Safety Managers Are Not Safety Leaders

In every profession, there are good and bad performers. Safety is no different.

safety managers are not safety leaders

In a LinkedIn post recently, I wrote, “There will always be employment for good leaders. Safety leaders will always have options. That means security for their families and themselves.”

The opposition to that comment was swift. Comments ranged from issues of a lagging economy to safety being nothing more than a support function first to be axed.

What is a Safety Leader?

The confusion may have been in the use of the term safety leader. Safety leader doesn't refer to people with safety certification. Having certification doesn’t make you a leader; it simply makes you qualified to hold the position.

Doctors, when they graduate medical school, become qualified to hold their position. Teachers, when they graduate their university program, become qualified to hold the job. That doesn’t make them leaders.

There are good doctors and bad doctors; good teachers and bad teachers. There are leaders in every field. There are followers and laggards as well. Leadership is not rolled inside the certificate of completion handed to you at the end of your courses. You must earn that.

What separates good ones from bad ones?

Think about your own doctors and teachers over the years. You will always recall the good ones. The rest are forgettable. In your mind, what separated the good teachers from the bad ones? Likeability would be one of the key considerations. Also, their willingness to care about you as a person, strengthen your talents and push you to better performance. Those are the good ones, the leaders in their profession. They earned your respect.

Gone are the days of getting respect for the position you hold. You earn respect. It is not bestowed.

Leadership is not management.

Leadership has nothing to do with management or supervisory positions. Nor, does safety leader have anything to do with certification in administrating safety.

It’s good people with strong personal leadership ability that makes them valuable. Like any other position in a company, in tough times, some will be let go. Others will be retained. Those retained are usually the strongest ones - the best utility players. They have much knowledge about all facets of the workplace. They get better results for the company and show a genuine desire to want to help people. Leaders with the ability to inspire co-workers to safe production become too valuable to dismiss.

Stop thinking safety is one-dimensional.

Safety management is not a one-dimensional position. It’s not about only knowing the safety processes, procedures, and rules. It’s about the practical application of that knowledge. It’s about inspiring others to wanting to choose safety for themselves. It’s less about the paperwork and more about the people-work.

Ordinary safety managers see safety as a battlefield. Safety leaders see safety as the ecosystem that holds the entire organization together. Safety leaders understand that people, production, hiring, retention, marketing, sales and finances all work together. But, knowing that safety allows everything to function smoothly without interruption is not enough. Understanding that incidents affect every other department, is to be a safety leader. Understanding that safety is an ecosystem as opposed to a war to win, is a very different philosophy.

In the ecosystem, when an incident occurs, it upsets the balance of nature. People get injured, production stops, replacements get hired, morale drops. That causes workers to seek other places to work that are safer. That makes it difficult for sales because a poor safety reputation impacts finances. This puts the whole ecosystem in turmoil.

Divest of values or people?

Safety is much more than the enforcement of safety rules and inspection of safeguards. Safety is a corporate value. It is rare that you will find a corporation ready to divest itself of one of its core principles in order to lay-off safety personnel. But it will divest itself of those who are not seen as must-keep personnel. A company will keep its star players through short-term difficulties; in all departments. The non-star performers will be let go.

The market and your employers have determined your value based on your results. If your results are competitive, then the next determinant will be your likeability factor. If people like you, respect you and feel an affinity to you, you will raise your value. You will have become a safety leader. There will always be employment for good leaders. Safety leaders will always have options. That means security for their families and themselves.

Kevin Burns is a management consultant, safety speaker and author of "The Perfect Safety Meeting." He delivers engaging and entertaining keynote safety presentations for everyone: from front-line staff to senior management. He helps people see the light when it comes to buying-in to the safety program.

Consider reading Kevin's e-book, 10 Crucial Questions For Safety Managers.

  10 Crucial Questions for Safety Managers

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Topics: safety leadership