Kevin Burns Blog

Personal leaders in safety are those who lead themselves in their own lives and make decisions that are best for themselves and those around them. When consulting with companies to help them improve their safety meetings, I routinely meet with safety managers, supervisors and foremen in a round-table discussions. In these round-tables, I get a better understanding of staff participation levels, identify what is working well and what is not and establish safety culture baselines.

Leadership is not forced or thrust upon anyone. It’s voluntary. That’s why there are few safety leaders and many followers. Personal Development! It’s all you need to go from grunt to leader. Of course, you have to actually buy-in to what you learn and you have to want to be better, and you have to discipline yourself to improve every day. But it can be done. People do it it all the time.

There are many spectators at safety meetings but very few fans - and even fewer safety participants. On a trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota last week, I attended a major league baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Seattle Mariners at Target Field - perhaps the most impressive ball park in North America. It was the ball game that made me think about the different levels of safety attitude and participation.

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.