Manager OTG's LinkedIn Post on Psychological Safety, Annotated
The post went up April 14 at 2:17 PM. It is 291 words. It has been pinned to his LinkedIn profile since he posted it — beneath a headshot from 2019, above a featured section that still lists Helio Group as his current employer.
The post has 47 likes. Eleven of them are from people who report to him at Lumenwave. They felt they had to.
What follows is the post, annotated.
LinkedIn · April 14, 2026 · 2:17 PM · 📍 Chicago, IL
"I want to talk about something I've been sitting with for a while.
Psychological safety. We throw the term around in meetings, in all-hands decks, in values documents that live in a Notion folder nobody opens. But what does it actually look like to build it?
I had a conversation recently — not a comfortable one — where someone on my team pushed back on a decision I'd made. And instead of getting defensive (which, honestly, would have been my instinct a few years ago), I sat with it. I asked questions. I listened.
That moment reminded me of something Brené Brown writes about in Dare to Lead: vulnerability isn't weakness. It's the most accurate measure of courage.
Here's what I've learned after [X] years in leadership: the teams that outperform, the cultures that stick — they're built on people feeling safe enough to say the hard thing.
So today I'm asking myself: what am I doing to make that possible?
If you're a leader reading this, I'd love to hear your story. How do you create psychological safety on your team? Drop it in the comments. Let's learn from each other.
#Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #Growth #TeamCulture #BrenéBrown"
"I've been sitting with this for a while." — He posted it eleven days after Dana held a skip-level with the team. It was a Wednesday. Manager OTG was at O'Hare, in the United Club, with his AirPods in and his Slack status set to ✈️ In Transit. He does not know the skip-level happened — though he has noticed that Greg and Priya sometimes reference conversations he was not part of. Psychological safety has not come up in his 1:1s since.
"someone on my team pushed back on a decision I'd made" — This was Greg, in a 3:24 PM Slack message, asking whether the Q3 initiative timeline was realistic given the current headcount. Manager OTG's reply, at 4:06 PM: "Appreciate the pushback! Let's take this offline 🙏." They did not take it offline. The timeline was not realistic. Greg built a parallel tracker in a private Notion doc, adjusted three deadlines on his own authority, and did not tell anyone.
"instead of getting defensive" — During a reorg at Helio Group in 2019, he sent a reply-all email to the all-company announcement asking whether his role was being eliminated. The email was 341 words. He cc'd his skip-level. The skip-level did not reply.
"Brené Brown writes about in Dare to Lead" — He listened to Chapter 1 on the United flight from O'Hare to Denver in February. He has since recommended the book in four separate 1:1s. He has not returned to Chapter 2. He also owns the hardcover — it is on his Zoom bookshelf, between Atomic Habits and Good to Great, at a slight angle.
"after [X] years in leadership" — He meant to type twelve. The post has been live for eleven weeks.
"Let's learn from each other." — There are eleven comments. Manager OTG replied to two of them: Kyle's, and a message from a GTM lead named Connor he met at the Denver leadership summit in 2023.
Comments (11) · Selected
Kyle Aniston · Head of People Ops · 1st
"This. This. The part about vulnerability being a measure of courage — I feel this so much right now. Sending to the whole People team. Thank you for modeling this 🙏🙏"
Manager OTG liked this comment. He replied: "Thank you Kyle. It's easy to talk about, harder to live. Appreciate you 🙏"
Connor Mehta · GTM Lead · 2nd
"Powerful stuff, man. Followed."
Kyle liked this. Manager OTG replied: "Thanks Connor! Great to stay connected 🚀"
Priya [last name withheld] · Product Manager, Lumenwave · 1st
[No reaction. No comment. Priya muted his LinkedIn posts in January, a week after he shared a Forbes article titled "Why PMs Need to Think Like CEOs" and tagged her in the caption. She has not told him this. He has mentioned the article in two subsequent 1:1s, both of which he rescheduled.]
Greg [last name withheld] · Senior Operations, Lumenwave · 1st
👍
[Posted at 6:47 PM from his phone while waiting for the Red Line at Lake/State. The thumbs-up took approximately three seconds. Manager OTG liked Greg's reaction.]
Sarah [last name withheld] · Senior Engineer, Lumenwave
[Account inactive since October 2019.]
Dana [last name withheld] · VP Customer Success, Lumenwave · 1st
❤️
[Posted at 7:02 AM the following morning. Manager OTG screenshotted the reaction and saved it to a Notion page titled "Wins." The page has four entries. The oldest is from 2021. Dana, for her part, hits ❤️ on most of his posts — a practice she started in Q3 of last year, for reasons she has not discussed with anyone.]
Three people have asked, in comments nested below Kyle's reply, how many years "[X]" refers to. The question has three likes. It is the seventh reply in the thread, posted at 11:43 PM on a Saturday.
Manager OTG has not seen it.
The post is still pinned.