Kevin Burns Blog

If you want to become an effective and respected safety leader, work on these personality traits.

Back in 2009, when Google first launched their Project Oxygen employee survey, they were looking for a way to help their managers be better. They were also looking for ways that managers and supervisors could help engage employees better.

Solid and effective safety leaders make people proud of who they work with and inspire them to want to be better.

I watched a firefighter tear up at being called a hero this week. Then, he displayed class and leadership in his response. And I was captivated and engaged and proud … and I don’t even know him.

The Fort McMurray wildfire brought out the best in so many. It continues to do so. Captain Adam Budgen of the Fort McMurray Fire Department, after being asked in a TV interview about how he feels about being called a hero, responded to the question.

“I don’t consider myself a hero. But I’ve met more heroes in this experience than I ever thought existed. (Pause to wipe his eyes) Our community right now has more firefighters and more first responders, police, everybody, that have given up their own homes (in other communities) that are safe, their own families that are waiting for them, to come up (to Fort McMurray) in the middle of this beast to help protect my home. They’re heroes to me. (Pause to wipe his eyes) Everybody I work with has been holding me up and I’ve been holding them up. So I am in the company of heroes.”

There are just some inspiring moments in the deepest, darkest adversity. That thirty-seconds of sound bite provided reflection. There are three compelling things that leaders, including safety leaders, do to get results:

Communication gets better when your intentions for communication become clearer.

Clear, concise safety communication is critical to front-line crews and employees. As a supervisor or safety person, you need to be fully understood in your communication. There’s no room for ambiguity. There can be no doubt about what you’re trying to say and what you want them to do next.

Too many supervisors ascend to their positions because they’ve been on the job the longest. It's not because of their communication skills. There is no direct connection between tenure (seniority) and communication. In fact, the longer you’re in the job, the more you assume others already know what they should know.

Safety people and supervisors are not required to have any schooling in either communications or management skills. But the biggest part of the job is communicating, right?

Let’s re-frame communications in a way that helps front-line supervisors and safety people. Let’s improve communications. Here are three questions that are designed to streamline your communications effectively in safety:

Front-line employees can have leadership abilities without having a title.

Call it a pet peeve but please stop using the word leadership to describe management. We have all worked for a manager who had no leadership skills. You don’t call those people your leader. You call them your boss. Leadership and management have little to do with each other. Besides, front-line employees can have leadership abilities too - without having a title.

You don’t have to be in management to be a leader. Besides, peer-leadership is sometimes far more effective when it comes to getting fellow employees to safety-up. Positive safety peer-pressure can make work-sites more safety-conscious than management intervention.

Safety certification and titles don’t make you a leader. Position doesn’t make you a leader. That’s good news for front-line employees. There’s no monopoly on leadership. Employees can be leaders just as easily as anyone else. It's influence, demeanor, conscientiousness and selflessness that makes leaders. Leadership is a mindset - how you approach your role in the world. Leadership, natural leadership, doesn’t need courses or schooling. Leadership is not something you get in exchange for money.

Employees make decisions daily that are either in alignment or out of alignment with the safety program. You can be a leader in your own life in safety - or you can take your orders from the boss.

Front-line supervisors and safety people have the most challenging positions in any organization.

Front-line supervisors and safety people have the most challenging positions in any organization. Most do it with little management or supervisory skills training. It's tough to stumble around in a job trying to find your voice and management style. Yet, supervisors and safety people do it. They manage the heart and soul of production and must get exceptional safety performance.

If this is you, here are five things you need to acquire to become more effective at the job:

If you want to improve safety meetings, you have to improve the level of respect you have for your people first. 

Mark Cuban, television personality and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks once said, “Never take meetings unless someone is writing a check.” He might be onto something there. Safety people would make a bigger effort if they got paid for the quality of their safety meetings.

But that’s not happening anytime soon. So, for now, you will have to accept that safety meetings are notorious time killers. They usually start late, discuss too many topics, and end up running long. Poor planning combined with poor presentation skills make them difficult to endure.

