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Psychological Safety Isn’t about ‘Being Nice’ – The Leadership That Works Newsletter

by Amy Federman | Apr 30, 2025

At ConantLeadership, we’re committed to lifelong learning and continuous improvement. In service to your leadership growth, each month we curate this digest of resources from around the web to:

Share actionable advice from top leadership luminaries
Celebrate a range of viewpoints (inclusion is not an endorsement)
Contextualize workplace trends through a leadership lens
Illuminate cultural recalibrations in the world of work
Support your personal development in life, leadership, & beyond

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In this edition of the Leadership That Works Newsletter: Common misconceptions about psychological safety, a survival guide for American business, how to remain steady in a wobbly world, learning the ‘Godzilla Methodology,’ and more.

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‘Great Leaders Make Meaning’—2 Purpose-Driven CEOs on ‘People First’ Leadership

In this new blog recap of a conversation between Deanna Mulligan, CEO of Purposeful and former chair and CEO of Guardian Life Insurance, and Doug Conant, Founder and CEO of ConantLeadership, these two purpose-driven CEOs share their tips for making work a more meaningful experience for everyone. They say the key to making meaning is adopting a “people first” approach to leadership and offer several tips for doing so. Here are 3 key takeaways.

Empathy Is a Leadership Skill. “Historically, empathy is ‘highly valuable’ in times of change and disruption and ‘is what gets us through, no matter where we are on the political spectrum.'”

Rescale and Redeploy Existing Talent. Mulligan emphasizes the importance of “retraining, rescaling, and redeploying” employees rather than solely chasing fresh talent or replacing people en masse with AI solutions, because “it’s the right thing to do.”

Say and Repeat Your Purpose. Conant says it’s vital to declare your purpose so people learn to work to the “steady drumbeat” of your leadership rhythm: “Your audience needs to hear you say it, needs to know that you mean it, that you’re willing to declare it. And that you have every intention of walking the talk.”

Get the full story here.

**Registration is now open for our 9th BLUEPRINT Leadership Summit, a virtual meeting of top leadership luminaries, on September 15-19, 2025. Full agenda and lineup will be announced soon and you can secure your free spot here.

Common Misconceptions about Psychological Safety

“Psychological safety—a shared belief among team members that it’s OK to speak up with candor—has become a popular concept. However, as its popularity has grown, so too have misconceptions about it,” say Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey in this Harvard Business Review article that seeks to set the record straight about what psychological safety is, and what it isn’t. Leaders who can effectively communicate about the concept will be better equipped to “stop incorrect assumptions before they gain destructive force, and keep people focused on the value to be gained from candor.” The authors share six common misconceptions in the full article, and here are three.

Misconception 1 – Psychological Safety Means Being Nice. “Wanting to be nice, people avoid being honest and, whether they realize it or not, collude in producing ignorance and mediocrity. Because without candid feedback and open sharing of information—bad and good—coordination, quality, and learning on a team or a project suffer.”

Misconception 2 – Psychological Safety Means Getting Your Way. “Psychological safety is about making sure leaders or teams hear what people think. It’s not about forcing them to agree with what they hear. The goal is to reach a good decision or prevent a defect in a product. It’s helpful to think of psychological safety not as a gift for one participant but rather as an environment for the whole team.”

Misconception 3 – Psychological Safety Requires a Trade-Off with Performance. “Psychological safety and accountability are distinct dimensions. To decide which is more important is to impose a false dichotomy. When both are low, performance and morale clearly suffer . . . In any uncertain environment, superb performance requires a commitment to both high standards and psychological safety.”

Get the full story, including instructions for countering each of the six common misconceptions, here.

**For more on this, explore our coverage of a conversation between Doug Conant and Amy C. Edmondson on psychological safety, “It’s Not All Fun and Games and Ice Cream.”

A Survival Guide for American Business in the New Geopolitical Era

Matt Watters and Shubham Singhal, the authors of this McKinsey deep dive on the ways changing geopolitics are affecting American business, say today’s executives “see geopolitics as the greatest risk to economic growth,” and they largely “understand that a reconfiguration of global trade is underway” amidst tariffs and other markers of disruption. While some leaders’ instinct may be to scramble to react to looming changes, the authors say that managers should instead double down on strategic thinking, to “be proactive and shift their mindsets from near-term risk mitigation to long-term value creation.” Their recommended approach requires three key actions.

