Learner Safety Allows You To Make Mistakes On The Job To Become Better
When you’re brand new to a role with a company, learning “how to” is one of your biggest responsibilities. Just as big a responsibility for your leadership team is the allowance you’re afforded to make mistakes so you can learn without fear of repercussion.
In today’s short video, I’ll share an even bigger responsibility you can take as a leader to provide a safe learning environment for your team.
Video Transcript
0:01
Hi, y'all, I'm Cory Colton from inflection point coaching.
0:05
If you've seen any of my other videos lately, you'll notice that I got my hair cut because I was starting to look like Medusa.
0:11
And as you can see in the background, as the young people these days would say, this is my current sitch. What I'm trying to do now that we've moved to Roanoke is I'm trying to get away from my desk, get away from my work, stay away from the television and get outside more and commune with nature, especially since we have these great greenways right around the corner from us.
0:34
So as I'm thinking, today, I'm thinking about how getting out into nature and taking this time for self-care is really teaching me so much about how I need to be more present with myself and with my clients. And so I'm continuously learning, we never stopped learning. And I've been a learning executive for over 20 years and learning as a subject that I can really get excited about because it's so important to who I am and what I do.
1:05
You know, when we think about learning in corporations, aside, even just from everyday personal learning, it's so important for employees to take control of their learning and development. And it's so important for leaders to have conversations with them about it and to support them. And it's critical for corporations that employees continue to grow and develop their skills.
1:27
But when we think about the subject of psychological safety, and the four stages of psychological safety, more important to stage two, which is learner safety, is the ability for people to be able to make mistakes, and learn from their mistakes.
1:46
When I think about that, I think about my own career, years ago, when I was working at the Ritz Carlton at the flagship hotel, and by then I had been a waiter for quite some time, and I had started to wait tables in the cafe.
2:00
And one day, the owner of the hotel chain came in and he had a regular waiter that waited on him every day for lunch, up in a separate room. And that waiter happened to be sick. And so my boss told me to go ahead and take care of him. And so, being an experienced waiter, I went up to talk to him, he had a couple clients, he was very nice and down to earth. And as I started to wait on him at the table, I noticed that I had like a shadow over my shoulder.
2:29
And I noticed that the food and beverage director, who by the way, was my boss's boss's boss was standing behind me. And soon he started whispering things in my ear that he didn't want me to forget, or that he wanted me to know. And so that was going on for a little while.
And I came back to the table the next time and the food and beverage director was behind me. And I finally turned to him, either because I was young, or stupid, or both, you know, and I said, Hey, you hired me because I know how to do my job. So let me do my job. If I make a mistake, I'll fix it.
3:05
And after that, even though I needed to not have said that, because the owner of the hotel chain actually put in his reservation that he wanted no executives in the dining room when he was there. So I must have done an okay job.
Several years later, when I was managing my own restaurant, I had a different philosophy and that philosophy was for my people to be able to fix their own mistakes. And so working in this restaurant, I handed all my employees, a bunch of comp cards and free dessert cards and I said, Hey, if we make any mistakes in the course of someone's meal, you have my complete confidence to fix it, do whatever you need to do to bring them back in.
3:47
So imagine how that impacts employees when you think about their ability to learn, make mistakes and learn from their mistakes, the different approaches there.
3:58
As we think about psychological safety, remember, there are four stages inclusion, safety, which we talked about last week. learner safety, contributor safety, which is taking what you've learned and making things better. And then challenge your safety, which is where innovation really starts. Think about how you as a leader, can impact your folks ability to learn and learn from their mistakes and how that builds their confidence.
I hope you're well if you're at an inflection point, with understanding how to support employees and their learning and how to let people learn from their mistakes. Please reach out at cory@inflectionpointcoaching.net or contact me through my website, www.inflectionpointcoaching.net. And I hope you're well, take some time for self-care and I'll see you later.
Learner Safety Is About Empowering Others
When it comes to learner safety, empowering your team members to “fix” their own mistakes goes a long way. Giving your coworkers the space they need to solve problems directly related to their roles is how you help them learn.
For help with cultivating an environment that values learner safety, reach out and schedule a free strategy session with me. I’m happy to help.