Leadership Safety

Safety Leaders “walk the talk”

Safety Leadership is all about making organizational safety expectations clear, supporting safety financially, being present when key safety issues are decided, being positive about and supportive of others safety efforts, creating and insisting on a safe, healthy and caring company culture.

It is a constant demonstration by the senior executives, key managers and others in an organization that health and safety is the critical element of daily operations.

Safety leadership dictates the safety culture.

Successful Companies have Jconsistent safety leadership whereby the whole management structure proactively and visibly demonstrates its commitment to safety on a daily basis.

Many major disaster inquiries such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, the Clapham Junction rail crash, the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, Piper Alpha, the Kings Cross fire and the Esso Longford gas plant explosion have found that that failures at managerial levels were at least as important as technical failure and human error, in causing the accidents.

vIn the report of the Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster, Lord Cullen stated: “I am convinced from the evidence…that the quality of safety management by operators is fundamental to offshore safety. No amount of detailed regulations for safety improvements could make up for deficiencies in the way that safety is managed by operators

Similarly, Mr. Justice Sheen investigating the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise concluded, “..a full investigation into the circumstances of the disaster leads inexorably to the conclusion that the underlying or cardinal faults lay higher up in the company…From top to bottom the body corporate was infected with the disease of sloppiness”

Studies have found that management involvement in a number of safety activities was associated with good safety performance. Such activities included :

ØPersonal inspections of work areas
ØOpen and informal communications between management and workers
ØFrequent contacts between workers, management and supervisors

Active involvement of management acts as a motivational force for both management and for employees.

The highest level of performance a manager/supervisor can expect from the people he/she supervises is determined largely by his/her minimum acceptable standards.

Training Safety Leaders?

Download a free presentation on Successful Safety Management - PowerPoint which may help you develop training for your Safety Leaders

Anatomy of a Disaster: Explosion at BP Texas City Refinery - Probably the most powerful and influential Video you could show to managers in your company to assist in developing their safety leadership and knowledge, downloadable free from CSB.

Leading with Safety, written by Thomas R. Krause, Ph.D., Chairman of Behavioral Science Technology, Inc. (BST)

Leading with Safety
Thomas R. Krause
ISBN: 0-471-49425-9
Hardcover
304 pages
December 2005
€66.70

Building on years of research and experience in the field, Leading with Safety redefines organizational safety as an activity that both leads other performance areas and in turn must be led. Thomas Krause poses the question, "What does it take to be a great safety leader?" and answers with a comprehensive new model for understanding safety leadership as it affects organizational culture and safety climate. Leading with Safety defines the practices, tools, and systems essential to creating an injury-free workplace, including the role of employees at each level, special considerations for coaching the senior executive leader, and the two crucial aspects of human performance that every leader needs to know. Ending with inspiring real-world examples or organizations that have put these tools into practice, Leading with Safety is written for any leader who wants to lead with safety toward a more robust, productive and effective organization.

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