Why this matters
To mitigate against Impression Management, the Impression Management Counters encourage your team to work on reflective logs to understand how and when they have not spoken up that day or week.
Over time, this will turn into less fearful, negative behaviour and more honest conversations.
The questions you ask here give you a great, in-the-moment chance to see how impression management is affecting you and your psychological safety real time. Doing the work on impression management is a direct antidote to low psychological safety.
How to run it
- 1
The team leader to prepare a virtual board where everyone can post their question replies on the board.
- 2
As a team, open up your chat or your online whiteboard and ask yourselves these questions:
- “In the last week, have I stopped myself from saying something?”
- “Why have I done that?”
- “Was I afraid of X?!”
- “Was I fearing looking incompetent?”
- “Was I protecting against looking ignorant?”
- “Was I concerned about appearing intrusive?”
- “Was I worried about seeming negative?”
- “Have I seen myself do that?” and “Have I seen others stop themselves from saying something or biting their lip instead of speaking up?”
- 3
Then work out, in the next week if it ever happens again, we’re going to do Z. e.g. ask questions, offer ideas, challenge the status quo or admit, “I don’t know”.
- 4
Make a list in your notes or on Post-its of ‘last week I didn’t X because Y’ so you know what you are willing to put up with or if you move to a new team what you would need from a new team to be able to speak up.
- 5
All commit to use these questions, and take them to heart as day-to-day week-to-week Impression Management Counters to help you bring Impression Management down and send Psychological Safety up.
What next
Keep an eye on improvement variation for 3 months then return if you have not achieved the desired result.