it is crucial as a practice and how we can better equip managers to embrace it, as well as the importance of letting people's voices be heard. KEY TAKEAWAYS Psychological safety is something we must endeavour to better acquaint senior management with, but we must be careful so as not to overload or overwhelm, as embracing it is crucial. We rarely allow the least experienced of people to have their voices heard, especially in a meeting setting. It can be incredibly useful and empowering to allow these people to be heard. Psychologic al safety is, at its core, about feeling included, safe enough to make interpersonal risk, about making suggestions and being part of something important. The strongest part of the brain is constantly scanning our environment for potential threats. As it is responsible for our fight-or-flight, it causes a natural negativity bias. BEST MOMENTS 'When we feel safe, we're more likely to take interpersonal risk' 'It might give you an emotional reaction, a trigger that brings on impostor syndrome' 'Psychological safety is about feeling included' 'The better you get at it, the harder you have to work at it to maintain it' VALUABLE RESOURCES The Interesting Health & Safety Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/the-interesting-health-safety-podcast/id1467771449 Project Mollitiam - https://www.projectmollitiam.com Be Talent - https://www.betalent.com/our-team# ABOUT THE HOST Colin Nottage ‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’ This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions. He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation. Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses. Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive. He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).