Podcast Episode Details
Back to Podcast Episodes
Empowering Women Leaders: Fostering Psychological Safety Through Empathy
This is your The Women's Leadership Podcast podcast.
Welcome back to The Women’s Leadership Podcast. Today, we’re diving straight into one of the most powerful tools any leader can wield: leading with empathy, and specifically, how women leaders are uniquely positioned to foster psychological safety in the workplace.
Let’s get right into it. When we talk about psychological safety, we’re talking about creating a space where team members feel genuinely safe to share their ideas, ask questions, and—most importantly—make mistakes without fear of humiliation or retaliation. According to Angela Seymour-Jackson, the Chair of PageGroup, when organizations don’t have this kind of culture, groupthink settles in, and the diverse voices at the table can go unheard. Even highly diverse teams can fall into groupthink if leaders don’t invite, respect, and honor each contribution.
Why does this matter so deeply for women in leadership? For one, women often bring a wealth of emotional intelligence and collaborative skills to their roles—skills that research from the Center for Creative Leadership links directly to higher innovation and job performance. As Savitha Raghunathan from Red Hat puts it, being attuned to both your own emotions and those of the team creates trust and a responsive working environment. And when trust takes root, teams are more engaged, more creative, and feel empowered to take the risks that drive real progress.
Let’s unpack what leading with empathy looks like in action. It starts with active listening. This means not just hearing what your team says, but truly understanding their needs and perspectives. For example, polling your team for honest feedback, then integrating their ideas into decision making, signals that their input matters. This also means recognizing moments when someone needs additional support—like when a high-performing team member suddenly struggles because of something outside work. Extending compassion during personal challenges, and adjusting workloads or expectations, lets everyone know it’s safe to ask for help or speak up when they need it.
Women leaders can further foster psychological safety by openly discussing mistakes, both their own and others’. Sharing stories about failures and the lessons learned from them models vulnerability and transparency. This breaks down barriers and gives teams permission to be human, which is especially important for women and other underrepresented groups who may feel heightened pressure to prove themselves or fear negative stereotypes.
Creating psychological safety also means setting up clear systems for reporting bias and addressing microaggressions, which according to a KPMG study, remain a significant barrier—68% of women surveyed felt the need to prove themselves more than their male counterparts, and over half reported experiencing microaggressions at work. Leaders who address these dynamics head-on, and build in support like employee resource groups or mentorship networks, help their teams feel seen, heard, and protected.
Here are some discussion points to keep the conversation going: How can women leaders turn feedback into a two-way street? What strategies can be implemented to encourage open sharing, especially in hybrid or remote teams? And how can we ensure our culture celebrates differences, rather than just tolerates them?
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Women’s Leadership Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please subscribe and share with your network. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
For more http://www.quietplease.ai
Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta
Published on 1 week, 1 day ago