In leadership circles, “psychological safety” has become a popular term - and for good reason. Research by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson shows teams with high psychological safety innovate more, make fewer errors, and learn faster.
Yet in coaching sessions with executives, I often hear a hidden tension:
“If I make my team feel too safe, won’t they relax their standards?”
“If I push for clarity and accountability, will I kill openness?”
This is a false choice. Psychological safety without clarity breeds pleasant but aimless meetings. Clarity without psychological safety creates fearful compliance. High-performing teams need both: a climate where people feel safe to speak and a structure that tells them where they’re going.
Why safety without clarity fails
When leaders focus only on being “nice” or “supportive,” people may feel comfortable but also uncertain:
- Which priorities matter most?
- Who decides what?
- How will success be measured?
Ambiguity is stressful. In fact, it’s one of the biggest drivers of burnout. Safety alone isn’t enough; people need to know what’s expected of them.
Why clarity without safety fails
On the other hand, leaders who prize precision and control often create an environment where:
- People stay silent about risks or mistakes.
- Bad news travels slowly upward.
- Creativity shrinks to “what the boss wants.”
You get short-term compliance at the cost of long-term learning and innovation.
The leadership task: safety + clarity
Think of psychological safety and clarity as two axes on a graph:
- High safety, low clarity = warm but drifting.
- Low safety, high clarity = disciplined but brittle.
- High safety, high clarity = resilient high performance.
Your job as a leader is to pull the team into that upper-right quadrant.
Practical ways to build both
1. Set clear expectations up front
Define outcomes, roles, and decision rights. Use tools like RACI to clarify who’s Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. When people know the boundaries, they feel safer to speak within them.
2. Invite candour, then reward it
Don’t just say “my door is open.” Actively ask, “What am I missing?” or “Where might this plan fail?” Publicly thank those who raise uncomfortable truths. This shows candour is not punished but valued.
3. Separate person from problem
When giving feedback, focus on behaviour and impact, not character. “This report missed the deadline” is different from “You’re unreliable.” Clarity about the issue plus respect for the person builds trust.
4. Model vulnerability with discipline
Admit when you don’t know something or when you’ve changed your mind based on new data. This normalises learning. But pair vulnerability with action: “We learned X, so we’ll now do Y.”
5. Use regular “pulse checks”
Every quarter, ask your team two simple questions:
• “Do you feel safe to raise issues here?”
• “Are our priorities clear?”
Track trends and adjust your leadership accordingly.
Safety + clarity in action
In my own CTO experience, the highest-performing teams weren’t the ones with the longest hours or the flashiest perks. They were the ones where people could challenge my assumptions and still knew exactly what we were trying to achieve. That combination drove results under pressure.
Key takeaway for leaders
You don’t have to choose between psychological safety and clarity. In fact, you can’t. Without both, performance suffers. By setting clear expectations, rewarding candour, separating people from problems, modelling disciplined vulnerability, and checking the team’s pulse, you can build an environment where people dare to speak and know where to steer. That’s the true foundation of sustainable high performance.
Raido Kivikangur is an Executive Clarity Coach and former CTO (€3B+ infrastructure programmes) who helps tech and infrastructure leaders cut through decision fatigue and lead with calm authority.
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