Contact WinnieLesson summary · FOCUS26
Leadership and psychological safety in physiotherapy practices. Everything from the session, in one place, with a checklist to start on Monday.
Winnie Wu · Physiotherapist, Clinic Owner, Business Consultant
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Most leaders have never been asked this. As physios, we spend our working lives creating safety for patients and teams. Very few of us have designed it for ourselves.
By safe, I mean: able to say what you think and ask for what you need, without bracing for the fallout.
It often shows up as a panic before a performance conversation, lying awake wondering if your standards are too high, or saying exactly what's wrong at the dinner table and never to the person.
Why it matters
Our physios, in general, feel safe. I'm not sure we can say the same for business owners.
The fork
That's the answer most owners give when asked what they need to feel safe. It means one of two things:
You can change the team, or you can change the trust. Changing the trust comes down to three things.
The framework
Capability and clarity are on you, the owner. Backing is on all of us.
If that sounds like trust, it is. Researchers have described trust as three things for thirty years. Each one maps onto a part of the house.
| Safe house | Trust | What it means | The question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | Ability | The skills and competence to deliver in this area | Can they deliver? |
| Clarity | Integrity | Working to a set of principles both sides know and accept | Do they know what I need? |
| Backing | Benevolence | Wanting to do good by the other person, beyond self-interest | Who has my back? |
Trust model: Mayer, Davis & Schoorman (1995). Safety is what it feels like when all three are there.
Capability
When trust erodes, it's usually after a few cycles of disappointment:
48% of their team's capability
95% of their team's capability
Same people, nearly double the capability. Source: Wiseman, Multipliers (2017).
Most of us sit in the middle: good intentions, bad moves. Liz Wiseman describes nine tendencies. I talked about three. Tap each one to see what it means to do, and what actually happens.
You're training your team to underperform.
"Winnie, your team has all the answers."
Divergent thinking is ideas, imagination and questions. Convergent thinking is data, patterns and logic. Run them at different times, so the default "that won't work" voice can't crush an idea before it has a chance.
1. Diverge
Everyone writes 6 to 8 ideas, on their own, in silence. Pass the paper around. No idea too small, no reactions.
2. Converge, later
Come back together. Sort, analyse, decide. Hold the judgement for this half.
A question to take away: divergent thinking needs wonder and awe. How will you cultivate wonder in your workplace?
Clarity
"What do you need to see, hear and read, to feel like you don't need to check our work?"
Don't apologise for needing to check, especially after a few cycles of disappointment. Sometimes, to break that cycle, you do need to check a bit more. The key is to say it out loud, as an expectation.
Your non-negotiables for doing good work and focusing on your role. In week two of onboarding, the new team member writes theirs and the manager writes theirs. Then you talk through both lists, openly.
Example: the manager
Example: the team member
Backing
When safety breaks, some of us shrink and over-accommodate. Some of us snap, often at the people who love us most. Either way, it's very hard to restore safety on your own.
Find your person: a practice manager, a business coach, an external facilitator. Lonely leaders make worse decisions.
Ask up
"What do you need to see, hear and read, to feel like you don't need to check my work?"
Lead down
"What do you need to do good work?"
Owners: we ask our teams what they need. Are we asking for the same thing back?
Watch for it
When you start holding your tongue, or you stop behaving like yourself in your own clinic, pay attention. That's your safety being threatened. It comes down to the conditions more than your confidence, and conditions can be redesigned.
Your checklist
You'll get this lesson summary, plus our Conditions of Satisfaction explanation pack, so you can explain it to your team.
We create safe spaces for everyone else. It's time we did it for ourselves.
Without trust, you lead controlling, isolated and anxious. Your team deserves your full, wonderful self. So do you.
Australian Physiotherapy Association. (2026). 2025 Workforce Census Report. APA.
Deloitte DEI Institute & NYU Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. (2024). Uncovering culture: A call to action for leaders. Deloitte.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.
Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709–734.
Wiseman, L. (2017). Multipliers: How the best leaders make everyone smarter (Rev. ed.). HarperBusiness.