Two Leadership Failure Patterns: Paternalism and Exploitation

In this episode Tim and Junior introduce the two leadership failure patterns found in The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™ model - paternalism and exploitation. This is a very practical episode for managers and leaders but applies to anyone working with other humans. Progressing through The 4 Stages of Psychological safety requires balancing a combination of respect and permission while avoiding these two failure patterns. (03:11) Where did The 4 Stages of Psychological safety come from? While studying psychological safety Dr. Clark worked to identify how psychological safety is developed. During the research a pattern emerged, a sequence through four successive stages. Psychological safety isn't something you have or don't have. Every organization has a level of psychological safety it's a matter of degree. (10:16) The failure pattern of exploitation. Exploitation is the combination of low respect and high permission. Simply put exploitation is " treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work." All organizations are exploitative to some degree. "Think about, not, do we have exploitation in our organization, but to what degree and in what forms do we have exploitation?" (21:15) The failure pattern of paternalism. Paternalism is the combination of high respect and low permission. "I care about you, I value you, but please sit in the corner and don't touch anything." Paternalistic leaders are micromanagers and yet they're well-intentioned. If you want to overcome paternalism you need to learn how to transfer accountability and the critical thinking. (36:53) These patterns exist on a spectrum. In some cases there are blatant acts of exploitation as well as intentional acts of paternalism. Our intentions and motivations matter. "We need to have some time for reflection, and we need to think about the way that we're interacting, and it goes back to what we said before, let's examine our motives and our intent, is it clean, is it pure?" Important Links: The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety - Book What is Psychological Safety - Introducing The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety Psychological Safety Podcast Series Stage One: Inclusion Safety Stage Two: Learner Safety Stage Three: Contributor Safety Stage Four: Challenger Safety Overview: What is Psychological Safety Bonus: What Psychological Safety is Not