Cracking the Code to Team Success: Psychological Safety, Collaboration, and Connection

In this insightful episode of the Vet Staff Podcast, host Julie South tackles the important topic of psychological safety and its impact on team dynamics, collaboration, and overall veterinary clinic performance. 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to build a more trusting, connected, and high-performing work environment.

Psychological safety is the foundation for successful teams. It's about creating an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas, admitting mistakes, and taking calculated risks without fear of negative consequences. When psychological safety exists, open communication, mutual respect, and dependability thrive, leading to increased innovation, learning opportunities, and an inclusive atmosphere.

Julie South explains why psychological safety matters and how it directly affects employee retention, job satisfaction, and clinic performance.  

But psychological safety is just the start. The episode also explores the interconnected concepts of collaboration and connection, and their vital roles in building strong, cohesive teams. Collaboration leverages each team member's strengths and expertise to achieve common goals, while connection fosters a sense of belonging, mutual support, and camaraderie.

Julie South offers practical strategies for creating collaboration and connection, such as regular brainstorming sessions, clear communication channels, and team-building activities that create personal connections. These insights are valuable for anyone seeking to create a more engaged, enthusiastic, and loyal veterinary workforce.

CHECK OUT EP 118:  “Inclusion vs diversity – 7 inclusive ways to grow your employer brand as a PEOPLE.first vet clinic”

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Chapters

• 0:04 Building Psychological Safety and Collaboration
• 18:47 Empowerment Through Vet Staff Podcast

Transcript

Julie South [00:00:04]:
Have you ever felt hesitant? A bit, sort of maybe scared to share your ideas or concerns at work because you feel that you may be judged? Or perhaps something even worse, some kind of negative consequence might happen? Or maybe you've noticed a colleague who seems withdrawn or reluctant to participate in team discussions. If you've ever felt this way, or you've seen it happening around you, then stay tuned because this episode is perfect for you. Welcome to the Vet Staff Podcast, where you can top up your resilience tank, get your head screwed on straight, and get excited about going to work on Monday mornings. Again, this is episode 190 and I'm your show host, Julie south, certified disc trainer and resilience coach. The Vet Staff podcast is powered by Vet staff Limited, the recruitment agency on a mission to help vet clinics recognise, retain and recruit their dream teams. We show clinics, vets and nurses how to crack the communication code that's unique to them. So resilience skyrockets and people want to join your clinic and stay there. You can find back copies of the Vet staff podcast at vet vetstaffpodcast.com.

Julie South [00:01:28]:
last week we talked about the verbal and the nonverbal language we each use and how what we say and do and what others say and do gives an inkling and insight into our and their preferred communication styles. If you missed that podcast, then I recommend you go back and give it a listen. So that's at vetstaffpodcast.com. today we're looking at something equally just as important for team development, psychological safety, or it's an extension of what we're following up on right now of psychological safety. Today we are going to look at what it is, why it matters, and how does connection and or collaboration fit into this picture. By the end of this episode, you'll have a couple of practical steps to build a more trusting, collaborative and connected team. These are not just feel good concepts. They're essential to help you reduce turnover, increase your job satisfaction, and boost overall clinic performance.

Julie South [00:02:48]:
Trust is the foundation of any successful team. Like it's the foundation for any successful relationships. Relationship singular. Because a team is a relationship. Without it, team members feel, or may feel insecure about sharing their thoughts or taking risks. Now, when teams have trust, we've got open communication. And that's when everyone feels comfortable about sharing their thoughts without fear of the world crashing down around them, without fear of negative consequences. There's reliability, and that's because everyone consistently meets the commitments that they say they're going to do, and they support each other and with that comes mutual respect because everyone values everyone else's contribution and perspectives.

Julie South [00:03:46]:
You know that you have trust in teams because there are signs. So some of those signs are that team members openly share their ideas without fear of being judged. People admit their mistakes. They put their hands up and say they did it wrong. And these mistakes, these errors, get discussed constructively. And then there's the sense of dependability, where everyone knows that they can rely on each other and their backs are covered. So here's an action step for an employer. If you're the lead vet, the head nurse, the owner, the practice manager, the HR manager, then what you can do is make sure that you regularly check in with your team using direct closed questions.

