Winter: the season to strengthen your team

As the temperature drops and Canberra’s frosty nights settle in, you can literally feel the natural world coming to a standstill. While on the surface the trees are bare, beneath the soil the roots continue to grow and consolidate resources in preparation for spring.

I spoke of this phenomena in a recent chat with HerCanberra, using it as a metaphor for leaders who genuinely need to stop, recharge, and consolidate their own resources in preparation for the next season in their career.

But there’s another lens through which we can view this metaphor. It’s not only individual leaders who need to stop and recharge, but their teams too. Consider the possibilities if a team were to take a moment and shift focus away from output and urgency. To zoom out and see the bigger picture.

To ask deep questions, such as:

• Are we really supporting collaboration?
• What bottlenecks are hindering progress?
• Do our processes keep people engaged and confident?

Only through reflection like this can we instigate meaningful change, and both improve performance while reducing risks tied to psychosocial safety.

When psychosocial risks go unchecked

This confronting LinkedIn post recently brought attention to the need for more care and awareness around psychosocial safety in the workplace. As a key takeaway:

Most employers are now aware that psychosocial safety is as much a consideration of creating a safe workplace as physical safety. You will not meet your WHS duties if all you do is inform staff to bend their knees when lifting a box.

Getting it wrong can have serious consequences and cause lasting damage to any organisation, no matter the sector.

On the flip side, organisations and leaders who promote and take action to cultivate psychosocial safety see outcomes like:

• stronger team cohesion
• higher engagement
• reduced burnout
• more open communication
• greater capacity for innovation and problem solving

There’s no doubt most leaders want these outcomes for their team in general. The problem is they don’t know how. The concept of ‘psychosocial safety’ feels vague, and building it into everyday team life seems unachievable.

An important place to start is learning not to frame the mental or emotional concerns of staff as ‘their issue’. This disregard can quickly see situations escalate, staff having to take leave, and leaders coming under the spotlight. Burnout, bullying claims, prolonged stress, and other signs of psychosocial strain must be viewed as a system signal…and an invitation for change.

Building psychosocial safety into everyday team life, preventing psychosocial risks, and interpreting invitations for change were all front of mind when developing the Collaborative Leadership workshop. Through a series of carefully curated activities, guided discussions, and practical tools you can apply immediately, we’re on a mission to demystify psychosocial safety and give leaders everything they need to cultivate it in their teams.

Because really, true leadership means resisting the urge to scapegoat and instead asking: what does my team need to thrive? When you’re honest about what needs strengthening, and committed to change you’re actually equipped to lead, magic happens. ‘Equipping you’ to lead that change is what we do in this workshop.

To learn more about psychosocial safety and how to strengthen your team’s foundations this winter, check out the Collaborative Leadership workshop.

Discounts available for early bird and group bookings. If you need help building a business case, contact me.