Silence is not a sign for harmony

Most leadership dashboards measure the things that make noise. Complaints, escalations, attrition, open conflict.

So when a team goes quiet, it reads as good news. For example, we take the absence of pushback on a new idea as evidence of alignment.

Here's an idea. If you want to find out whether your team is psychologically safe responding to you, make a proposal that is clearly impossible. Are they speaking up?

Their reaction can tell you a lot. It's not about setting your team up, but to trigger a necessary conversation. Be prepared to react constructively either way (they are silent vs speaking up).

If they were silence and you then explore with humility what genuinely lead to a lack of reaction, something genuinely new can come out of it. It's how team culture forms!