Creating a safe environment for your athletes is about more than good equipment and safe field conditions. Coaches like Brad Stevens, Dabo Swinney, Doug Peterson, and Gregg Popovich – seen as positive coaches – ensure their teams feel safe enough to take risks and go all out. Ultimately, this emphasis on relationships is a significant component that leads to success.

Who I Trusted

Throughout my years as an athlete, I had great relationships and mutual trust with some of my coaches. Others, I didn’t trust much at all.

• Didn’t know what they were talking about
• Criticized more than they coached
• Had my back and believed I had the ability to get better

It is no surprise which type I trusted more.

A Case for Safety

Trust comes from making your team members feel safe. They feel safe being themselves and when they can take risks within the team without feeling insecure or embarrassed.

Beyond trust is a factor of team performance termed psychological safety. Dr. Amy Edmondson of the Harvard Business School defines psychological safety as, “a climate in which people are comfortable being (and expressing) themselves.” Her research focused on what she calls team psychological safety – taking this concept to a team level where members of a team share the same beliefs, sense of interpersonal safety, trust in one another, and commitment to the team.

In a two-year study at Google, an internal investigation found that the factor that differentiates their top work teams from the rest was indeed psychological safety.

Edmondson’s research found that psychological safety predicts quality improvements, learning behavior, and performance. I would add that it also boosts motivation.

Bottom Line: This means that athletes who feel safe within the team will work harder, improve faster, and reach their potential quicker than athletes in less safe team environments.

Switching Circuits

To take this point a little further, let’s look at how a sense of safety changes an athlete’s brain and improves performance.

Typically the amygdala is known as the stress center of the brain. It continuously scans our environment for threats (real or imagined). The goal is to eliminate threats and preserve safety. When a threat is detected it sounds the alarm – the fight or flight response.

However, when an athlete feels safe among their coaches and teammates, the amygdala changes from a stress center to a connection center. When this happens the amygdala stops scanning for threats and starts to track those within the team seeking to preserve those vital relationships. That athlete now gains strength from the team, increasing his or her commitment to the team.

This means that rather than wasting energy monitoring their status on the team, managing perceptions, and watching out for themselves, athletes are free to be more selfless, doing what’s best for the team.

Coaching for Safety

As we all know, leaders must lead by example. Your team is watching and listening to calibrate their own attitudes and actions based on their leaders.

Coaches who want to promote an environment high in psychological safety should go out of their way to demonstrate these three behaviors:

1. Be Available and Approachable – if you aren’t accessible then it is difficult to build relationships and stimulate discussion within the team
2. Explicitly Ask For Input and Feedback – encouraging open participation, opinions, and the sharing of ideas fosters a safe environment
3. Model Openness and Falliability – if you want your players to demonstrate the vulnerability necessary to push the limits of their abilities, admit to mistakes, and feel comfortable discussing any topic, then you must go first.

Relationships Drive Culture

“Relationships are the foundation up which great teams and organizations are built,” says author Jon Gordon. For coaches, building strong and safe relationships with your athletes should be the number one priority. Those relationships foster trust, communication, commitment, and teamwork. Relationships drive your team toward a championship culture on a day-to-day basis.

As Daniel Coyle puts it, “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do.”

Question: What is the hardest part about creating psychological safety and trust in your team?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

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