Julie South [00:04:39]:
These are yes or no type questions because you want an answer, a specific answer. And questions like that include, do you feel comfortable sharing your honest opinion here? Then go to an open question. Is there anything you feel hesitant about bringing up? Now, obviously, you don't do this in a group environment. In a group setting, this. You ask this question one on one with the person that's in your team. If you're an employee, what you can do, here's your takeaway, is you can start creating trust by being more reliable and more supportive. How do you do that? That means that you can start showing appreciation for your team, for your workmates, your colleagues contributions. So start saying thank you for them.

Julie South [00:05:39]:
It doesn't need to be a big thing, but say thank you now. Psychological safety is about creating a safe space. It's about creating safety for your team members so they feel safe. All the people, your direct reports, so that if you're the team leader, so that they feel. Feel safe to take calculated risks and to be what might be regarded as being a bit vulnerable in front of each other. Vulnerability means that they are, they feel safe enough to put their hand up and say, hey, I screwed up, I didn't do this right or this went wrong, or, I need help. Especially if you've got somebody who's staunch for, for somebody who's staunch to put their head up and say, hey, I need help here. That's a sign of vulnerability in psychologically safe teams.

Julie South [00:06:39]:
So when you have psychological safety, it means that mistakes become learning opportunities. Errors are discussed openly and constructively. Innovation thrives because team members feel free and safe to propose, to come up with new ideas without fear of being shot down or laughed at. And it's an inclusive environment. That means that everyone feels that their voice is valued and heard. To find out what inclusivity could look like at your clinic, I recommend you go check out episode 108 of the Vetstaff podcast. It was called or entitled inclusion versus diversity seven inclusive ways to grow your employee brand as a people first vet clinic. I will put the direct link to that episode in the show notes so that you can click it wherever you're listening to this right now.

Julie South [00:07:43]:
Otherwise, go visit vetstaffpodcast.com and check out episode 118. Now getting back to psychological safety signs of psychological that you've ticked that you've got psychological safety in your team is that your team members ask questions without worrying about being ridiculed or looking stupid or looking incompetent. They also feel safe to challenge the status quo constructively, positively, rather than just dig their heels in and be obstructive as a constructive question of the status quo. And there's an atmosphere of mutual support for your team members when they are going through difficult times or when the team or the clinic is facing some kind of challenge. What you can do your action step for the employers, for the HR managers, the practice managers, the team leaders, you need to look at creating a team culture, preferably a clinic culture, but a subset team culture, where feedback is seen as a tool for growth. So ask questions like what can we learn from this mistake? Or how can we, you know, that happened, how can we make sure it doesn't happen again? What can we improve from this process? We are doing this the whole time at Vetstaff, when something slips through a hole that fortunately doesn't happen very often, but when something slips through a hole that we didn't even know existed, it's like, how can we stop this happening again? So we get together, we look at where the error was, and then we put a process in place so that hopefully it doesn't happen again and there's no blame. We don't go on witch hunts to find out how things got screwed up. Now, if you're an employee, if you're the team member, then start looking at having a growth mindset.

Julie South [00:09:50]:
Reframe challenges, hurdles, abstractions, whatever it is, as opportunities to learn. Start using phrases in your own head or out loud. What did we learn from this? In your own head, what can I learn from this? How can we do better next time? How can I do better next time? Now with collaborations, collaboration, it's where people work together. Better means in a team more effectively. It's more than just working together. It's about using and leveraging and valuing each other's strengths to achieve a common goal. When you have this, then collaborative teams share responsibilities. It means that tasks distributed are shared based on individual strengths and expertise.

Julie South [00:10:54]:
It means that you've got great communication and that means clear, open and honest communication. And that is the norm. And you support each other. It means that you step up and help each other without hesitation, without even thinking about it. Now, when you have collaboration in teams, signs of collaboration in teams include having regular brainstorming sessions where everyone contributes, everyone, every single person, because everyone feels safe in adding their little bit without being shut down, that clear roles and responsibilities are shared with accountability. And then you have frequent updates and open channels of communication. So everybody knows, where possible, where it's appropriate. What going on? Let's look at action steps for the team leaders, for the practice managers, the HR managers, the directors.

