Psychological Safety at Work II: Speaking Up, Working with Mistakes, and the Role of the Leader

What you'll learn

Through a recorded webinar and a supporting presentation, you will examine common barriers to speaking up and consider how to respond with curiosity rather than defensiveness. The course introduces a practical four-step approach: Pause → Thank the person → Ask questions → Decide what needs to happen next. It also distinguishes between preventable, complex and learning-related mistakes, exploring how to support learning while maintaining accountability.

A 15-item self-reflection questionnaire invites you to review your habits in three areas: inviting contributions, responding when someone speaks up and working with mistakes. You will identify one specific behaviour to practise in a future conversation.

Designed for research managers, research group leaders and others who lead or support people, this course continues the Psychological Safety at Work series with a focus on responding to challenging information.

Who it´s for

Researchers, Research managers

Course objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Explain why raising concerns, challenging ideas or admitting mistakes may feel like an interpersonal risk.
• Identify leadership responses that encourage openness or reinforce silence.
• Use the Pause → Thank the person → Ask questions → Decide what needs to happen next framework to plan a constructive response to difficult information.
• Distinguish between preventable, complex and learning-related mistakes and describe how responses can support both learning and accountability.
• Select one leadership behaviour to develop, using the self-reflection questionnaire, and formulate a specific behavioural commitment for a future conversation.

Completion & certification

Open access course with no certification.

Lecturer

Pavla Líčeníková

Institution

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