Psychological safety isn’t built through policies alone—it’s created in the everyday moments that help employees feel heard, respected, and free to be themselves.
Psychological safety has become one of the most important indicators of a healthy workplace—and one of the most misunderstood.
As organizations navigate rapid technological change, evolving workforce expectations, and increasing pressure to innovate, employees need more than flexibility and good benefits. They need environments where they can ask questions, challenge assumptions, admit mistakes, and contribute ideas without fear of embarrassment, punishment, or being dismissed.
Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson famously defined psychological safety as the absence of interpersonal fear. More than two decades later, the concept remains just as relevant, but the stakes are even higher. In a workplace increasingly shaped by AI, constant change, and distributed teams, organizations depend on employees who are willing to speak up, collaborate openly, and learn in real time.
Psychological safety isn’t about avoiding difficult conversations or lowering expectations. In fact, the healthiest teams often combine high standards with high trust. People feel comfortable sharing concerns, offering different perspectives, and taking calculated risks because they know their voices matter.
And while leaders play an important role in setting the tone, psychological safety is experienced most directly through everyday interactions with managers and colleagues. It’s built in feedback conversations, team meetings, one-on-ones, brainstorming sessions, and the countless moments where employees decide whether it’s safe to be authentic and speak honestly.
So what does psychological safety actually look like in practice?
In honor of Pride Month, we asked Betterworks employees to share what psychological safety means to them and how it shows up in their day-to-day work experiences.
Bringing your whole self to work
Bruce: Psychological safety is all about being happy, comfortable, and feeling safe in bringing your ‘whole self’ to work. As a gay man, joining a new organization always includes the additional fears of ‘Will I be accepted?’ ‘Will people treat me differently if they know I’m gay?’ ‘Will being gay hold me back in my career?’
What can people do to support me and other gay people? First, be open and happy to talk to me about it. Like most married people, I love to talk about my spouse and the time we spend together, our shared passions, and our vacations. If people are in any way reluctant to acknowledge or talk to me as they would any of their ‘straight’ colleagues, I am immediately hurt and offended, and barriers are unnecessarily put between us.
Companies can help by, first of all, aiding with awareness, but also normalizing it. If senior people in a business know that I’m gay, I’m very happy for them to say something like, “I understand your husband knows about ‘x.’ Could you get his opinion on this?” Particularly in group calls or company events, just normalizing the fact that I am a married gay man and that they’re comfortable using that in their conversation helps everyone else to feel comfortable in the same way.
I also look for the company I work for to hold LGBTQIA+ values in their work. That includes not doing business with people or companies linked to homophobic, transphobic, or similar stances. I was previously at an organization where they were selling to a company owned by an individual who supported the death penalty for LGBTQ people in his country. I made my company aware of this situation, and they agreed that I did not have to be involved in the sales process. For me, this was not enough. I expect a company to put its values before its bank balance in situations like this. The more this happens, the more change will occur in the world.
Psychological safety is promoted by an atmosphere of respect, caring, kindness, and, above all, clear equity and inclusion. When a company achieves these, as Betterworks has, the freedom to bring your whole self means that everyone benefits from the creativity and engagement this empowers.
Openness and willingness to connect
Andrea: The thing about Betterworks that makes me proud about our culture is that this is a safe place. I can’t put a pin on one thing that makes this a safe place. It’s a feeling, an energy, an understanding that’s embedded in our culture. Even starting as a new hire, you feel it. Everyone is accepted. Everyone. This is one of the many things I love about Betterworks.
The energy happens when two people connect and realize they can talk to each other about a specific topic: things going on in life that spill into work. And then another person comes into the fold that adds to the topic. At this point, it permeates as more people come into the fold. A sense of caring unfolds. And then it becomes part of the culture: people are open and willing to listen, to care, to share. It becomes part of our DNA that shows on the outside. It’s welcoming.
For example, someone who I hadn't previously known well recently lost their pet. They felt safe enough to explain why they couldn’t do something work-related. That person shared one thing, and I felt it was ok to open the door and ask what happened. It formed into a bigger conversation about a similar situation in my life: a shared moment. This formed a bond that would otherwise have been harder to do in other places I’ve worked. I now feel closer to this individual and let this person know I’m here to listen. All this in a 100% remote work environment.
I've been in other work environments where it's very clear your opinion does not matter. It's a look or a dismissive tone after something is said. When your workplace isn't a safe place to speak up, ideas are missed. Collaboration wanes. Discretionary effort goes by the wayside. High performers leave. This leaves an organization stuck in the past while competitors push ahead.
Being authentic and embracing our differences
Kristen: As a member of Betterworks’ DEIB team, I have often discussed with other members that the key to empowering individuals in any organization to speak up, share ideas, and display leadership at all levels relies on the ability of the company and its employees to create and foster a culture where people feel comfortable being authentically themselves. Every single person at our company is truly unique, and that uniqueness is celebrated.
I also believe that leadership and participation look different for everyone and that personal attributes don’t indicate an individual’s preference, ability, intelligence, or otherwise. It does seem that successful companies understand that creating a psychologically safe environment means embracing the differences of all team members and that their variety of backgrounds and perspectives ultimately enhance the quality of work. This is where Betterworks excels: Our team is collaborative across time zones, cultures, and levels of experience, and leaders embrace contributions in any form from everyone in our company. Some people are more comfortable speaking up than others and that is more than okay.
Respecting others is the basis of our team dynamic. I most recently observed this in our company hackathon, which was open to ideas from any team member. The process was transparent and easy to understand, and teams were formed based on interest rather than technical skill. It’s refreshing to see a company place value on the fact that people not only inherently have differences but also think differently and work differently.