Julie South [00:11:58]:
Make sure that you have regular team meetings that are focused on collaboration and brainstorm ideas around asking questions like how can we better support each other then for the employees, for you as the individual, be proactive in offering help and asking for input from your workmates and your colleagues. So use ask questions like or use statements like I could use your expertise on this. And then the flip side of that is, how can I help you with whatever it is, this task with connection when you've got connection happening in teams, it means that stronger team relationships are built. It means that you have, it creates and you have a sense of belonging and mutual support. Connected teams understand each other. They know each other's strengths. They recognize individuals recognize each other's strengths, their shortcomings and their working styles and their communication styles. They build relationships.

Julie South [00:13:13]:
There's a great sense of camaraderie and mutual respect. When you've got connected people in a team and they support each other's wellbeing, they have each other's backs, they look out for each other. Signs of connection in teams include having high levels of engagement and high levels of enthusiasm. You have low turnover rates. As people feel loyal to the team, very few people leave. So that's why having connection and collaboration is good for staff retention. You openly discuss these teams, openly discuss things like workload levels and stress levels within the team. And then, because they are so connected and supportive, they then work together to find out how they can make it better, how they can support each other.

Julie South [00:14:07]:
Action steps for the employer, for the team leader. Organize things together. Activities together that create personal connection. That bring about personal connection. Now, it doesn't have to be a rope climbing team building activity. It could be a beer and pizza, evening or afternoon or a shared lunch. It doesn't have to be a big deal. It doesn't have to be all woo woo.

Julie South [00:14:33]:
And then you can ask, because when these things happen, you can ask people like, how are you really doing? And then what can we do to support each other better? Because everybody feels safe about answering questions like that and about speaking up. Then for you, as for the individual, take time to get to know who you work with. You don't have to go to their houses and spend the weekends with each other, but it could mean it could include something like, let's grab coffee and take our break outside or catch up. You know, 510 minutes here or there makes all the difference. Or asking questions like, how can I help lighten your load. Now, what's the cost of disconnection and lack of collaboration for a clinic? When teams lack trust, when psychological safety is non existent, where there's no collaboration or there's no connection, you have a high turnover. And that's because people leave. People.

Julie South [00:15:46]:
Employees leave because of dissatisfaction or because they don't feel valued or that they matter. You have low team engagement. Team members are disengaged. They might turn up physically, but they are not there beyond just doing their job. What happens even if they do their job? They might not even do their job. It leads to decreased productivity and that can look like running late for appointments, going over time for appointments. It can mean not offering workups because it's just a bit too much effort. When it means then that you've got to redo something and then you have increased stress, you have toxic environments and we all know, I'm sure, I think, that when you've got a toxic environment, you have high stress levels and you have burnout.

Julie South [00:16:51]:
So what can you do about all of this? Well, we'd love you to get in touch with us. At Vetstaff, we are certified disc trainers. We can help you with your recruitment and your retention and your resiliency levels. We do have a pilot program right now for. We have a few gaps left for clinics that want to participate in a new team development program that we are running. So please get in touch with us teametstaff dot co dot NZ and we'll take you through how you can increase the collaboration and the connection at your clinic. Next week. We'll be looking at how you can engage your team by identifying what they need, their needs.

Julie South [00:17:51]:
We're going to explore different types of approaches to engagement, how to identify and meet team needs, and then strategies. A few strategies for maximizing your team engagement through understanding. You won't want to miss it. So make sure that you hit that follow button wherever you are listening to this podcast right now. So tune in to the vetstaffpodcast.com if you found today's episode helpful, can you please share it with your workmates and maybe even leave us a review? We'd love a five star review wherever you're listening to it right now. Remember that building strong teams starts with creating an environment where everyone feels safe, connected and valued. Thank you for tuning in to the Vet staff podcast. I appreciate that you've spent the last 20 minutes or so of your life with me inside your head.

Julie South [00:18:58]:
Thank you for that time. I really do appreciate it. This is Julie south signing off, inviting you to go out there and be fantabulous, connected and collaborative. The Vet staff podcast is proudly powered by vetclinicjobs.com comma, the new and innovative global job board reimagining veterinary recruitment connecting veterinary professionals with clinics that shine online Vetclinicjobs.com is your go to resource for finding the perfect career opportunities and helping vet clinics power up their employer branding game. Visit vetclinicjobs.com today to find vet clinics that shine online so veterinary professionals can find them. Vetclinicjobs.com.