As an RTO owner one of the most important and delicate situations that you will handle is dealing with employees, particularly key employees, well no, everyone. Recently with the Australian economy recording a period of economic decline, it’s worth considering your RTO employees. Are they engaged, do they feel safe? The answer is probably No.
Handling conversations with employees poorly can cause serious harm to any RTO business. These could include unplanned resignations, defection to competitors, loss of critical information, or just general unrest and negativity within the RTO.
The process of engaging employees during these tough times needs to change. It is known as “psychological safety”. The term was coined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmonson, who gave a TEDx talk on the topic in 2015. She found that no one gets out of bed to go to a job and look ignorant, so what we do is manage our inadequacies by hiding the problems. She found that the best teams do make errors, yet they admit to them and discuss them. They have psychological safety, which facilitated a “climate of openness.”
When employees feel as though they’re vulnerable due to factors beyond their control, they’re more likely to feel anxious, depressed, isolated and fearful. But when their managers are able to cultivate a psychologically safe environment, they’re more likely to be engaged despite the uncertainty surrounding them.
So how can you create psychological safety in your RTO?
- Look at issues as learning problems. Be clear that sometimes situations require further explanation and that each team member’s input matters: “We’ve never been here before; we can’t know what will happen; we’ve got to have everybody’s brains and voices in the game.”
- Communicate frequently – even when you don’t have any new information to share. Simply reaching out and offering support is often enough.
- Be authentic. State how you are feeling, or if you don’t understand, or you need to delve deeper. Encourage others to speak up, such as, “I may miss something; I need to hear from you.”
- Be curious; ask questions. Be there in front of your team. Your absence creates turmoil as employees are inclined to think the worst unless you’re there to counter any gossip or rumours.
- Establish forums at which employees can connect with, and support, each other. Stop public criticism that appears destructive rather than constructive. It’s natural for employees to feel frustrated, angry and upset during these times, so it’s valuable giving them opportunities to express what they’re thinking and feeling.
Open discussions and high performance
A combination of psychological safety and accountability is vital for teams to ride out the downturn and achieve their full potential.
RTO managers that allow for questions and discussions and also hold their employees accountable for excellence fall into the “learning zone,” or the high-performance zone. This is something you need for your business to grow, and also to improve relations.
Leaders who only create psychological safety without holding their employees accountable for excellence remain in the “comfort zone,” which isn’t typically the highest performing.
It’s not so much the downturn that affects the engagement of staff. It’s how the organisation deals with it.
What are your thoughts; Should you do some more for your team?
