Leaders, Stop Being A Speed Bump - Why Speeding Up Is Slowing You Down

Forbes5 hours ago

When you're trying to drive your team to move with speed and urgency, your actions might actually be ... More slowing them down.
I feel the need. The need. For speed.
That Top Gun mantra has never been more true. Leaders and organizations are demanding that their teams work fast and furiously to keep pace with the breakneck speed of change happening all around them.
So why is it that when the pressure is on, the clock is ticking, and deadlines are looming, your team seems to be more and more hesitant, and therefore slower, by the minute?
When it comes to accomplishing big goals under tight timelines, being clear about objectives, due dates, roles, and the why behind the rush are all essential. But, if team members sense that failure will result in terrible consequences and individual blame, their brains divert energy to being safe rather than being bold.
The concept of psychological safety – the belief that the environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking – is widely discussed but less frequently present. What we observe instead is that organizations are full of unconscious danger signals that make it challenging to maintain true psychological safety.
Blame is one of the most prevalent culprits. When leaders look for someone to blame in the face of a setback, it signals to everyone else that they too may one day be blamed. The alternative is to focus on what can be learned from an error and how it can be prevented in the future. By making room in your team culture for high standards and mistakes, you'll automatically lower the temperature during tough situations and allow more space for innovation and creativity.
Another critical leadership skill for creating psychological safety is self-management. Particularly during stressful times, it can be easy to default to bad behaviors – knee-jerk reactions, raising your voice, and losing your cool. But the way you behave during times of stress will set the standard for how your team behaves.
Make it your norm to lead intentionally – practice active listening, ask genuinely curious questions, and acknowledge your emotions when they creep into work. Prioritizing self-management during your regular day-to-day will make it easier for you to do the same during times of stress.
And finally, if you want your team to speed up, you likely need to slow down. When we're moving fast it's easy to default to transactional communication. Real relationships, however, are the best defense against our own defense mechanisms. Taking the time before the pressure is on to learn what motivates the people on your team, their best and worst behaviors under stress, and what they need from you, will make it easier to show one another grace when you need it the most.
Unfortunately, psychological safety isn't something you can roll out for important deadlines and then shove back into a closet. It needs to be a consistent priority and cultivated regularly through words and actions. The good news? It's not hard to do, and it will pay dividends in your experience of work, your team's, and the pace with which you can perform together.