Psychological Safety Needs a New Partner
Self-Leadership
In the bright, echoing room of an after-school meeting, a group of teachers sits around a long table, laptops open, notes scattered, and a subtle hum of tension in the air. Sarah, the head of the team, clicks on the projector, and a headline fills the screen: “New Curriculum Refresh: Classroom Integration.” A murmur ripples through the group. This isn’t just a few adjustments to existing lesson plans—it’s a complete overhaul, a reimagining of their approach to teaching and learning. For some, it feels like a step into uncharted territory.
Sarah stands at the front, her tone encouraging yet measured. “I know this curriculum refresh is a big one, and it may feel overwhelming,” she begins. “We’re being asked to weave this new approach into our everyday teaching. It’s an exciting opportunity to enhance our students’ learning experiences, but I also understand that it’s a significant challenge. I want us to work together on this—share ideas on what might work best, the challenges we anticipate, and how we can support one another. No one is expected to do this alone.”
As she looks around the room, she sees a variety of reactions: some teachers are leaning forward, interested and energised; others sit back, arms folded, their faces shadowed with worry. And then there’s Emily, who’s sitting quietly on the edge of the group, eyes down on her notebook, absorbing it all in silence. Inside, her mind is racing with questions she doesn’t dare to voice. “What if I can’t adapt? What if I don’t know enough? I don’t want to let my students down.”
To Sarah, Emily appears simply deep in thought, perhaps waiting for the right moment to contribute. But Emily’s silence runs deeper—she’s grappling with the familiar churn of self-doubt, that ever-present voice that shadows her in moments of change. “What if I ask something everyone else already knows? Or worse, what if I make a mistake in front of my students? I’ll look like I can’t keep up.”
Sensing the unease in the room, Sarah presses on, “This isn’t about having all the answers or being perfect from the start. It’s about learning together, experimenting, and being okay with some trial and error. I want to make sure everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns because each of us will bring different approaches and perspectives to this refresh.”
Emily grips her pen a little tighter, thinking, I do have ideas. She’s been mulling over how she could adjust her English lessons to better align with the refreshed curriculum, ways that could make learning more engaging. But that voice inside her rises again: “What if it’s too complex? What if my students end up more confused than inspired?” So she stays silent, listening but hesitant to speak up.
Others around the table are feeling the same tension—experienced teachers worrying about adapting to these changes, newer teachers not wanting to stand out, and those who are enthusiastic but concerned about balancing the new demands with existing workloads. Despite Sarah’s supportive words and the open invitation to collaborate, a layer of fear lingers in the room, unspoken yet palpable.
This curriculum refresh highlights an important reality: true psychological safety isn’t just about creating an open environment. For teachers like Emily to fully embrace this change, they need tools to manage their internal fears. Without addressing these self-doubts, even the most supportive atmosphere can’t fully unlock everyone’s potential.
For Sarah, this meeting brings a realisation: creating psychological safety may also mean helping her team build confidence from within. This goes beyond encouraging discussion and involves supporting each teacher in developing resilience, self-assurance, and a mindset that lets them explore the unknown without fear of judgement. Only then will Emily, and others like her, feel empowered to step forward, bringing fresh energy into their classrooms and giving students the enriched learning experience this curriculum refresh promises.
If you’ve ever worked in an organisation that values psychological safety, you’ve probably heard the ideas from Amy Edmondson’s research. She’s been a game-changer, bringing us ideas that help make workplaces feel safer, where people can speak up, share ideas, take risks, and even make mistakes without fear of being punished. And that environment—one where everyone’s voice matters—is absolutely essential for growth, learning, and innovation.
While organizations and leadership teams are traditionally seen as responsible for creating a psychologically safe workplace, an often overlooked yet crucial element is the individual’s role in cultivating their own psychological safety through self-leadership. Relying solely on external factors—such as organizational policies and environmental controls—neglects the internal work individuals must do to address their beliefs, mindsets, and reactions to perceived threats. Without this self-leadership, organizations can invest in creating a psychologically safe environment, but still struggle to achieve genuine psychological safety due to individuals’ unresolved internal limitations, such as limiting beliefs and imposter syndrome.
