12 Ways Leaders Break Psychological Safety Without Realizing

Someone asks you a question. Halfway through their answer, you check your phone. Nobody would call it an incident, but the person felt it, and next time they’ll think twice. Tim and Junior walk through 12 moves like that: ordinary, mostly unnoticed, and expensive for the person on the receiving end. This guide turns the episode into a week of practice. Score yourself against the 12 traps, pick one to fix, and run the 15-minute review that closes the gap between the lapse and the repair.

What’s inside

• Why small moves land so hard. The three conditions that raise the stakes: it’s individually perceived, you’re busy, and you hold power.
• Task vs. person. A matrix for where you sit in any meeting: extractor, absentee, comforter, or the box where both stay ends.
• The 12 traps. Each one by the stage it damages, what it looks like, what to do instead, and a 1-to-5 self-score.
• The cost of speaking up. Six swaps that lower the price. What you say now, what to say instead.
• When to correct in public. The one exception to “correct in private,” and the question to ask first.
• Repair. Four moves from the episode and a table that sizes the repair to the breach.
• The weekly review and this week’s practice. Six questions for Friday, five moves for the week, each with the words to use.