This Month's Safety Blog - June 2011!


Asking the Right Questions and...

When I was in my twenties, I can recall being afraid to ask some of the women I was dating, those very difficult questions. Like, "well, do you lalala..." - Ah, I still can't say it - haha! And I wasn't too good about listening either.

The BIG LOV... word! I guess I was afraid of hearing what I may not have wanted to hear - or afraid of hearing something all together different than what I expected. Saying "I love you" to someone or hearing it from the "wrong person" can be a scary thought. But in retrospect, I guess I was just too young to handle the response - no matter what I heard. And I'll also bet that you can complete your own story in place of mine.


Asking and Listening

I'm having a great year in 2011 and I hope you are too! Both on the consulting and speaking side of my business, things could not be much better. But what I'm finding in this (very good year) is that my consulting clients are discovering something that I have known for quite some time. Workers want to be heard and want to be listened to - they want to contribute to improving safety performance and they want to know that you care about what they have to say.

I have clients who want to make effective and active listening a bigger part of their training programs and other clients who are spending the entire year focusing on listening to their workforce. I think that's fabulous! Spending a large amount of their leaders' time and energies on listening to their workers! WOW - now that is a powerful strategy!


How About You?

In my keynote work and extended training sessions, I often stress the importance of listening - I mean really listening! Also, in my safety culture assessments, I stress the importance of listening and being willing to receive upward feedback from the workforce. Your employees need to feel comfortable "speaking up" but they also need to know that organizational leaders will do "the right thing" once they are heard.

Think about you and your leaders. Are you listening enough to safety-related concerns?


Do you have a strategy to listen more actively and effectively?

Do you continually encourage your workers to speak up?

Do you know what questions to ask in order to go deeper and to more fully understand how to improve your safety culture?

Do your leaders and co-workers know how to listen more actively and effectively?

And are you willing to act on what is heard - especially when the response calls for important actions?

Well, I'm looking forward to the rest of 2011 and I hope you are too. I also hope that you make listening an important skill set that will greatly improve your safety performance and the overall health of your culture.

If you and your leaders want to become more effective communicators and listeners, please give me a call. I can be reached toll free (in the contiguous states) at 1-800-240-4601 or 1-724-379-6439.

Thanks for taking the time to visit with me.

Warm Regards,


David Sarkus, MS, CSP

Do you need help from an outside voice - a speaker, consultant or coach who can help you overcome various organizational barriers? I can help - just give me a call. 1-800-240-4601 or outside the U.S. at 1-724-379-6439.


Note: No part of this work, article, or e-zine can be used without referencing and attributing the work to David J. Sarkus, MS, CSP. Thank You!

Video - Fort Worth, Texas

Here's a brief testimonial from one of my more recent talks delivered for the Army Corps of Engineers and its Contractors. Another Standing Ovation -
I hope you enjoy it!

Great Safety Leadership and George Washington

Great Lessons Can Be Learned from Historic Battles

A Young George Washington...

Here I am at one of America's great historic battlefields. And it has a lot to do with developing and sustaining a zero-incident safety culture.



Next Month - From the Steelers' Headquarters in Pittsburgh!

Lookout for my email...

Five Things I Learned From Bobby Bowden and Other Coaches

I've been blessed to know and play for some great college coaches. I also played with some outstanding athletes on the high school and college level. Some of those coaches included Nick Saban and Bobby Bowden. Those two coaches have four national championships between them! And at least a few of you should know that my real claim to fame is that I was the back-up quarterback to Joe Montana - but that was at Ringgold High School - hahaha! I hope you got a good laugh out of that one!

Anyway, I've was fortunate enough to complete a safety training video with Coach Bowden in 2001. Everything filmed in that video is still very relevant. When Coach Bowden was in front of the camera, it was amazing! He was so comfortable and genuine. He just made you want to be around him. Do you know any leaders like him?

Well, here's five really important things that I learned over my 28 years in safety that were reinforced and highlighted by Coach Bowden. You'll be able to apply these five principles to improve safety performance, right away!

1. Be Genuine. If you and your leaders are not "yourself and genuine" people see right through the words and actions, and will turn you and your message "off."

2. Be Fair. Fairness in any organization, especially when it comes to safety is critical. Fairness leads to increased trust and individual credibility.

3. Be Positive. People like to be around others who are positive, and even more, workers often respond better to positive reinforcement than they do punishment.

4. Talk Team. You need to talk about "team" more than individual performance. Developing an outstanding safety culture requires that people work together as a team. And take the team concept one step further by creating a sense of community within your organization.

5. Expectations are Key. You can talk about "safety rules" until you are blue in the face but safety is more about forming and setting everyday expectations.

There is so much more that I have learned in my career about safety coaching and leadership - way too much to write about here, especially right before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away - have a safe and blessed Holiday!

Oh, you have to check out this link: www.greatsafetyleadership.com. This page is about social influence in safety and leadership. You will be able to read about some invaluable safety strategies and tactics and to view some great video clips from others that I have helped experience great success in safety!

Connecting with Your Audience

I've been real busy the past six weeks. I was doing a combination of speaking, training, and consulting. Also hit a home run with the last five companies I spoke for across the USA - from California to Las Vegas, to Oklahoma to Chicago and Pennsylvania. These were Fortune 100 companies and privately held organizations, some with less than 200 employees. You realize that home runs were hit when you receive follow up calls, to bring you back, for more work. That's what happened with several of these clients already. Great stuff!

What's the best way for a speaker to connect? Identify with the audience through personal and collective values. Make the people laugh. And tell stories each person can relate to in some way. That's what I do within every one of my safety talks.

More and more companies are realizing the impact that safety has throughout their firms. And many are recognizing that outsiders (like motivational safety speakers) can have an immediate impact that can be utilized to continually improve their safety cultures.

Here's a recent speaking testimonial from Rick Hare, Safety Director at Consolidated Scrap Resources. Rick talks about how I connected with his audience... But Rick also commented after this clip that I provided his people with the "how" and the "principles" that will get them to the next level of safety excellence...

Supervisor Safety Training

Are Your Supervisors and Managers Appropriately Trained?

Safety Leadership, Safety Culture, and Risk