Worksheet 4: Psychological Safety

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High Performance Leadership Teams

Worksheet · Success Factor 4

Psychological Safety

A personal reflection and team conversation tool to understand where safety exists -- and what it would take to grow it.

Note before you begin: This worksheet goes to the heart of how you experience your team. Take it as a personal reflection first -- you decide what you share, and how much.

Say Hi!

alive.berlin
hello@alive.berlin

02 / 05

Part 1

How Safe Does It Actually Feel?

Guiding Questions

Do you feel genuinely seen as a person -- not just as a function -- in this team?
Do you sense real interest in your perspective, even when it diverges from the majority?
Have you ever held back a concern, a doubt, or a dissenting view in a team meeting -- and if so, what stopped you?

Why this matters

Psychological safety isn't about comfort. It's about whether people bring their full intelligence to the table -- or leave it at the door. At the senior level, what gets withheld is often exactly what the team most needs to hear.

Your Notes

03 / 05

Part 2

Where Safety Gets Tested

Guiding Questions

Which topics do you prefer to discuss 1-1 with a colleague rather than in the full team -- and what does that tell you?
What happens in the room when someone challenges the leader's position -- how does it feel?
When did someone last openly admit they were wrong or didn't know something? What did that do to the team?

	Rarely	Sometimes	Regularly
People admit mistakes openly in team settings
Dissenting views are invited -- and genuinely considered
Junior voices are heard as much as senior ones
The leader shows uncertainty without losing credibility
Concerns are raised in the room -- not only in private conversations afterwards

Why this matters

Teams at the top are often the least psychologically safe environments in an organisation. The signal check above turns a felt sense into something you can actually work with.

Your Notes

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Part 3

What Would Make the Difference

1 Be more present

Fully listening in meetings, no distraction, actively acknowledging what others say

2 Be more inclusive

Proactively inviting perspectives, especially from those who tend to stay quiet

3 Be more collaborative

Exploring interests before positions, naming the shared goal before the disagreement

4 Something else

What specific behaviour, if changed, would shift the felt safety in this team?

Why this matters

Psychological safety is built in small, repeated moments -- not in one intervention. The question isn't 'how do we create safety?' It's 'what will I do differently next Tuesday?'

Which lever do I personally need to pull more -- and what would that look like?

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Synthesis

One Small Step

Deliberately just two fields. Psychological safety compounds through small, consistent acts.

One moment in our recent team history where safety was genuinely present -- what made it possible?

One specific behaviour I will bring to our next meeting that I haven't been bringing enough

Tips & Tricks

Safety isn't built in workshops -- it's built between them, in small unremarkable moments
The leader's behaviour here is disproportionately powerful: one genuine act of vulnerability outweighs ten open-door policies
If this worksheet surfaces something significant: that's exactly the right conversation to have