A Chronicle on Safety Leadership

Essential Characteristics Of Leadership In Safety Interactions

A safety interaction is a management practice which is taught and implemented in many companies striving to have their employees acquire safer practices. The ultimate goal is to obtain exceptional performances in health and safety (H &S) in the workplace.

Experience shows that most of those companies implant programs using a cascading approach. They quickly realize, however, that their performances in health and safety peak when using this approach. In fact, they have under-estimated the importance of three characteristics of leadership which are critical elements in safety interactions at every level of their organization.

Having led more than 225 coaching sessions, with leaders in several major organizations, has allowed me to identify three characteristics which are essential to leadership in safety in-teractions.

This Quantum focusses on these three characteristics be-cause the development and implementation of these charac-

SAFETY INTERACTIONS

teristics have a positive impact on the managers, the teams, and on their ability to attain superior performances in safe-ty, and thereby set the leaders apart. These leaders are able to harmoniously combine the sense that they give to their safety interactions, the importance that they place on estab-lishing a positive relationship with their personnel and the necessity of “being in the action”.

GIVE A SENSE TO THE INTERACTION

The leader is often confronted with seemingly paradoxical situations since he must deal with elements related to pro-duction, costs, quality control and safety concerns. Nonethe-less, he must see each safety interaction as an opportunity to explore and clarify his personal values concerning the health and safety of his personnel. When a leader observes a task in real time, discusses it with his personnel, and anticipates possible incidents, he is then able to question how and why things are usually done a certain way.

No 1 : January 2014

By Daniel Durocher

It’s through this questioning process that it is possible to as-sociate leadership with courage, since it is the leader who has the courage to promote new behaviours and new ways of thinking that has the possibility of successfully engaging his personnel and establishing higher standards in health and safety. Above all, he has the possibility of instilling deep changes that will make his organization move toward a pos-itive H & S culture.

ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WORKER

The leader who uses an active listening approach with his employees, develops a mutual sense of confidence and re-spect which are essential in establishing a successful rela-tionship. Without these elements, a manager cannot get his personnel to produce superior results.

Indeed, active listening stresses the importance of leaders using open-ended questions, of accepting moments of si-lence, and of following the flow of the conversation atten-tively. For most managers, active listening creates the tip-ping point which brings the employees to commit to adopting safer behaviours in the workplace.

The leader uses safety interactions as a means of collabo-rating with his personnel to identify solutions in a “win-win” approach. The safety interaction is a highly interdependent activity. Indeed, all the participants have the opportunity to experience the importance of interdependence as partners in a process of positive culture change in their organization.

GET IN THE ACTION

Being actively involved allows the leader to show his com-mitment to promoting Health and Safety (H& S) in the work-place. Through his daily activities, the leader is able to model the way and create a desire for others to adhere to his vision.

For the leader, being actively involved means respecting his commitment to action and being pro-active in problem solv-ing before an incident occurs.

Being in the action also means assuring the full development of his employees’ competencies. Coaching represents a key element in the safety interaction since it allows changes in behaviour, whether these changes be for the leader, the worker or both. Most importantly, the end result is an im-provement in the H & S performances.

CONCLUSION

The manager who gives a sense to his safety interactions, establishes a positive relationship with his personnel, and shows his desire to be involved in the coaching and prob-lem-solving process sets up the three competencies that are essential to leadership in safety interactions.

It is through the development and mastery of these 3 competencies that the manager will emerge as a leader who has a true impact on the improvement of H&S performances and in the development of a positive H&S culture in his organization.

1 (418) 290-4607daniel.durocher@performancezero.com125 Diana, Saguenay (QC) G7G 5H2 Canada

LEADERSHIP IN SAFETY INTERACTIONS: THREE ESSENTiAL CHARACTERISTICS

GIVE A SENSE TO THE INTERACTION• Vision: A leader models the way through his daily actions, showing the importance he places on having high H&S

standards.• Credibility: A leader respects his commitments. As a result, he is perceived as honest and he inspires confidence.• Question the Status Quo: A leader looks for ways to improve safety in the workplace through the anticipation and

detection of otherwise unforeseen situations. He questions the ways things are done, as well as people’s work habits.

ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WORKER• Communication: A leader practices active listening which inspires confidence and respect. He has the ultimate goal of

giving feedback to enable his employees to have safer behaviours in the workplace.• Collaboration: A leader encourages his personnel to participate in the problem-solving process by using a “win-win”

approach. He gets the workers’ commitment to be involved in changes needed in the workplace.

GET IN THE ACTION• Execution: A leader respects his commitments and solves problems quickly and proactively.• Coaching: A leader develops his personnel to create a positive H&S culture.