1. Accelerating growth. “By analyzing a range of growth scenarios” across ten key value drivers, “businesses can find opportunities for commercial acceleration and portfolio rebalancing.”

2. Optimizing core operations. “Business leaders can boost organizational resilience and improve cost-effectiveness with moves across operations, supplier relationships, global talent capabilities, and technology infrastructure.

3. Building new geopolitical capabilities and strategies. “To take effective action, companies need a globally conscious corporate strategy, modern legal structures, and the right teams and processes in place to respond to geopolitical events.”

Get the full story here, including in-depth analysis of ten key value drivers, case studies, research summaries, and more granular advice for applying these strategies.

The ‘Stay Interview’ Is the New ‘Exit Interview’

“If the next time you sit down to meet with top talent is during an exit interview, then it’s too late,” writes Shaun Aguilera in this Great Place to Work piece about the practice of retaining valued employees through an exercise called “the stay interview.” He says a stay interview is a proactive, “informal, employee-focused conversation,” that offers managers a way “to sit down with their first reports to understand how they’re feeling in their current role,” and to “gain candid insight into the employee experience.” While stay interviews, like exit interviews, are an opportunity to pursue a deeper understanding of company culture, Aguilera says the key difference is a focus on ensuring “your people are thriving within the organization.” He cites four reasons why organizations should consider conducting stay interviews.

1. Improved retention rates
2. Higher employee satisfaction and engagement
3. Early identification of workplace challenges
4. Strengthened trust between employees and leaders

Aguilera stresses that a stay interview should not be an appraisal of performance: “Listening is at the heart of creating a high-trust culture. Unlike an annual performance review, a stay interview is an opportunity for leadership to lean in and listen.” Get the full story here.

**For more on unique ways to connect with employees, explore Doug Conant’s piece from the Harvard Business Review archives, “CEOs Can’t Give Feedback Only to Their Direct Reports.”

How to Remain Steady in a Wobbly World

“If you’ve felt heavy lately, anxious in your body, or like even your simplest routines are hard to hold onto, you’re not alone,” writes Daisy Auger-Domínguez in this edition of her Work y Más newsletter, which focuses on helping leaders build systems to take care of themselves first so they can be effective for the people relying on them. She says, “if you’re in HR or people leadership,” you face a unique challenge when the world becomes more chaotic, which is that “you’re the one people turn to for answers, support, steadiness, while you’re quietly searching for it yourself.” She offers five practices for any leader “trying to stay grounded when everything around you feels like it’s spinning,” and here are three.

1. Start with a “What Matters” list—not a to-do list. “Write down 1–2 things that genuinely deserve your care today. Not what’s loudest. Not what’s urgent-but-unimportant. Just what matters . . . protect that. Let the rest flex.”

2. Create your “uncertainty script.” As a leader, “You don’t need all the answers. What people need most is someone willing to name” the uncertainty clearly. Try: “Here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t. Here’s what we’re watching.”

3. Choose one joyful non-negotiable—and calendar it. “Don’t aim for a perfect wellness routine. Pick one thing that makes you feel like you again, and protect it like any other meeting on your calendar. Joy is a strategy for staying in the game.”

Get the full story, and more strategies for remaining steady when the world wobbles, here.

**For more on this, explore this post from Doug Conant in which he shares how he learned how to ‘refill his cup’ in the post-COVID era.

Why ‘Authorship Is Ownership’

“Imagine a workplace where teams are empowered to make decisions faster and closer to the customer,” write Abbey Bonham and Anne Wilson in this Chief Executive post on how to facilitate more efficient decision making and follow-through. The authors recommend building what they call an “authorship is ownership” culture which is based on the idea that “people are more invested in ideas and outcomes they’ve helped create.” They clarify that this culture is “not about giving free rein to every idea but involving employees early in shaping the strategies and initiatives they’ll later execute.” Bonham and Wilson spell out four clear steps “to embed ‘authorship is ownership’ into your team’s DNA,” and here are the first two.

1. Involve team members in decision making. “Rather than relying solely on top-down directives, create structured opportunities for employees from relevant departments to share their experiences and insights . . . by intentionally engaging employees this way, they develop a sense of ownership and are more likely to support and act on the outcomes.”

2. Empower teams with clear guidance and flexibility. “Successful organizations strike a balance between providing strategic direction and encouraging the adaptability needed to meet changing demands. This begins with giving clear direction and guardrails on the ‘what’ is expected and then allowing the team to figure out the ‘how’ to get there.”

Get the full story here.

