From Dubai - Your Standard

I am very fortunate to be able to travel the world through my work.  I just got back from Dubai and had a great trip!  It is so interesting to see other parts of the world and experience different cultures.  In fact, I spoke to a group with participants from every corner of the world, and I do mean every corner.  

We did some fun things too, like a desert safari and barbecue – yes that's me in the photo.

Getting to my point, with such a diverse group and varying degrees of risks that are managed in some organizations, I believe it is critically important to lead from one standard of performance, with a unified vision for safety excellence.  With one standard and one vision, there is a common pull and clearer expectations that can be proactively lead and managed.  I often stress that every organization has to believe that "Their Standard - Is The Standard!"  I also believe there are a number of benefits to this approach:

• One vision for safety excellence keeps everyone looking forward in the same direction at the same image for excellence.
  
  
• Expectations can be lead, managed, audited and aligned in a uniform way.
  
  
• There's less confusion when it comes to rules and worker expectations and that means less conflict and agreement with regard to fairness - so important.
  
  
• Your standards remain high regardless of schedule and other cultures around you that may influence your workers in one direction or another.
  
  
• There's clarity for your customers when they recognize how you lead EHS performance and align your standards for sustainable excellence.
  
  
  

One vision and one standard of EHS performance are becoming more and more important with our global influences.  Many of you realize this but there is much more work to be done – it never ends.

If you are looking for a speaker who addresses the importance of leadership, culture, communications, and coaching, please take a look at these newer testimonial videos.  The second one down, the middle set is from a recent conference in Maryland.  The last set is good too - just got back from RILA in Indianapolis.

Again, here's the link: http://davidsarkus.com/testimonials.php.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my thoughts and travels!

Do Your Leaders Have Empathy?

I love the reality show Undercover Boss but I have to watch it alone because I often become a little weepy!  I’ve gotten much softer with age.  You probably know what generally happens in each show.  A company executive plants himself in his own organization in order to find out what’s really happening and to make improvements.  He works side-by-side with individuals who perform some of the most difficult, demanding, and dirty jobs in the company. 

After a short period of time, the undercover boss gets to know people in very personal ways and also finds out first-hand about their work challenges. 

Near the end of each episode, after getting all kinds of unfiltered information, the leader begins to make various organizational changes.  Finally, the Boss meets one-on-one with some of his “recent co-workers” and discloses who he is and his role.  Each employee is usually completely surprised.

What We Can Learn

In nearly every episode, Undercover Boss reveals some very good leadership lessons.  The undercover boss connects with his employees in ways that bring out different kinds of emotions.  For me, many scenes are quite moving – that’s why I watch alone, so nobody sees teary eyed, David – ha ha ha. 

In particular, there’s one episode with Mitchell Modell of Modell Sporting Goods that I’ve especially enjoyed.  Mitchell really connects with his workers and it shows.  Below, I’ve unveiled four tactics that Mitchell uses to empathize and connect with his workers.  We can use these same principles to get our leaders more engaged with their workers and workers to their leaders.

1. Listen till it hurts.  By its very nature, productive listening is hard work, especially when it comes to something as important as safety.  Asking the right questions, listening actively, and acting upon important feedback is critical.  But listening also affords opportunities to feel what the workers are feeling and to better engage with them concerning their challenges and avenues for improvement.  Listening shows concern and opens communications for ongoing safety improvement.  

      2. Look through people not at them.  Mitchell Modell does something that not every leader is able to do.  He looks through people in order to feel what they feel and value the same.  He sees their living situation, financial challenges, and the families they are attempting to support.  All of this draws the leader into a more empathetic state but also endears the worker to the leader.  This alone can pay big dividends, especially when done for the right reasons. 

3. Meet on their turf.  Leaders who are like the well-connected undercover boss know the importance of working with and listening to their employees on “their turf.”  And their turf is a breeding ground for discovering possibilities for improvement and increasingly open two-way communications.  Their turf is where workers can more readily point out specific challenges and the reality of their everyday environment.  But it takes time, patience, and a leader who really wants to become more transparent. 

4. Show appreciation.  Near the end of each episode of Undercover Boss, some workers are given raises, bonuses, monetary gifts, and promotions because of their input and daily efforts.  On other occasions, workers are simply recognized for their hard work.  Mostly, this is what every employee wants – appreciation for their efforts.  And when it comes to safety, people need to be shown appreciation and recognized for their feedback and effort.  Showing appreciation is free and can easily be displayed through a kind word or thoughtful gesture.  However, I see organizational leaders miss regular opportunities to show appreciation for various safety-related efforts each and every day. Showing appreciation costs absolutely nothing!

In The End...

I really don't care if some believe that Undercover Boss is staged or contrived.  It provides valuable insights regarding the way leaders are able to connect with their workers and how each side can become more engaged and productive.  Boss also brings out the kind of “leadership empathy” that is so sorely needed in today’s fast paced organizations.  It is the kind of empathy that I observed with some of the best leaders that I’ve coached and consulted for over the last 30 years.  These are leaders who are able to experience greater productivity because they engage through empathy – and safety is all about productivity improvement, just ask me!

Many leaders need to tap into their own empathy and use it on a more consistent basis.  Peter Drucker once stated that empathy is "the number one practical competency for success in life."  At the core of one’s culture for safety, I believe that empathy is a practical competency that builds trust and ongoing reciprocity.

