Build Trust: How Early-Career Professionals Contribute to Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is one of the most researched drivers of strong team performance.
Research from Amy Edmondson shows that teams perform better when people feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes, and ask for help without fear of embarrassment or punishment. Google’s Project Aristotle reinforced this finding, naming psychological safety as the most important factor on high-performing teams.
The responsibility for creating psychological safety sits primarily with leaders.
And — importantly — leaders aren’t the only ones who shape it.
Trust Is Built in Everyday Interactions
Psychological safety isn’t created through a single policy or value statement. It’s built through everyday moments:
How people respond when someone makes a mistake
Whether vulnerability is met with respect or judgment
Whether follow-through is consistent
How feedback is received — not just given
We know managers aren’t perfect. We can’t expect them to be and we don’t need them to be. Fortunately, early-career employees can meaningfully influence the level of psychological safety on their teams.
Not by leading the team — but by how they show up within it.
How Early-Career Professionals Help Build Trust
Early-career professionals contribute to an environment of trust when they:
Follow through on commitments, even small ones
Admit mistakes early instead of hiding them
Respond to feedback with openness rather than defensiveness
Ask for help without self-blame
Get curious about relationships when something feels off
These behaviors signal reliability, humility, and respect — the building blocks of trust.
Why This Is Hard Early in a Career
Often referred to as emerging talent, these professionals are just breaking into the corporate world. Almost every action carries some amount of perceived risk.
Without guidance or support, internal dialogue is likely to occur:
How honest is too honest?
Will admitting a mistake hurt my credibility?
Is it safe to ask for help here?
How the Build Trust Workshop Supports Early-Career Employees
The Build Trust workshop in the Essentials Series focuses on trust as a learnable set of behaviors, not a personality trait.
It helps early-career professionals:
Understand how trust is built and broken
Consider not just their behaviors, but also the perception of their behaviors
Gain confidence in receiving feedback and responding to mistakes
When early-career professionals are equipped with these skills, they’re better able to contribute to teams where psychological safety can grow — even as managers and leaders continue developing their own skills.
Trust Is a Shared Practice
Psychological safety starts with leadership — and it’s strengthened through consistent, human behavior across the team.
When organizations invest early in helping people build trust, they create teams that learn faster, recover quicker, and work better together.
Trust isn’t something you wait for later.
It’s something you practice — from the beginning.