If your people can’t wait to attend the next safety meeting, and are excited when it’s meeting day, then you’re doing it right. But that’s not you is it? So how about you invest a few minutes and give some consideration to some new ideas. Like a good safety meeting, it’ll be short and to the point.

Here are three simple ideas that can transform your safety meetings from boring to engaging - and build respect:

Change the perception from HAVING to attend safety meetings, to WANTING to.

Nowhere in the Occupational Health and Safety Code does it state that a safety meeting has to be enjoyable. But what if the requirement was that safety meetings had to be engaging? What if that was written into the Code that you could be fined or jailed if you did not engage your people in safety meetings? Would you finally stop the archaic, mind-numbing practices of lousy safety meetings? Would you, instead, spend some time raising the standards of the meeting?

There are standards for working at height, with dangerous goods, in pits, underground. You are required to ensure that employees understand and comply with these standards. But, where are the standards for holding engaging, uplifting safety meetings? Does there have to be a law passed before you will do it?

You claim to want to have a workplace with a strong safety culture. But you continue to turn your safety meetings into dull, half-hearted events. Safety meetings are a key rallying point of your culture. If you want to build safety buy-in, you’ve got to utilize your safety meetings as a key tool to do that.

Here are three ways you can use your safety meetings to build buy-in:

Front-line supervisors need to understand that perhaps the most important position in an organization is at the front line.

Out-of-work safety supervisor numbers are growing - especially in the energy sector. Layoffs are plentiful and competition for what few jobs there are is fierce. What’s a supervisor to do? As hard as it is to not worry about how long the slump in oil is going to last, now is a perfect time to up your game.

Taking the time to add to your skill-set shows character in the face of adversity. It also demonstrates your willingness to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. You demonstrate that you're willing to improve your performance when no one is paying you. Those are the traits of good leaders - not that of a nine-to-fiver. It shows your attitude and value.

When things are busy and the work is plentiful, there is never enough time (or stamina) to add to the workload by updating skills or re-tooling. But when it’s slow and jobs are few, many people will be competing for the same jobs. Being a middle-of-the-pack performer won’t get you noticed or working anytime soon. You have to bring something to the table that no one else has. Now is the time to tool-up and get the skills that will set you apart from everyone else.

Anything that makes lives better, creates more success and more freedom is easy to sell.

Safety, for it to be done effectively, needs to be viewed as a marketing strategy - not a compliance program. Forcing people to comply against their will creates a disconnect - a sense of disengagement. And, when people are no longer engaged in their work, it's safe to say that they are no longer engaged in safely doing the work. How you present safety will either help or hinder your people in deciding whether to buy-in to safety for themselves.

The job of safety supervisors and managers is to remove the mental barriers of buying-in to safety. And to get employees to choose safety for themselves - both at work and at home.

You know well enough that safety isn't just a thing that people do at work - at least not to be successful. Removing the mental obstacles creates opportunities for employees to buy-in to safety. Help them to embrace it as one of their personal values. People who cut the lawn in sandals, drive with broken tail lights and cracked windshields don't buy-in to safety. Those who speed and forget their seat belts don't buy-in to safety - even though they seemingly work safely. They tolerate safety rules. That's very different than buying-in and owning safety as a personal value.

Look at it this way, you cannot buy that which is not for sale. So in order for there to be a buyer, there has to first be a seller. Don't be afraid of the idea of selling safety. It's easier than you think.

Here are three things you need to know about helping others buy-in to your safety program:

To be respected and trusted will require you to become a safety leader.

Safety people can hold various positions within an organization. All have varying degrees of supervisory, management and advisory responsibilities. Some administrate. Some manage. Some supervise. Some advise. Some hold senior management positions. And yet others, hope to one day hold one of these positions. So, what things can be done by any safety person in any safety position that would universally make them better at their jobs? Improve their personal skills.

If all you really want to do is to enforce rules, then you will become a safety cop and your future job options will be very limited. But to be respected and trusted will require you to become a safety leader. You will need to hone your safety leadership skills.

Here are four things you can do right now to be become a more effective safety leader: