---
title: Psychological safety means it’s safe to take risks
description: Debbie Taylor Moore reveals how respect and compassion empower high-performing teams. Discover practical insights in The Gentle Art of Leadership.
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---

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 Sep 4, 2025, 12:00:00 PM

# Psychological safety means it’s safe to take risks

[Brian Donovan](https://donovanleadership.com/blog/author/brian-donovan)

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[**Debbie Taylor Moore**](https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#) believes in her heart that people can't come to work and be high performers unless they're in an environment where they and their work are respected.

That’s why she fosters the type of environment where you get the best from your team, and they feel at their best. If someone is having an off day, she will do her best to give them the space so they can get past that barrier. She wants the people who surround her to understand that she relates to everyone on the same human level, no matter what their position in the hierarchy of the organisation.

Debbie is concerned at the level at which the workplace is imploding with today's ‘new cruelty.’  From the very beginning of her career as an individual contributor, she promised to become an executive who was approachable. Debbie tells a story that illustrates the importance she attributes to providing people with psychological safety.

An employee was diagnosed with cancer directly after an M&A transaction. The acquiring company wanted to eliminate his position, while he was still in the hospital recovering from surgery. She fought to keep him on payroll, keep his position open, and his benefits intact, all while filling in for him in his job.  Many people urged against 'raising her head' in the new entity.  But she did and is happy she did not just cave in to carrying out orders and delivering bad news. She was successful in influencing the situation. The employee has since fully recovered, is thriving, and well-employed because of the impact of her compassion. 

Debbie believes people cannot be high performers unless they are in an environment where their work and their personhood are respected. Her personal credo is:

▶️  to be a believer in all that is possible

▶️  to be the very best wife and mother

▶️  to leave all endeavours and engagements better than I found them

▶️  to make a meaningful contribution to the world around me

▶️  to maintain and promote integrity in business

▶️  to live and work in complete authenticity.

These leadership insights from Debbie Taylor Moore are outlined in more detail in the new book, which [**Dean Phelan**](https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#) and I co-authored – [The Gentle Art of Leadership.](https://donovanleadership.com/books) 

The perspectives we gathered from our interviews with 50+ leaders like Debbie from around the globe and the original research we drew on, form the basis of the book.

🙋‍♀️ How have you seen psychological safety (or the lack of it) impact a team's success or morale in your own experience? 🙋

PS: Want to learn how to get the best from your team? Let’s talk about how the upcoming [Personality and Behaving Transactionally Program](https://donovanleadership.com/personality-and-behaving-transactionally) could help.

Best regards, Brian

 

[The Gentle Art of Leadership](https://donovanleadership.com/blog/tag/the-gentle-art-of-leadership), [Psychological Safety](https://donovanleadership.com/blog/tag/psychological-safety), [Debbie Taylor Moore](https://donovanleadership.com/blog/tag/debbie-taylor-moore)

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