Managing What's Outside Your Control: 
Protecting Psychological Safety
Pooja Kothari, Boundless Awareness, LLC (Brooklyn, NY)
Stability isn’t just about balance sheets. It’s about people feeling safe enough to keep showing up. Across the U.S., economic headlines are filled with signs of strain, slowing growth, tighter budgets, rising uncertainty. While most conversations focus on numbers and forecasts, the real story unfolds inside organizations, where people are feeling the ripple effects every day.
Leaders are being asked to do more with less, steady their teams, and maintain morale—all while managing their own uncertainty. It’s not easy. Yet this is exactly where human-centered, equity-minded leadership matters most. When leaders act with empathy, reflect, listen, communicate transparently, and foster psychological safety, they give teams something rare: stability rooted in trust.
That trust requires awareness. Economic uncertainty doesn’t affect everyone equally. People of color, women, LGBTQ+ employees, and others from marginalized communities often face deeper instability in pay, hiring, and voice. Inclusive, anti-racist leadership means recognizing these gaps and choosing to lead with fairness, curiosity, and courage—asking, Who is most affected? Whose perspective is missing?
Because stability isn’t just financial—it’s emotional and cultural: knowing your voice is heard, your contributions matter, and your identity is respected. It’s also about emotional and cultural safety knowing your voice is heard, your contributions are valued, and your identity is respected.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to apply the Boundless Awareness Microaggressions Framework to identify, examine, and actively counter microaggressions when they occur.
Participants will be able to identify and name the necessary environmental factors needed to strengthen and maintain an office's psychological safety.
Participants will gain the language needed to advocate for their continued psychological safety.
Managing What's Outside Your Control has been submitted to both SHRM and HRCI for recertification credit consideration.
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