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How to Establish a Strong Workplace Culture
Sarah Harvey, aka ‘Savvy Sarah,’ is a leadership coach and consultant with extensive experience in HR, and the author of Savvy Conversations: A practical framework for effective workplace relationships.
I met Sarah a while back, and I was delighted to catch up with her and talk about establishing a great workplace culture — the subject of her book, as you may have guessed.
Nick: You argue for a safe, trust-based culture in the workplace. That sounds good — but what are the key steps to take to establish that?
Savvy Sarah: One of our most fundamental needs is to feel safe with the people around us and be able to trust the intentions and motivations of others. When our workplace feels psychologically unsafe, we can’t build working relationships on mutual trust, and we are never going to perform at our best.
As a leader or manager, we must make it safe for our teams to disagree with us and speak out when they don’t agree with something. They must do that respectfully, of course, but if the way we lead makes people fearful of speaking up, we are never going to create an open and honest culture. So, we must always seek to be clear about our intentions towards others, treat them with respect, and check in with them regularly to prevent any misunderstandings. We should also be sure to recognize and…
