Ask most employees what a corporate culture is and they’ll say something like, “it’s the way things are around here.” Effective safety cultures typically provide the necessary support for employees to strive beyond minimal efforts, while other approaches to safety leadership fail to inspire the necessary safe work performance and attitudes in employees.
John Gardner described leadership as “the process of persuasion or example by which an individual or team induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers. “When effective safety leadership is present, employees not only feel responsible for their own safety, they feel responsible for their peers’ safety, and the employer supports them acting on that responsibility. Employees have the necessary tools and methods, as well as a feeling of personal empowerment to make an impact on how work is performed.
Here are some practical ideas for establishing an effective safety culture through visible, active senior management leadership:
- ”Take command”
- ”Lead by example”
- ”Listen aggressively”
- ”Communicate purpose and meaning”
- ”Create a climate of trust”
- ”Look for results, not salutes” – effective, not just operational
- ”Take calculated risks”
- ”Go beyond standard procedures” – effectiveness again
- ”Build up your people”
- this is where you have to give power back -“Generate unity”
- the move from “I” to “We”
- ”Improve your people’s quality of life”
Leadership is often taught that if you can learn to be a leader and then apply it to safety, but the lesson applies here too. Learn to lead in one area – I suggest safety – and get the swing of it. Integrating safety culture and safety leadership gets us around the style/substance divide. Even if you’re not too good on style, you can always be good on substance, and honestly, if you can’t lead on safety, what can you lead?
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