Speak Up Before It Slips: Psychological Safety and Productivity in Power-Sector Construction Management Teams

Grid expansion depends on construction management teams that coordinate engineering, procurement, planning, field inspection and contractors under tight schedules. This article examines how psychological safety, leadership style and communication affected the performance of such teams in the Brazilian power sector. It is based on a qualitative, exploratory case study developed as the author's MBA final project, which related the leadership literature to recurring situations observed in electrical infrastructure construction management. The observations indicate that many delays and much rework came less from technical gaps than from information that surfaced late: risks were seen but not reported, for fear of blame. Teams led by accessible, emotionally balanced managers shared problems earlier, solved them faster and had fewer conflicts between areas. Short cross-functional alignment meetings, visual tracking of work and more operational autonomy were associated with these results.