Psychological safety is often miscast as comfort. It's time to restore a harder edge: as a discipline that lets teams surface error early, challenge authority safely, and keep standards sharp—especially in hybrid work, where voice is fragile and candour is the real performance engine.
Managing People Isnt a Side Hustle Time to Re Professionalise Management0:00/618.6721×
A while back I mentored a gifted software engineer—let's call her Priya. Priya
Manipulative managers reframe harm as humour and deflect accountability by focusing on employee reactions. The dynamics of bullying, silence, and moral complicity can be unpacked and counteracted through a lens of wit and discernment, challenging leadership cultures that reward performance over inte
Silence in organisations isn't agreement—it's often fear, disengagement, or quiet resistance. Exploring defensive silence and quiet quitting, the piece argues that leadership must move beyond authority toward real consensus. Listening for what's not being said is essential for trust, effective decis
Consensus decision making may look inclusive but often suppresses dissent, breeds groupthink, and weakens outcomes. Structured debate and distributed authority improve decision quality, transparency, and accountability, yielding more resilient leadership.
Authentic leadership builds trust through transparency, ethics, and empathy. Leaders who model authenticity create psychological safety, strengthen relationships, and foster resilient, innovative cultures that support lasting organisational success.
Empathy strengthens leadership by building trust, respect, and belonging. It supports fairness, psychological safety, and better decisions. Though it risks burnout, empathy remains essential for ethical, resilient, and sustainable organisations.
The prevalence of overconfidence in decision-making, particularly in management, can lead to misguided strategies and inflated egos. Shifting focus from predicting the future to preparing for it and embracing rational
In passing off the thinking of others as our own, we fail to invoke the discipline essential in critical thinking. The most effective antidote to this is a crisp document, 'written with such clarity that it's like angels singing from on high', followed by a messy meeting in which people can robustly
Organisations that are above average in their track record of developing leader-managers put an emphasis on creating challenging opportunities, not just for aspiring talent but for incumbent Line Managers who can too easily become stale.
By stepping away from being a subject matter expert and toward a focus on people and coaching, a manager is in a much better position to transform their job into a leadership role.
