Sales Trend 12 of Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2023 looks into what psychologically safe environments mean for sales and service teams and why it is vital in human-centred organisations.
By guest author LEESA TONGOULIDIS – HUMAN ART PTY LTD in collaboration with Barrett’s SUE BARRETT and JENS HARTMANN
In 30 seconds
Psychological safety, crucial for healthy workplaces, involves creating an environment where individuals freely express ideas without fear. It’s a critical capability for business success, fostering trust and enhancing outcomes. Fear-based cultures lead to burnout.
Timothy R. Clark, CEO – Leader Factor and Author of the 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, says that innovation relies on psychological safety.
Research highlights the critical role of psychological safety in sales and business success, business performance, and employee and client retention.
What separates truly successful organisations from all the others, is their ability to constantly nurture a state of trust and psychological safety.
In 2 minutes
This is a summary of Sales Trend 12. To read the full version, please download Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2023.
Peter Drucker said that ‘Above all, do no harm’ should be the first responsibility and guiding principle of every professional when making decisions. He expanded this to mean that leaders must consider the possible harm that any act might cause the team, the organisation, its members, or society.
This guiding principle extends to the imperative of fostering safety cultures within organisations, including legal measures to ensure workplaces prioritise well-being.
Beyond physical safety, the evolving landscape recognises the significance of psychological safety. This concept, crucial for healthy and productive workplaces, refers to creating an environment where individuals feel secure expressing ideas, concerns, or mistakes without fear of punishment.
Psychological safety is now a critical capability for salespeople and service teams navigating complex solutions. It goes beyond a nice-to-have cultural aspect, becoming a pivotal element for sustainable business success and growth. Trust, the cornerstone of any relationship, becomes the epicentre of interactions when creating psychological safety.
Imagine a workplace where individuals feel connected, secure, and able to express themselves openly. This psychological safety not only fosters well-being but also enhances business outcomes. It encourages openness, knowledge sharing, and proactive contributions, fostering an environment where individuals and teams can learn and grow.
In a psychologically safe environment, individuals experience a state of “flow,” marked by the circulation of feel-good neurochemicals. Unfortunately, for many, this state has become unfamiliar due to chronic stress and life’s challenges. As studies show, fear-based cultures lead to burnout, impacting both physical and mental health.
In the words of Timothy R. Clark, CEO – Leader Factor and Author of the 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, “true innovation and sustainable business success relies on creative abrasion and constructive dissent”.
It’s a delicate balance, which is so often (sometimes unknowingly) sabotaged by the absence of psychological safety.
Organisational health, adaptability to change and market disruption, innovation, staff empowerment and well-being, work effectiveness, and customer satisfaction are well documented indicators pointing to the level of Psychological Safety within an organisation.[1] [2]
Research underscores the critical role of psychologically safe workplaces in the future success of sales, business performance, and employee and client retention. Creating such an environment allows leaders and team members to be vulnerable, take risks, and challenge themselves without fear of reprisal.
What separates truly successful organisations from all the others, is their ability to constantly nurture a state of trust and psychological safety.
The opportunity to safely realise our individual and collective potential translates into sales and business growth. Trust and psychological safety are therefore at the heart of creating a truly high-performance organisation.
To read the full trend, please download Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2023.
[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/ psychological-safety-and-the-critical-role-of-leadership-development
[2] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.0158/full (dead link)
Stories from the field
I FOUND THE FS!!!
I had a business case presentation this afternoon to take a pilot client to full roll out and I opened with WWW. The Director and Head of Retail paused, looked at each other and then spoke openly for the next 10 minutes while I took notes.
At the risk of turning it into TLDR, the result is a $84K deal being drawn up and a full roll out before Christmas.
Thanks for your session, wisdom and concepts – came at a perfect time for me and definitely is already being put to good use and helping me shut up and listen.
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