Portrait of an Effective Safety Leader
You know it when you see it. But it isn’t always easy to articulate clearly, especially to those who don’t understand it to start with. What does effective safety leadership really look like?
Hippocratic Oath for Safety Leaders
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:
A Safe Workplace is Much More than Awareness
What safety leadership attributes matter most? A few years ago we were working with a VP of Operations at a mid-sized oil and gas company. The VP was well intended, and he sincerely wanted to show his commitment to safety. However, the entirety of his safety leadership plan was to send a message out to…
3 Things All Senior Leaders Need to Know About Safety
Organizations often suffer a disconnect between safety professionals and other leaders. Operational leaders are paid to assess situations and make decisions aggressively. They work in cycles of what is wrong and what it will take to fix it, and they are good at what they do. However, this drive can prove counterproductive to safety performance…
VIDEO: Two Essential Attributes of a Safety Leader
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…
3 Characteristics of Strong Safety Leadership
Suppose you want to accelerate the safety performance of your organization, but you have limited resources to get started. You can only invest in one of the following strategies to improve safety: You could build a stronger safety culture, improve your safety management systems, build an inherently safer facility, reduce at-risk behavior, or strengthen safety…
How to Make Unpopular Decisions: The Key to Good Leadership
Keri’s Dilemma: As the newly-hired head of sales at a family-owned company, Keri faced a challenge that had been ignored for far too long. Since its inception 25 years earlier, the owners had brought in only trusted family members and friends to work in the business. These people were smart, energetic, and available, but were…
