Safety Sabotage

This week I had the privilege of having a conversation with Jay. A fine young man in the early stages of his OSH career. With a keen interest in motorsport and a desire to one day work in a safety role within the sport. Jay reached out to me, asking if we could find time to have a chat about his professional development and the delivery of OSH in the world of Formula One.

During the conversation our professions reputation was discussed, and a point Jay made has stuck with me. Why do some OSH professionals use language that alienates people? He proceeded to give examples where he’d witnessed directive language and how he uses collaborative language to demonstrate he’s there to help resolve issues, not bark instructions and create further challenges.

As I said it’s stuck with me, this idea of safety sabotage. How as individuals and a profession we don’t maximise the opportunities presented to us. The difficulty that exists in shaking the stigma of the overzealous safety officer and “computer says NO” image that still exists. We see adverts with tired and predictable safety clichés, focusing on the negative outcomes or parodying the profession.

It has to stop!

We have a profession to be proud of!

There are thousands of us out there, breaking out from the stigma, to drive real change. Striving to improve the world of work and enhance the reputation of the profession, demonstrating OSH as a core business principle, adding real value to human performance. We must take up this mantel and ensure this is the messaging of both todays and tomorrows OSH professional.

Sabotage has been a key piece of thinking for me recently. Following an episode of Cal Fussmans Big Questions. Cal was speaking with Shirzad Chamine, about the Saboteur Assessment he’d created based on the research he presents in his New York Times bestselling book on Positive Intelligence.

I was captivated as Shirzad discussed how saboteurs start off as our guardians, helping us survive the real and imagined threats to our physical and emotional survival as children. Becoming redundant by the time we are adults. The problem is they haven’t got the memo, they continue to blight our thoughts and actions. This means they remain in place, impacting on our patterns of thinking, feeling and reacting. When these neural pathways fire up, triggering our saboteurs, we’re highjacked and think, feel and react using their patterns.

There are ten saboteurs. They are led by the Judge. Then you have Controller, Hyper Achiever, Restless, Stickler, Pleaser, Hyper Vigilant, Avoider, Victim and Hyper Rational. Shirzad described the Judge as the universal Saboteur that afflicts everyone. It is the one that beats you up repeatedly over mistakes or shortcomings, warns you obsessively about future risks, wakes you up in the middle of the night worrying, gets you fixated on what is wrong with others or your life, etc.

I was fascinated by the concept. So, I went along to https://www.positiveintelligence.com/ to find out more about the concept and take part by completing the Saboteur Assessment. My overall results are set out below.

Reading in detail about the Hyper Achiever, I was intrigued by the alignment I felt with some of the characteristics, thoughts, feelings etc. I wasn’t in complete alignment with the findings as I can be prone to introspection, reflective thoughts and can get caught up ruminating on feelings. If you want to find out a bit more the detail of the Hyper Achiver is set out at the end of the article.

I want to finish this article by asking you to consider ‘Safety Saboteurs’, what would you identify as the saboteurs of the OSH profession? What have you done to overcome them? What can the profession do to reduce their impact?

Finally, if you choose to complete the Saboteur Assessment. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on your findings, what impact it has and the areas you’ll be working on as you continue in your personal development journey.

Thanks for getting me thinking Jay! It’s amazing what a conversation sparks.

HYPER ACHIEVER: Dependent on constant performance and achievement for self-respect and self-validation. Highly focused on external success, leading to unsustainable workaholic tendencies and loss of touch with deeper emotional and relationship needs.

Characteristics

• Competitive, image and status conscious.
• Good at covering up insecurities and showing positive image.
• Adapt personality to fit what would be most impressive to the other. Goal oriented and workaholic streak.
• More into perfecting public image than introspection.
• Can be self promoting.
• Can keep people at safe distance.

 Thoughts

• I must be best at what I do.
• If I can’t be outstanding, I won’t bother.
• Must be efficient and effective.
• Emotions get in the way of performance.
• Focus on thinking and action.
• I can be anything I want to be.
• You are worthy as long as you are successful and others think well of you.

Feelings

• I don’t like dwelling in feelings for too long.
• They distract from achieving my goals.
• Sometimes I feel empty and depressed inside, but don’t linger there.
• Important to me to feel successful. That’s what it is all about. I feel worthy mostly when I am successful.
• Could have fear of intimacy and vulnerability. Closeness with others would allow them to see that I am not as perfect as the image I portray.

 Justification Lies

• Life is about achieving and producing results.
• Portraying a good image helps me achieve results.
• Feelings are just a distraction and don’t help anything.

 Impact on Self and Others

• Peace and happiness is fleeting and short-lived in brief celebrations of achievement.
• Self-acceptance is continuously conditioned on the next success.
• Lose touch with deeper feelings, deeper self, and ability to connect deeply with others.
• Others might be pulled into the performance vortex of the Hyper-Achiever and become similarly lopsided in their focus on external achievement.

 Original Survival Function

For the Hyper-Achiever, self-validation, self-acceptance and self-love are all conditional—conditioned on continual performance. This is often the result of either conditional or altogether absent validation from parental figures. Even with very loving and approving parents, it is easy for children to get the sense that they are loved in return for achieving, obeying the rules, having good manners, etc, rather than unconditionally.