Safety Culture Expert, Motivational Safety Speaker David Sarkus: Official Blog

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!