The Missing Piece of Psychological Safety: Self-Leadership
Think about it this way: creating a psychologically safe culture means that leaders work to make it okay for people to speak up, admit mistakes, and even challenge ideas. That’s invaluable. But here’s the reality—sometimes, even in the safest workplaces, people still hold back.
Why?
Because what really determines whether someone feels psychologically safe is more than the external environment; it’s also what’s happening inside each person’s mind. As the leader, you cannot fully control psychological safety. Each person’s interpretation, response, and inner narratives play a pivotal role in their sense of safety. While there is an ecpectation that as an adult you can manage your own thoughts, feelings and inner narratives, society today is continually demonstrating this is not the case.
Why Self-Leadership Matters More Than We Think
Here’s the thing: even in a workplace that prides itself on psychological safety, people can still feel anxious, overwhelmed, or insecure. It happens. Organisational policies can create the foundation, but they can’t fully control how each person experiences a moment of stress, a tough conversation, or a fear of judgement.
That’s where self-leadership skills come into play. These are the skills that help someone recognise those limiting beliefs, step past self-doubt, and feel empowered to contribute. Self-leadership helps you choose how to respond when faced with that inner critic or a challenging situation. It’s the practice of learning to manage your reactions, handle stress, and keep those pesky self-doubts in check. It’s about having the inner resilience to feel safe enough to be vulnerable, take risks, and speak up, even when it’s a little uncomfortable. Imagine the difference when a person doesn’t just rely on the team around them to create safety, but also feels capable of managing their own responses to challenging moments.
Combining Organisational Support with Self-Leadership Skills
When self-leadership and psychological safety come together, workplaces start to thrive on a whole new level. It’s no longer just about having leaders create a safe space; it’s also about employees actively participating in that safety. Imagine a team where each member has both the external support of a psychologically safe culture and the internal tools to manage their own mindset.
This combination builds resilience. People aren’t just protected from fears; they’re empowered to face them. They don’t just feel safe; they feel capable. And that capability isn’t just beneficial in a safe environment—it’s the kind of strength that makes people adaptable, even in less-than-perfect environments.
Practical Steps: Bringing Self-Leadership into the Workplace
So, how do we get there? If organisations want to see true change, they need to make an investment in building self-leadership skills across the team. Here’s what that could look like:
Mindset Mastery: Help people recognise and shift those limiting beliefs that hold them back, so they feel more confident to step forward.
Emotional Regulation: Equip teams with tools to manage emotions in tough situations, which keeps stress and reactivity in check.
Resilience Training: Develop practices that encourage people to see setbacks as part of growth, turning challenges into learning opportunities instead of sources of frustration.
When individuals develop these skills, they’re not just waiting for a safe environment—they’re actively creating it from within. They’re meeting their workplace’s culture of psychological safety halfway, which creates alignment and boosts productivity. In these workplaces, psychological safety isn’t just a buzzword; it’s an experience felt at every level.
The Future of Psychological Safety: Empowerment from the Inside Out
So, yes, let’s keep building psychologically safe workplaces. Leaders absolutely have a responsibility to set the tone, encourage vulnerability, and create open spaces for dialogue. But true psychological safety—the kind that leads to high performance and real innovation—requires an inside-out approach.
Empowering individuals with self-leadership doesn’t just make people safer; it makes them stronger, more adaptable, and more engaged. It’s the difference between waiting for a leader to make us feel secure and knowing we have the tools to handle whatever comes our way.
When people feel safe both within and around them, that’s where the magic happens. Organisations become more than just safe—they become places where people are empowered, aligned, and ready to take on the challenges and opportunities that come their way.
If you are keen to learn how to support your staff to master self-leadership I’m excited to invite you to my upcoming exclusive webinar, "The 6 Secrets of the World’s Most Successful People," where you’ll learn how to harness high-performance habits to support your staff, elevate student outcomes, and align with the national priorities for education.📈
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