As you look at your team’s Pathfinder results, you might find that their agility score is not where you would like it. If that is the case, there are ways that leaders can help develop this skill within their team as a whole or as individuals.

As a leader, you can also help coach individuals to help them develop their agility skills.

Research by the consultancy McKinsey has found that individuals often find themselves in a common predicament known as the “adaptability paradox” (we are using agile and adaptability interchangeably). That’s where one defaults to familiar routines or previous solutions during crucial periods when adaptability is most needed.

But, it is not just on the individual. As a leader, you are responsible for creating an environment where experimentation, learning, and failures (not catastrophic) can take place. If you want agility, but you don’t have the environment that supports it, you are setting yourself up for disappointment and your team up for failure.

We’ve all been in, or at least heard about, work environments where they say they want innovation, learning, and experimentation yet have a culture where disappointments are buried or penalized. To learn from setbacks, you must create a culture that welcomes examination and self-reflection without shame or blame.

McKinsey research shows leaders have a huge impact on this culture depending on how they foster psychological safety. The first step is to make sure you are practicing agility yourself and developing your own skills in that area. Second, McKinsey suggests four ways that “can help leaders foster psychological safety”:

Redefine “Failures”. As humans, we are naturally geared towards success, making failure a tough pill to swallow emotionally. However, leaders have the ability to reshape the perception of failure, transforming it into a learning opportunity from which we can grow and develop. By doing so, they cultivate an environment that values adaptability, where individuals feel at ease with expressing their vulnerability and honesty. This encourages a culture of curiosity, openness, and continual learning.

Promote Team Involvement. A variety of viewpoints allows for greater innovation and performance enhancement. Leaders should make concerted efforts to include team feedback in decision-making processes and stimulate conversation through more interactive discussions. It’s important to foster a culture that values everyone’s contribution, acknowledging all ideas even if they are not implemented. If an idea is disregarded, it’s crucial to clarify the reasons behind the decision, and make sure to encourage those who typically remain silent to speak up.

Appreciate Others. For teams to operate at their full potential, members must feel their contributions are appreciated. Leaders should avoid giving blanket praise or only acknowledging results. Instead, they should prioritize recognizing the effort put forth by team members, weaving this recognition into the team’s everyday language.

Coach People to Support Each Other. Research indicates that the team’s climate has over twice the impact on psychological safety as a leadership style. This suggests that coaching, role modeling, mentoring, and establishing supportive structures are vital in crafting an environment that feels secure.

As leaders successfully implement these practices, they will help build a stronger culture that will encourage and support team members to become more agile.