As a leader, ask yourself: Are you able to surface tough issues or challenges with your team? Do you encourage your team members to bring forward new ideas or ask for help? Do you create an environment where it feels safe to take risks?

These are a few questions that Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson suggests reflecting on to assess your team’s psychological safety. Dr. Edmondson describes psychological safety as the ability to show and express your thoughts without fear of negative consequences. Psychological safety isn't about being nice. It’s about giving candid feedback, openly admitting mistakes, and learning from each other. Research shows that psychologically safe teams experience numerous benefits, including increased creativity, confidence, trust, and productivity.

Leaders shape this environment through the way they communicate, respond to mistakes, and model accountability and openness. Prior to the session, leaders will complete the Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment [1], which provides insight into leadership behaviours that either strengthen or hinder psychological safety. Assessment results will be used throughout the training to personalize learning, reflection, and application.

In this session, leaders will:

• Review and interpret their Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment results
• Understand how their behaviors influence team psychological safety
• Explore the benefits of psychological safety for engagement, innovation, and performance
• Practice the three core leadership practices that foster psychological safety
• Apply the language and behaviours of psychological safety to your work

Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment

As part of the pre-program, leaders will complete a free confidential online assessment: Psychologically Safe Leader Employee Survey. Registrants will receive an email from Isidora Nezic, Wellness@Work Advisor, on February 16 with instructions to complete the self-assessment.

If you would like to invite your employees to provide feedback, please indicate this during registration. Leaders are responsible for informing their direct reports and encouraging participation. Employee feedback is anonymous, reported only as an aggregated average, and will be shared with the leader only if more than three direct reports are identified. Direct reports will receive an email from Isidora Nezic on February 16 with instructions on how to submit feedback.

Instructor

Isidora Nezic, Wellness@Work Advisor

Event Registration

Register through Qualtrics! [2] Registration closes February 13, 2026.

Contact

Phone: 56800

Email: landd@uoguelph.ca [3]