INTHEBLACK March 2025 - Magazine - Page 54
WORK SMART
“It’s exhausting trying to be something you’re not,
and it chews through cognitive resources that could
be used for other things, like decision-making.”
JADE GREEN
Green says workplaces where leaders and
managers don’t deliver regular feedback often
have issues with psychological safety. When an
employee receives no feedback, she explains,
they are more likely to make mistakes that
could result in a crisis. “If we give fast,
real-time feedback on the spot — I call
it course correcting — we don’t have to do
performance reviews,” she says. “It’s a little
tap in the right direction, which prevents
a small issue becoming a big problem.”
Waiting to give feedback until something
goes wrong creates a culture of fear and
54 INTHEBLACK March 2025
switches the focus from the task to the person.
“When we wait until it’s a situation of the straw
breaking the camel’s back, the reprimand often
seems personal — ‘you did a bad thing’ versus
‘you made a mistake while performing a task
that we can fix’,” Green says.
When implementing any cultural change,
it’s important to ensure a company’s values,
purpose and mission statements are more than
‘words on a wall’ and resonate with employees
and the work they do.
It also helps for leaders to turn the lens
on themselves. Green recommends reading
