Safety Insight: How to Be a Safety Leader and Make Your Organization Safer

Safety is not just a matter of following rules and procedures. It is also a matter of influencing people to adopt safe behaviors and practices in their daily work. This is what safety leadership is all about. Safety leadership is the ability to inspire, motivate, and guide others to work safely and prevent accidents. Safety leaders can be anyone who has a positive impact on the safety culture and performance of an organization, regardless of their position or title.

In this article, we will explore some of the benefits, skills, and examples of safety leadership, and how you can develop your safety leadership capability using a powerful problem-solving tool called A3 Thinking.

Why Safety Leadership Matters

Safety leadership matters because it can make a huge difference in the safety outcomes and culture of an organization. Some of the benefits of safety leadership are:

- It reduces the risk of injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the workplace, which can have devastating human and financial costs.

- It improves the morale, engagement, and productivity of employees, who feel valued and respected when their safety is prioritized.

- It enhances the reputation and credibility of the organization, which can attract and retain customers, partners, and talent.

- It fosters a culture of continuous improvement and learning, where employees are encouraged to report hazards, incidents, and near misses, and to share best practices and lessons learned.

According to a study by McKinsey & Company, organizations with strong safety leadership can achieve up to 70% lower injury rates than those with weak safety leadership. The study also found that safety leadership is closely linked to other aspects of organizational performance, such as quality, customer satisfaction, innovation, and profitability.

What Makes a Good Safety Leader

To be an effective safety leader, you need to have 3 attributes that can help you influence others to work safely. The three attributes are:

- Being Committed: You need to show that you are serious about safety by setting clear expectations, providing adequate resources, and holding yourself and others accountable for safety outcomes. You will model safe behaviours in every situation. You will commit to empower employees to participate in safety activities, such as inspections, audits, investigations, training, and committees.

- Being Open: You need to communicate frequently and openly about safety issues, challenges, and successes, and solicit feedback and suggestions from employees at all levels. You will need to recognize and reward positive safety behaviors and achievements

- Being Uncompromising: While you are open to listen to feedback and suggestions, you also need to be uncompromising on established standards of safety. You will intervene when unsafe acts or conditions are observed. You will provide constructive feedback and coaching for negative ones.

Some examples of safety leadership are:

- A manager who regularly visits the work site and talks to employees about safety issues and concerns.

- A supervisor who praises an employee for wearing the right personal protective equipment (PPE) and corrects another employee for not wearing it.

- A team leader who organizes a safety meeting to discuss the results of a recent audit and brainstorm solutions for improvement.

- An employee who reports a near miss incident and shares the lessons learned with others.

- A colleague who intervenes when they see another colleague doing something unsafe or risky.

Conclusion

Safety leadership is a key factor for achieving a high level of safety performance and culture in an organization. Safety leaders can be anyone who can influence others to work safely and prevent accidents. Safety leaders need to have certain skills and behaviors that can help them communicate, recognize, empower, and model safety. Safety leaders can develop their safety leadership capability by using a structured problem-solving method called A3 Thinking, which can help them analyze, solve, and communicate their safety problems or challenges.

In the following article we will share Safety Insight on how you can use A3 Thinking to develop your safety leadership capability.