Kevin Burns Blog

As a safety leader, more doors open, more options are available and the longer you are likely to live. My recent Blog post, Safety Cop Or Safety Leader got a lot of traffic and created much discussion. Some safety professionals found themselves inadvertently standing on the wrong side of the conversation. But, as Dr. Phil says, you can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge.

Here are 11 differences between a safety cop and a safety leader. See where you fit. In my safety keynote presentations, I explain the differences between safety and OH&S; leadership and management; service and customer service. Safety, leadership and service are all attitudes. OH&S is a program, management is a position and customer service is a department.

Here are three things you can do right now to improve participation in safety meetings and make them lively. You’ve sat at the back of the room at safety meetings, arms crossed, watching the clock on the wall, going over in your head the things you still had to do that day and waiting for the meeting to be over. You’ve even secretly hoped that no one had any questions so you could simply get out of the meeting and back to work.

Cops enforce the rules. Coaches work on technique and inspire a burning desire to win. Which of these three was your last safety meeting about: the rules, technique or a desire to win?

If you want to cut expenses, don't slash the safety budget. Get rid of injuries and incidents. That's where the real expenses are. There used to be a time when safety was considered an expense (if you’re still thinking this way, it may be time for you to retire). The days of “we don’t have to the budget to spend on safety” are quickly coming to an end. Safety is not an expense - it’s an investment. And simply put, the better you get at safety, the better your company will do financially.

Are you asking your safety meeting attendees to be participants or spectators? Drive-by safety meetings are a waste of time and energy and should be considered an insult by meeting attendees. Those who have been forced to sit through drive-by safety meetings dread them and will find an excuse to get out of attending them. Those who bother to show up are likely the ones who couldn't find an excuse. But when they get there, they are not planning on remembering anything, writing anything down or being held to any sort of accountability standard to be able to recall the information later. In other words, meeting attendees are simply driving by.

Can you convince someone to buy-in to safety without management being on-board? Of course you can. It’s not impossible. It’s just harder. I have deep convictions for safety. It doesn’t matter to me what others think about my safety values. I will do what I want as long as it keeps me and those around me safe. I have been scolded and chastised to just relax when it comes to safety. I turn a deaf ear to that suggestion. I drink the Kool-Aid. I have bought in. And honestly, my convictions for safety don’t change based on whom I work with. Some companies hire me to consult about improving their safety meetings. Others hire me to speak on personal leadership in safety. My values on safety stay the same.

In the workplace, safety is fast-becoming the new leadership. I say it in my keynote speaking presentations: leadership has nothing to do with management. Safety leadership, therefore, has nothing to do with safety management. You don’t have to be in management to be a leader. Leadership is not a position. It is an attitude - management is the position. One has nothing to do with the other. Safety too is an attitude. It is a state of mind and a way of living your life. Safety is the result. Safely is the choice in every moment of every day. Those with a safety leadership attitude, will choose to do the job safely in every moment. Companies are waking up to the fact that people who blindly follow orders on a job site still get hurt. But safety leaders who choose safety in every moment save themselves from harm by the choices they make. In the workplace, safety is fast-becoming the new leadership.

Organizations say they want to build a culture of safety and then, what they do about it, is a contradiction. I had the pleasure of speaking at a safety meeting last week that broke the mold of boring safety meetings. They organized a quarterly safety event which replaced their monthly safety meetings. According to the safety manager who organized the event, my book, The Perfect Safety Meeting, played a big part in their new attitude toward safety meetings.

Safety managers and advisers must recognize that they are essentially game coaches - coaching to win in safety. I’ve met some great middle managers in my day. I’ve also met some incredibly arrogant and self-centered ones too - holding the keys to their little silos and kingdoms. I’ve met empathetic senior managers and egotistical ones. I’ve met caring supervisors and tyrants. I’ve met General Managers who treat others as equals and GMs who wield their power like a Star Wars light saber.