My favourite definition of leadership is; “the capacity to influence people, by means of personal attributes and/or behaviours to achieve a common goal” (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development).

In the context of safety leadership, influence means that even when the leader is not present, the team know what decisions or behaviours the leader would expect from them and do them anyway because there is mutual respect and trust. For me, trust is the currency of leadership. If the balance in the leader’s emotional bank account with the team is low, team members will tend to do what personally benefits themselves in terms of minimising effort or avoiding responsibility.

The capacity of a leader to influence their team through trust depends equally on being (who they are as a person), as well as doing (what they say, and even more importantly what they do).

People trust a leader who demonstrates:

• Integrity
• Competence
• Congruent words & actions; along with consistent & predictable responses to a given situation
• Genuine concern & empathy
• Approachability & transparent communication
• Vulnerability & accountability

I would like to share my thoughts on the last of these attributes.

One of the ways an effective safety leader demonstrates vulnerability is by admitting when they have made a mistake; whether it is a decision that seems less than ideal in hindsight, or an unsafe behaviour or even a hasty word. We as humans tend not to like to acknowledge when we have made a mistake, and the temptation to avoid doing so seems to increase exponentially as a person climbs the organisational hierarchy. Leaders may feel that admitting a mistake will mean losing face and prestige or exposing themselves to attack by their peers. In fact, the team are more likely to increase their respect for a leader who knows and admits when they get it wrong and puts it right (provided they don’t keep making the same mistakes).

When delivering sessions on safety leadership I like to refer to the 5 R’s Model for mistakes:

1. Recognise when you make a mistake; this can be difficult, especially if you are not approachable, and no-one is willing to whisper in your ear

2. Regret. Acknowledge the mistake openly and with humility.

3. Reason. This is not about making excuses, but about explaining the rationale or reasons for your original decision, action or words

4. Remedy. What are you going to do about the unintended consequences of your mistake.

5. Reflect on what you have learnt from this event. Then put it out of mind- there is no value from a step 6. Ruminate!

The second thing I want to talk about is accountability.

Many serious and fatal accident have as a root cause, failures in leadership and/or safety culture (which is itself largely influenced by the quality and effectiveness of senior leadership commitment to health & safety management).

A safety leader is always mindful of what can go wrong. They are always aware of their personal accountability for everything that happens within their area of responsibility. Accordingly, a true safety leader will never compromise a safety policy or standard or rule for the sake of short-term expediency or because of internal or external pressure to do so. Period.

If the worst happens and someone has a life-changing injury or is even killed, this will have devastating consequences for those who love them and for those who worked with them. This is one burden that no leader will want to risk having to bear for the rest of their life.

Whilst risk can never be reduced to zero, an effective safety leader needs to look in the mirror every day and ask themselves, “what could I do today to try and ensure everyone goes home to their family unharmed?”

If you would like to learn more about the skills and challenges of safety leadership, Jarrold Training offer two one-day programmes: IOSH ‘Safety Leadership’ and NEBOSH ‘HSE Certificate in Health & Safety Leadership Excellence’.

Peter

(H&S Trainer at Jarrold Training)