**For more on this, read our piece on why “change is a group effort” and leaders must first earn buy-in on any transformation.

Future-Proof Your Team with the ‘Godzilla Methodology’

“The term ‘Godzilla Methodology’ might sound like something from a sci-fi movie, but it’s based on solid strategy,” writes Howie Jones in this Calendar post on how to “prepare organizations for moments of uncertainty and disruption.” He explains that the methodology is based “on military thinking—specifically the ‘center of gravity’ concept,” which involves finding the “single most critical point in a system that, if disrupted, could cause the entire system to collapse.” This critical point could be anything, from “a supply line or a key leader” to “a team lead or piece of scheduling software.” The Godzilla methodology aims to discover the “center of gravity” by simulating chaos so your key vulnerabilities are revealed by Godzilla “symbolically stomping through your processes.” Jones says the methodology is uniquely proactive because it “doesn’t wait for disaster to strike. It actively seeks it out on purpose.” He says to “think of it as a fire drill. You’re not hoping for a fire but want to be prepared,” so use the exercise to “walk through worst-case scenarios and ask tough questions” e.g., “what if the project lead disappears?,” or “what if the client moves the deadline up by a month?” Asking these questions forces teams to imagine “a Godzilla-sized disruption—like losing access to their calendar for a day or having a key player out unexpectedly,” and allows them to more clearly diagnose “operational and structural risks—where communication, delegation, or documentation is missing or weak.” Get the full story here.

Stress Can Be as Contagious as a Cold

“A large body of evidence shows that stress is a form of so-called emotional contagion and can, in fact, spread among members in a group remarkably quickly—and have a lingering effect that lasts for hours, even days,” writes Kari Molvar in this Vogue piece on how to bolster your defenses against contagious stress. She says the reason people are innately attuned to the stress levels of our fellow humans is “hardwired into our biology for survival.” If we can recognize and internalize a threat to the group by being sensitive to rising stress levels in our peers, we can react quickly to save ourselves and others. In a modern setting, where “the threat of being eaten by a predator is pretty much nonexistent,” Molvar says we still pick up on these signs of external threats, even in subtle ways, so it is useful to learn some strategies for coping with contagious stress and stopping “the spread to those in your circle.” She shares several tips for dealing with secondhand stress and here are two.

Hold Space and Breathe. First, it’s helpful to do a mental check to identify if the stress you’re feeling is really yours or someone else’s. That creates a “mental buffer” which allows you the perspective necessary to calm yourself down with breathwork. One method is to “Inhale slowly for four counts, hold the breath for four counts, and then exhale for four counts,” and repeat for “four minutes.”

Sit with the Bad Feelings. If you can’t immunize yourself from ambient stress completely, some experts recommends riding out the difficult emotions with a coping technique called RAIN: “Recognize what is happening; Allow the experience to be there; Investigate what feelings come up for you; and Nurture yourself with positive solutions.”

Get the full story here.

**For more on bolstering your capacity to deal with external stressors, explore our 6-step BLUEPRINT process which helps you develop a strong leadership Foundation that empowers you to withstand the winds of change.

New from ConantLeadership

‘Be the Keeper of the Flame’—How to Create Inspiring Workplace Cultures

In Doug Conant’s conversation with Amanda Poole, Chief People Officer at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), both leaders share tips for creating workplace cultures that inspire people and drive innovation.

Doug Conant on the LeaderSHOP Podcast

In Doug Conant’s conversation with Rodger Dean Duncan on the LeaderSHOP podcast, he shares his journey from being fired to redefining leadership with purpose and passion. If you’re navigating your career and wondering how to show up as your best self, this episode is for you

Doug Conant In LEADERS Magazine: ‘Trust Is Mission Critical’

In this recent interview in LEADERS Magazine, Doug Conant shares insights from a career as a turnaround CEO: “In my experience, building trust is the only way to create an enduring enterprise and lasting value.” He says a good place to start “is by getting just one step closer to people than you have in the past. Be present with others and listen. Try to do just a little bit better tomorrow than you did today.” Read the full interview here.

March’s Leadership That Works Newsletter

In last month’s newsletter: Change your habits, leverage your ‘tribal instincts,’ embrace ‘zigzag’ work, develop an ‘inspirational vision,’ make better decisions, and more.

About the Author: Amy Federman is ConantLeadership’s Director of Content and Editor in Chief, and co-author with Doug Conant of the WSJ bestseller, The Blueprint.