Imagine an employee walks into a manager’s office and says, “I made a mistake.”

The manager thanks the employee for being honest. Together, they discuss what happened, identify a solution, and move forward. It appears to be the kind of interaction organizations hope to encourage — one built on openness, trust and accountability.

Now imagine that six months later, the same mistake is documented in the employee’s performance review.

What lesson did the employee just learn? Whether or not the manager intended it, the employee may have received a very different message than the one the manager hoped to communicate. The next time a mistake happens, they may think twice before speaking up.

This scenario illustrates why psychological safety remains one of the most important, and often misunderstood, topics in leadership development.

What Is Psychological Safety?

Psychological safety is the belief that individuals can ask questions, admit mistakes, offer ideas or respectfully challenge perspectives without fear of embarrassment, punishment or negative consequences. It doesn’t eliminate accountability or difficult conversations. Rather, it creates an environment where people feel safe enough to contribute honestly, learn continuously and address challenges before they become larger problems.

This understanding aligns with the work of Amy Edmondson, Ph.D., whose research has demonstrated that psychological safety enables people to speak up, learn from mistakes and contribute more openly within teams.

Ultimately, psychological safety doesn’t lower expectations; it creates the conditions for accountability, learning and continuous improvement.

Learning leaders have invested significant time and resources to help organizations develop these leadership behaviors. Workshops, leadership programs, coaching conversations and competency modeling all reinforce the importance of creating psychologically safe teams.

These efforts are important, yet I wonder if we’re overlooking an important question before introducing another model, competency or leadership practice.

Have the leaders we’re developing experienced the psychological safety we’re asking them to create?

Every Leader Has a Leadership Story

Every leader has a leadership story. Some stories encourage trust, others teach us to stay quiet; some remind us that mistakes are opportunities to learn, and others teach us that mistakes come with consequences.

Whether they realize it or not, those experiences follow managers into leadership. They influence how leaders respond to feedback, difficult conversations, vulnerability and even moments when someone says, “I made a mistake.”

Leadership development often assumes that new information naturally leads to new behavior. But leaders don’t begin learning when they enter a leadership training program. They arrive with years of experiences that shape how they interpret everything they’re about to learn.

Adult learning theory has long recognized that adults make sense of new knowledge by connecting it to prior experience. Malcolm Knowles’ principles of adult learning emphasize that adults bring a wealth of experiences to every learning environment, making relevance and personal connection essential to effective learning.

Thus, perhaps leadership development should spend less time assuming a common starting point and more time helping leaders recognize the experiences they already bring into the room.

Reflection Before Instruction

Reflection is often treated as an opening activity or discussion prompt. What if it’s one of the most underutilized instructional design strategies available to learning leaders?

Reflection invites leaders to pause before encountering new information. It creates space to examine existing beliefs before asking leaders to adopt new ones.

Rather than asking leaders to immediately adopt a new leadership behavior, facilitators create opportunities for leaders to discover for themselves why a different approach matters.

Consider the difference between telling leaders to encourage employees to speak up and asking them to recall a time when they spoke up — or chose to remain silent.

One approach teaches a concept, and the other creates a personal connection to the concept. When leaders recognize themselves in the learning experience, new ideas become more relevant, discussions become richer and behavior change becomes more achievable.

Designing Leadership Development Differently

If reflection prepares leaders to receive instruction, then it deserves a more intentional place in leadership development. This doesn’t require adding hours to a leadership development program or creating entirely new content.

It begins by changing the sequence. Across leadership development programs, I’ve observed that leaders are often eager to learn new skills but are rarely invited to examine the experiences that shaped how they currently lead.

Before introducing a model or leadership practice, invite leaders to reflect on the experiences that have shaped their beliefs, assumptions and behaviors.

For example, before teaching psychological safety, consider asking:

• When have you felt comfortable speaking up at work? What made that experience possible?
• When have you chosen to remain silent? What influenced that decision?
• Think about a leader who made it easy to admit a mistake. What did they do?
• Think about a leader who made it difficult to be honest. How did that experience influence you?

These questions aren’t intended to dwell on the past. They’re designed to help leaders recognize how past experiences continue to influence present-day leadership behaviors.

Once that awareness is established, instruction has a stronger foundation because leaders can connect new concepts to experiences they already understand.

For learning leaders, this represents a shift in design rather than an increase in content. Instead of asking leaders to immediately adopt a new leadership behavior, create opportunities for them to discover why a different approach matters. As leaders hear their own experiences reflected in others, conversations deepen, perspectives broaden and learning becomes more meaningful.

The question becomes less, “What do I need to teach first?” and more, “What do my learners need to recognize before new learning can take root?”

Looking Beyond the Next Leadership Development Program

Perhaps the next evolution in leadership development isn’t adding more content. Perhaps it’s asking, “What do leaders need to understand about themselves before new learning can truly take hold?”

Before designing your next leadership development experience, consider asking yourself:

• What experiences are my learners bringing into the room?
• How can I help them recognize those experiences before introducing new concepts?
• Where can I intentionally create moments for reflection, discussion and practice?

These questions can strengthen instructional design. They remind us that leadership development is about more than just delivering content. It’s about creating learning experiences that help leaders understand what has shaped them so they can intentionally shape how they lead others.