Sharing the Wealth

It's been a while since I shared an article on LinkedIn and felt that the timing was right. As a Director of EHS for construction my days are filled with meetings, conducting EHS observations/audits, and identifying enduring and emerging risks. Like many of you, I am committed to the profession and am very passionate about EHS. Recently, I have experienced a different kind of "unplanned event". My employer experienced a trifecta of challenges--high commodity prices for fiber, exceedingly high costs for repair & maintenance (R&M), and high selling, general expense & administration (SG&A) costs. As I watched the balance sheets show darker shades of red, I knew that it was inevitable that deep spending cuts would be made and volunteered to step away, which I did in mid-June. I'd like to share some thoughts and observations with you.

As some of you know, I am a believer in Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. So, many of my thoughts and experiences will refer to these 7 habits. The first, Seek first to understand and then be understood is particularly important anytime there is a major change in an organization. Having experienced several mergers & acquisitions, re-organizations, optimization, and outright liquidations I can attest to having felt betrayed in the past. With age, maturity, and perseverance though, I've always landed on my feet. This time is very different in several aspects though. I understood the challenges to the organization and the actions the organization would ultimately need to take to remain solvent. I evaluated my team, the accomplishments that I enjoyed, and the realization that this situation wasn't about me. I had delivered everything (and more) that had been asked of me. This was the result of business decisions and market factors that were outside my control. In fact, in credit to the organization, even stated as much to those of us who voluntarily separated. This time I had the emotional intelligence to understand the difficult decisions that the organization was going to have to make and elected to step away in the knowledge that this was the best decision for myself, my team, and the organization. I would urge anyone who is reading this article and in a similar situation to similarly evaluate your situation and ask a few questions beginning with, Is this about you? If your annual performance reviews show that you are an above-average contributor and there wasn't an individual performance issue involved, realize that this action isn't about you or your performance. Dealing with a change in employment has its own challenges, don't add to them by doubting yourself.

Secondly, Be Proactive. My previous experiences with unemployment were not planned nor voluntary, on my part. In this situation, I was able to objectively look at the data points--I had an open position that corporate human resources would not let me fill. Additionally, they informed me that this would likely be the case for quite some time. Secondly, two of my employees had been promised fleet vehicles when they accepted their positions. Despite my ongoing petitions, these were not delivered. Lastly, the organization was very "up front" about the economic situation through leadership forums, town hall meetings, and departmental meetings. Pretending or imagining that the situation would improve in a few months simply wasn't realistic. So, I began having internal conversations with myself and then my wife about, "What if I step away on my own?" From an economic perspective, it is scary, but from an empowerment perspective, it made perfect sense. That change in my thinking allowed me to be proactive and maintain my power in a business situation that had nothing to do with my actions. I was able to see that from an executive position, a Director's position that only had two direct reports and one major project in execute could be eliminated for a significant cost savings By removing my own emotions from the decision-making process, the choice to voluntarily step away made perfect sense.

Think Win/Win. Again, like most of you, I have always sought the Win/Win solution in situations. E.g., Piping wants to work on the same level of the building as the steelworkers and the fire water piping contractor says that they are behind by 2 weeks and need to have access, as well. We call this situation the management of SIMOPS (simultaneous operations) through the use of formalized risk assessment processes, project prioritization, and scheduling to minimize the potential for SIMOPS clashes and individual risk. The decision to step away voluntarily presented me with another version of Win/Win. That vision was to acknowledge and support my (former) employer by volunteering my own SG&A costs and to begin thinking about and planning for my next assignment. My thoughts and realization were focused on how I can continue to contribute to occupational safety and health. With over 30 years of experience, I recognized and affirmed my value and didn't see this as a Win/Lose. To that end, I had made a commitment to the town's people where my last project was located that I would cook them a genuine South Louisiana gumbo. For me, it was important to keep my promise as I made the commitment before making the decision to step away. So, I proposed to my former employer that if they would pay for the ingredients I would pay for my travel and volunteer my time. Yesterday, we fed ~150 persons for Epe's Day.

Previous employers have insisted on a 'clean break' which, I'm sure, is based on a lack of emotional intelligence internally within the enterprise and externally with the severed employee. I was very fortunate to have worked for a company that continued to see and value my integrity and my own maturity to continue to serve the people of the community. I truly believe that I am a much better person today than I was 7 years ago.

Put First Things First-My work over these past 33 years has included rotational positions offshore, relocation for projects, extended work schedules (E.g., 10 continuous days at site, 4 days off), etc. My last two assignments have been in Director roles. So, the past ~8 years have been an exercise in Sharpening the Saw. While the early part of my career was developing the technical and tactical skills as an EHS Manager, the last 8 were to use that knowledge in developing strategic observation and thinking. I would urge all of you to look at where you are in your career progression. Do people look to you to tell them what to do? Or, does management look to you to not only identify opportunities but also provide potential solutions? As your knowledge, depth of experience and skill sets enlarge it is critical that you work on developing your strategic knowledge and approach to EHS. I believe an analogy would be the effective use of electronic files. When presented with a new challenge, do you look at your previous assignments and challenges for similar situations? If so, what did you do? Was it effective? Did you develop 'Lessons Learned' that you can apply? When I realized and started to formalize my approach to EHS challenges, not only was I able to call upon these files I was also able to train and mentor my young EHS professionals and help them grow faster. There are no professional awards or recognitions that equal the knowledge that you stopped a potential serious incident or fatality (SIF) situation or helped a young EHS professional learn something that you were able to impart from your previous experience.

Lastly, Begin with the End in Mind. For me, at this point in my professional career, this boils down to 3 important priorities. First, my professional integrity. Let's face it when you've committed your life's work to incident prevention you don't ever stop. My integrity demands that I bring my entire 'toolbox' to work with me every day. And, when I'm off I do not flip a switch to turn off what I know when I see someone preparing to execute work in an unsafe manner. Secondly, continue to grow and learn--I.e., Continuous Improvement. Years ago as the Manager of Organizational Development for one of the world's largest oil & gas drilling contractors, I was keenly interested in the Corporate University movement. What was of particular interest to me was the change for workers shifting to the new reality of "Lifetime employability" from what was previously perceived as "Lifetime employment". This change was focused on providing employees with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to be able to move internally and externally, as organizations had to respond to changing market conditions. I personally and professionally recognize the application of this process for myself and strive to continually learn more and improve in my approach to EHS. Third, but perhaps the most important, is to Share the Wealth. For those of you who know me, you know that I love to cook. By that, I don't mean that I like to cook for friends and family (which I do), but my love to cook for my plants, projects, communities, etc. This is an extension of my belief system from my chosen profession. I believe that what I have learned through years of seeing the good, the bad and the tragedies in occupational health and safety do no good if I do not apply what I learned and share this knowledge in a way that it may serve to prevent future incidents or improve organization health and safety. I frequently tell my staff, both direct and indirect, that I don't ever want them to experience and see some of the serious incidents that I have seen. Therefore, listen and apply what I am about to teach you. This is the pure essence of being an experienced EHS professional.

So, as I enter this next part of my journey to find a stable organization that would benefit from all that I have shared with you, I would like to ask you for a favor. If this article resonated with you, please share it and my profile with your network. If you have comments, thoughts, or insights, please share these with me.