Insight 3 Archives - Krause Bell Group

What does it take to be an effective EHS leader?

Feb 25, 2020

Categorized under: Safe Decision Making™ Articles

“We have a new Vice President of Operations, and she doesn’t think we are doing well in safety.” “After three years of declining incident rates we’ve just had a fatality and two serious injuries.” “Our leadership team thinks we can improve the safety culture, but there are differences in how our leaders think we should approach it.” These statements open a conversation I’ve had many times over the years, leading to the question of what is the optimal strategy to attain EHS improvement objectives. The conversation then goes to core questions — How strong is safety and operations leadership? How...

Which Comes First – Great Leadership or Great Safety Leadership?

David Libby

May 29, 2018

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 3

Like the great debate of which came first – the chicken or the egg – so too is the topic of what comes first – great leadership or great safety leadership. Let’s start by looking at what great leaders do. When you think about the most influential leader you’ve ever followed, what were the characteristics, attributes and behaviors of that person? I’ve asked this question in literally hundreds of workshops and the most common answers are… She really listened to me. He was open to my feedback and ideas, often using them when he made decisions. She was interested in...

Safety Leadership

Tom Krause

Kristen Bell

David Libby

May 29, 2018

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 3

Improving the quality of safety leadership is the single most important change an organization can make to increase the effectiveness of their safety programs. While it’s not surprising that strong safety leadership results in effective safety efforts, our experience and research show us that in many organizations where safety is a critical concern, even highly effective leaders have a knowledge gap when it comes to safety leadership. This gap can directly impact the overall quality of the safety effort and, ultimately, the safety of people within the organization. So, how do we bridge the knowledge gap and improve the effectiveness...

Hippocratic Oath for Safety Leaders

David Libby

May 3, 2018

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Insight 1, Insight 2, Insight 3, Leadership Attributes

The Hippocratic Oath was originally written over 2,400 years ago, and meant primarily for the medical profession, but what if safety leaders at all levels committed to a Hippocratic Oath? What do I mean by ‘safety leaders’? Anyone in a position to influence safety is a safety leader; this is not meant just for EHS professionals. How many lives would be saved? How many injuries prevented? How much less pain and suffering would families endure? With some minor edits to the original oath, I’d suggest the following is worth discussing with your leadership teams: I swear to fulfill, to the...

The Critical Importance of Safety Leadership

Tom Krause

Oct 21, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Insight 3

In this video, Dr. Tom Krause discusses one of the most critical insights into safety leadership: Leaders who commit themselves to safety will transform organizational performance. He also gives examples of ways that organizations can instill this way of thinking into the safety aspect of every day business. Learn more about our approach to safety leadership

VIDEO: Two Essential Attributes of a Safety Leader

Tom Krause

Jul 22, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Insight 3, Leadership Attributes

The first thing that a safety leader needs in order to be effective in safety is a genuine, heartfelt commitment to their employees. The second thing a safety leader needs is a vision for safety, an ability to clearly describe that vision to others, and a willingness to take action to bring their vision into being. Learn more about our approach to safety leadership

Conveying Genuine Care: A Leadership Challenge

Kristen Bell

Jul 16, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Insight 3

“Do they really in their heart feel like you're doing everything you can to protect their lives?" These are the words of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick when he challenged President Obama during last week’s Town Hall Meeting. The exchange has been well publicized so I won’t repeat it here. As I listened, it occurred to me how difficult it is for any leader to convey genuine care and meaningful support while calling for improvement. Political agendas aside, why is it that from one point of view the President’s words sounded balanced, fair, and even inspired, while from another point of...

Leadership Creates Culture

Tom Krause

May 27, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Culture

Tagged as: Insight 3

Any leader will tell you "leadership creates culture." Oddly enough, “knowing” in this case doesn’t reach very far. What is required is finding the connection between what I do as a leader and the kinds of cultural attributes I would like to change. Here is an example from my experience: I was the CEO of a growing global consulting firm. Doing projects for various types of organizations around the world required a great deal of flexibility. It wasn’t enough to know how a project should be done in one location and industry; consultants needed to know how to work effectively...

How to Undermine the Credibility of Safety Leadership in Your Organization

Tom Krause

May 4, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Insight 3

Organizational leaders are always in the process of seeking out and developing talented people who can take on responsibilities and attain objectives. The higher up you get the more important this becomes. If you could just find five people who could do what you can do, or what your top leader is doing, life would be great. This applies to safety leadership performance like it does to every other area of performance. Senior leaders look for two primary things in those they select for development: competence and integrity. Competence is relatively easy to discern in people if you work with...

Platitudes about Safety Culture Degrade Performance

Tom Krause

Mar 25, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Culture

Tagged as: Insight 3

Organizational leaders recognize the importance of getting the culture right in order to enhance safety performance. A positive work environment is essential. But all too often they approach the safety culture issue with worn out platitudes. I once coached an inexperienced leader in his first job of supervising three manufacturing plants. He came up through marketing and didn’t really understand what his plant managers were up against. He knew he didn’t know the technical aspects, but he had been taught that his job was to lead. He had come to believe that technical knowledge was not important; he could rely...

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