Part 3 - Why Are Your Best Employees Hiding What They Know?

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Your top performer chose to let a project fail rather than admit they did not understand a key requirement. Your most experienced team member observed a preventable mistake happen without speaking up.

Sound familiar? I often hear different versions of this story in my consulting work, and it always highlights the same core issue: psychological safety or rather, the complete lack of it.

The Thing Nobody Talks About

Here is what is going on in your organisation, and it is worse than you think. Your top talent are actively hiding what they know. Not because they are malicious or lazy, but because they have learned it is safer to stay silent than to risk being wrong, criticised, or blamed.

There is a term for this now—"knowledge hiding"—and research on it has grown rapidly in recent years. I have been exploring the latest studies, and one analysis that caught my eye looked at nearly 1,000 research papers on psychological safety from 2000 to 2023. The number of studies surged during COVID, reaching 131 papers in 2022 alone. Why? Because organisations finally started recognising the real costs of people being afraid to speak up.

But here is what the research does not show: the daily reality I observe when I walk into companies. The subtle ways people shut down. The careful way they choose their words in meetings. The problems that fester because nobody wants to deliver bad news.

What It Actually Looks Like

Let me paint you a picture from a client I worked with. Brilliant team, good people, terrible results. I spent a week just observing and conversing with the team, and here was what I noticed:

In meetings, there was this moment (you could almost sense it) where someone would begin to speak, then hold back and shift to safer territory. No one challenges others, despite clear issues. The CEO was quick to dismiss ideas and eager to impose his solutions. When mistakes occurred, the atmosphere in the room changed to damage control rather than learning.

The result? Three patterns that were slowly killing their innovation:

• Firstly, people hoarded information as if it were currency. If you are unsure how your contribution will be received, why take the risk of sharing what you know? It is often better to keep your insights to yourself.

  
  

• Second, new ideas dried up. When you have seen colleagues get shot down for suggesting improvements, you stop suggesting improvements. The status quo becomes the safe choice. This is one thing I observe: how the CEO shut down ideas raised by his executive team.

  
  

• Third, I see mistakes turned into secrets. Instead of viewing errors as chances to learn, people became inventive in hiding them. The cover-up outweighed the importance of fixing the problem.

  
  

The Manager's Blind Spot

Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of managers, and most are unaware that they are creating these dynamics. They believe they are being decisive leaders when they shut down discussions. They think they are maintaining standards when they react poorly to mistakes. They assume they are encouraging excellence when they only celebrate wins.

But here is what they do not notice: every time you respond to bad news with frustration instead of curiosity, you are training people to stop delivering bad news. Every time you ask for input but clearly have your mind made up, you are teaching people that their opinions do not matter. Every time you treat an intelligent failure the same way you would treat carelessness, you are encouraging people to take fewer risks.

That is the thing about psychological safety: its absence is often invisible to the people who create the problem.

The Simple Test

Want to know where you stand? Here are some questions I ask my clients, and their answers reveal everything I need to know:

When was the last time someone brought you a problem you did not already know about? If it has been a while, people have stopped trusting you with problems.

How do conversations shift when you enter the room? If people suddenly become more formal or cease debating, they are performing for you rather than collaborating with you.

What occurs when someone admits to having made a mistake? If your initial reaction is to focus on preventing it instead of understanding what happened, you overlook valuable learning opportunities.

How frequently do junior team members disagree with their senior counterparts in your meetings? If the answer is "never," you have a hierarchy issue disguised as respect.

Start Here

Look, changing team dynamics is not easy, but it starts with changing your behaviour. This week, try something different: when someone delivers bad news, thank them first. I mean it. Before you begin problem-solving or asking questions, say, "Thank you for bringing this to me." Watch how it changes the conversation.

When someone admits they made a mistake, resist the urge to jump straight into fix-it mode. Instead, ask "What did we learn from this?" Show genuine curiosity about the mistake before worrying about the solution.

Here is a way to track your progress: start noting how often people say "I do not know" or "I was wrong" in your meetings. Counterintuitive as it might seem, psychological safety actually increases when these phrases become more common, not less. It demonstrates that people feel safe being human.

The Real Question

Here is a thought: Are your people sharing what they truly know, or just what they think you want to hear? That answer could be the difference between a team that adapts and innovates and one that merely goes through the motions.

Because at the end of the day, your best employees are not hiding what they know because they do not care. They are hiding it because they have learned that caring can be dangerous. And that is a problem worth fixing.

What patterns have you noticed in your own team's communication? I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

Reference: Dong, R. K., Li, X., & Roxas, H. (2024). Psychological safety and psychosocial safety climate in workplace: A bibliometric analysis and systematic review towards a research agenda. Journal of Safety Research, 91, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2024.08.001