You don’t have to be a strong leader on every front to build a team that speaks up. A 2025 Zenger Folkman analysis of more than 18,000 employees points the other way.
What the analysis found
They matched how respected people felt against their manager’s ratings across 60 behaviours, and eight stood out:
- Building an inclusive climate
- Staying open to different views
- Building trust
- Resolving conflict
- Balancing tasks with people’s needs
- Staying connected
- Role-modelling the standards you set
- Adapting visibly when things change
Among leaders who scored above average on these, intention to quit sat at 20% rather than 37%, and the share of people willing to give extra effort ran at 47% rather than 23%.
The term itself goes back to Amy Edmondson’s 1999 study of hospital teams, which defined psychological safety as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. What this analysis adds is a list of the things a leader actually does to produce it.
You don’t need all eight
The useful part is what came next. Leaders at or above the 75th percentile on any three had psychological safety reach the 53rd percentile. Push three to the 90th and it reached the 62nd.
These are unglamorous behaviours, the kind that quietly drop off in a busy week unless you defend them. None of them needs a budget, a new process or anyone’s permission, which is exactly what makes them easy to postpone. Nothing breaks on the day you skip them. The cost turns up later, in what people stop telling you.
Progress over perfection
This is progress over perfection with a dataset attached. Courage tends to show up as a few things done consistently, not a wholesale rebuild of how you lead. Three behaviours, repeated, will take a team further than a plan to fix everything at once.
Pick one this week
Staying connected is the easiest place to start: ask one person on your team a question that has nothing to do with their deliverables, and notice what opens up.
The question only works if you have room to hear the answer. Asked on the way to the next meeting, it lands as a box being ticked.
Sources
Folkman, J. (2025). Research: What Leaders Do to Create Psychological Safety. Zenger Folkman, a correlational analysis of the firm’s own data from more than 18,000 employees. zengerfolkman.com
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. doi.org/10.2307/2666999
About Braver than Before®
Braver than Before® is a courage-building programme for leaders: six progressive workshops covering vulnerability, brave conversations, speaking up, self-compassion and resilience, equivalent to 30 hours of CPD. 91% of graduates are more likely to speak up after the programme, and 96% report increased confidence to act when something needs to change.