Power Tip: "How to build psychological safety under pressure", Scott Anderson
"Bad news doesn't get better. It's like fish, right? The longer you leave it out, the worse it's going to get."
Transcript
Ryan Castle: You're listening to Level 10 Leaders Power Tips, and I'm your host, Ryan Castle. Today we're revisiting a standout moment from our full episode with Scott Anderson of Real Property Management Express. His Power Tip is on building psychological safety under pressure. Let's dive in.
Scott Anderson: You know, the consistency part, to me, is really: how do you receive bad information? How do you take bad news? Right? Anybody can take good news well. That's, I love it, right? We're all happy. But if you take bad news well, and you don't lash out at whoever comes to you, and you kind of stay calm and just work through it, that resonates with people, and they feel safe. Right? They feel psychologically safe. And then people will bring you bad news, because bad news doesn't get better. It's like fish, right? The longer you leave it out, the worse it's going to get. So you want people to come and tell you.
But how you respond to that, how you respond to adversity when things don't go well in public, if you're calm, if you're focused, that consistency people also respond to. Right? And it doesn't mean you have to be nice, right? I've known some leaders in the Army I thought were terrible people, but they were great leaders. Very consistent. And you could approach them.
But again, it's just, you have to be true to yourself. And through that consistency and authenticity, people will respond to you, as long as you keep approaching things in the same way.
I don't think I've raised my voice more than once or twice in the last 20 years, because I don't need to. Right? You know, nobody likes a screamer. Maybe less good news and everybody's, you know, you're happy to yell. It's just not necessary. And people, if you start yelling, people shut down.
My grandfather told me this when I was a kid, and I've always remembered: if you get in an argument with somebody, the first person to start yelling loses. And that's kind of how I approached leadership. You just stay calm, keep moving forward. And people respond to that.
Ryan Castle: Thanks, Scott. To connect with Scott, go to level10.us/46. And while you're there, be sure to check out more Power Tips. And thanks for listening.
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