What would be your last word?
Sonia McDonald
#1 Leadership & Courage Global Speaker & Coach | Award Winning Leadership Programs | CEO LeadershipHQ, The Leadership Association, MenoRise and WorkSparks | Author of 3 Books | Changing the Leadership Landscape!
Recently, I spoke at a breakfast in front of 12 leaders as well as on a Rail Project in front of 140 staff in Brisbane on Keeping our Workmates safe and understanding safety and the brain. We all learnt some powerful insights into how our brains function and how decisions are made by how we feel and how easily the brain can be distracted. Our fantastic exercise on distractions in front of the crowd was a great example of how we can’t multi task and the brain can’t cope with too many things at once. Their brains also got rewarded by some amazing meat trays too!
And I am talking about internal distractions (fight with the partner, what bills to pay, planning the Xmas break) as well external distractions (text messages, emails, mates talking on the paddock).
It has been proven we cannot multi task – sorry ladies! I cannot cook, clean, wash my hair and talk on the phone at the same time and I have tried! I suppose these things have become habits and I am not conscious of what I am doing so I think I can do a number of tasks at once. We can do a few tasks at once, but how effective are we truly being?
So when we form a habit like driving, it becomes a behaviour that is unconscious and we are in autopilot. We think we are so great at driving as we do it most days, that we can also do other tasks like texting on a mobile or eating a sandwich. But we can’t…we are distracted and not focused. We are not present. We are unsafe.
That text while driving could be our LAST WORD.
Watch this video and you will see what I mean…
How did that make you feel – what do you think you would do differently? Would we say to our kids, hey it’s okay to drive and get distracted by text messages! Do you think our kids are at home and thinking; hey Mum and Dad it is okay to be distracted at work or onsite? As we are parents to our kids, our roles are to keep them safe. As we are leaders at work and onsite, our roles are to keep our workmates safe. Stay focused, stay present…
Contact us today to learn more about how we can partner with you to keep your workmates safe!
About Sonia McDonald
Sonia McDonald, CEO and Founder of LeadershipHQ, is an Entrepreneur, Thought Leader, Dynamic Keynote Speaker, Leadership Coach, Advisor and Author of Leadership Attitude (now on BOOKTOPIA!). Reach her at LeadershipHQ or via www.soniamcdonald.com.au
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Owner, Croltrans Group
7 年The first step would be to actually turn the brain on, half the population walk around in a daze on the planet Zion. When I started on the job we all walked around the main running lines & rail yards & no one got killed, it's called commonsense Sonia & as soon as everyone started wearing hi-vis & safety this & safety that everyone thought they were invinsible & we are having more workplace incidents than ever. The more this safety paranoia is rammed down everyone's nostrils the more we turn off because it's like "here we go again", if you don't treat a working railway yard with commonsense & respect well you're gonna get squashed ??????