Those of you who are familiar with sexual harassment may be familiar with the words “hostile work environment.” A hostile work environment exists when an employee experiences workplace harassment and fears going to work because of the offensive, intimidating, or oppressive atmosphere generated by the harasser. (Wikipedia). Though the behaviors of most leaders would not be examples of this sort of hostile work environment, they nonetheless may find themselves engaging in actions that can create an “unsafe” work culture. One of the signs of an unsafe work culture is an environment where you find people spending an inordinate amount of time documenting their behaviors and feeling fearful of making mistakes vs. an environment where people are expending energy on positive creative problem solving.
As a leader – you need to create a “safe” and “creative” work environment – so that people can more fully use their skills and abilities in alignment with your organization’s goals and objectivites.
What are you doing today to create an energetic, engaged, workforce – fullly present to solve your organization’s problems? Indeed, safety = creativity!
