Psychological Safety: The Foundation for High-Performing Teams

Description

You can’t have innovation without honesty. And you won’t get honesty unless people feel safe. Psychological Safety: The Foundation for High-Performing Teams gives leaders a proven, actionable approach to creating the kind of culture where people speak up, not shut down.

Drawing from the research of Amy Edmondson and integrating Scott De Long’s own Circle of Trust framework, this book goes beyond theory and into practical, day-to-day leadership behaviors. You’ll learn how to shift from a culture of compliance to one of commitment, where people feel respected, heard, and safe enough to contribute their best thinking.

Inside this book, you’ll discover:

• What psychological safety is, and what it isn’t
• Why safety is essential for trust, collaboration, and retention
• How to identify fear-based behaviors and replace them with openness
• Tactics to encourage curiosity, experimentation, and productive conflict
• How to lead meetings that invite honest participation
• The four conditions required to build safety intentionally

You’ll also explore how emotional culture, communication norms, and accountability systems all contribute to a team’s psychological safety, or slowly destroy it.

If you want to build a team that challenges ideas without attacking people, takes risks without fear of punishment, and grows together through trust, Psychological Safety is the starting point. This isn’t about being soft. It’s about being strong enough to create the space where real leadership, and real results, can happen.

Metadata:

• Author: Scott De Long, Ph.D.
• Format: eBook + Audiobook
• Length: Approximately 35 pages
• Published: March 2025
• Related Products: Mastering Support and Accountability, The CARE Model