I believe empathy can be taught, discovered, learned, and effectively used for the good of an entire organization – especially in terms of ongoing safety improvement which impacts morale, productivity, and quality too.  It may take the right circumstances, but you need to give empathy a try.  I’ve provided a start, and I’m trusting you’ll find a bit more empathy too!


Note:  Reprints or reuse must include the complete bio below.

David J. Sarkus, MS, CSP is an author, speaker, consultant, and coach with over 30 years of experience. He has written five books and more than 60 evidence-based articles. He is president and founder of David Sarkus International, Inc., which provides a full menu of safety leadership and culture driven services for some of the biggest and best run organizations in the world.  Please visit www.DavidSarkus.com for more information. David can also be reached at 1-800-240-4601.

Three Critically Important Leadership Traits for Sustainable Safety Excellence

I’ve been fortunate enough to have consulted, coached, and spoken for thousands of leaders across the globe.  And I feel strongly that every leader who is credible, fair, and cares about his workers can push their performance to an entirely new level – particularly if these three traits are used as their primary base of influence. 

I also feel that every leader who plays a part in improving safety performance will have to take a least a few leadership characteristics to heart and embrace them in order to achieve ongoing success – especially our operational leaders who are closest to the work.

The Big 3

1. Credibility.  Entering my aerospace career, I accepted a job that my predecessor occupied for more than 35 years.  His name was Ralph and he had an excellent reputation and people listened to him because he knew safety in a very specialized arena.  He worked hard with everyone and followed through on his efforts.  People respected Ralph because of his expertise and the trust he built with others.  He honed his skills and was known throughout the country.  Ralph was also a part of a number of national standards committees that had lasting impact on safety.  I had big shoes to fill but I worked as diligently as possible to build my own expertise and trust within a very large organization.  It took time, but people began to take notice – I built some of my own credibility, not to the same extent, but I too developed expertise and trust.  That’s what credibility is about - building expertise and trust – but it takes time. 

Operational Credibility

Safety professionals have to ensure that a capability and credibility transfer occurs to help build leadership support within their own organizations.  Operational support and leadership for safety is required at the top, in the middle, and at the front line.   Even more, operational leaders who build personal credibility step up and drive safety performance, when it needs to be driven.  Credible safety leaders get behind the vehicle and push it.  They don’t simply cheer others on – they get to know people and get their hands dirty, much like Ralph in my aerospace discussion.

Credible operational leaders aren’t baffled by poor safety performance because they know what it takes to reach exceptional levels of safety achievement.  They’ve often been coached by safety professionals and have taken the time to improve their safety knowledge.  They’ve also built substantial relationships by developing trust with people – on the floor and in the field.  Trust takes time because it requires that leaders meet with people on their turf, where they live, in their part of the organization.  Some leaders don’t like being on others’ turf, it can be uncomfortable and unsettling.  However, credible leaders walk the talk and deliver - even when there’s discomfort.  Credible leaders take the time to learn and understand the programs, processes, practices, people, measures, and metrics that are required to sustain a high level of safety performance.  They know much of what it takes – I’ve worked with and coached such leaders.    

2.  Fairness.  During my career, I’ve been part of various incident investigation teams that evaluated several egregious losses and injuries.   I worked with individuals from engineering and operational groups who knew the operations well but also knew the critical aspects of safety.  Our collective support drove recommendations and system improvements to preclude recurrence.  In some cases, individuals were dismissed because of errors and omissions that occurred.   However, in most cases where severe discipline took place, and leaders were perceived as fair, discipline was accepted with a less bitter aftertaste.  People moved on with lesser forms of residual pain.  And typically, the organization, the leaders, and those who were disciplined, were all better off for having moved through a difficult and challenging process.  But the key is fairness – always be fair.

Being Equitable - Day-in and Day-out

Fairness is also about being equitable with resources such as time, tools, materials, people, and processes.  When leaders pay lip service to raising the standard of performance for safety without appropriate resources, workers soon realize what they’re up against.  When leaders don’t take a long hard look at system and process failures along with other leaders who must be disciplined, not just the worker, their decisions will soon be perceived as unfair.  A lack of fairness and safety equity becomes a barrier that few can break through.  Being less than equitable with safety creates an organizational system of defenses that will not allow others to be their best or to allow a culture of safety excellence to form and ultimately flourish.  You see, these kinds of leaders want to build a façade, a superficial type of safety excellence where probing questions simply aren’t welcome. 

Fairness, being equitable, is a critically important leadership and organizational trait that will long be remembered well after tough decisions are made. 

3. Caring.  Anyone who has read my work over the years quickly realizes that I’m easily marked by my thoughts on caring leadership and leading from the heart.  And I’ve worked with many great organizational leaders who have lead with the heart long before I knew what I was talking about.  Nearly 20 years ago, I was delivering leadership training for a large Fortune 50 organization when I soon realized that I had some great leaders in the room.  How did I know?  I had a lot of survey data and I simply listened to their workers.  Those who I spoke with told me, “our boss always asks about us first and he really cares about us.”  I also heard, “our boss asks about what we think when it comes to safety issues and concerns and he really listens.” And “our supervisor acts on what we tell him.” Well, I quickly found that these leaders connected with their people, they listened and responded appropriately.  They had exceptional results as well – years, even decades without serious incidents or recordable injuries.

The Foundation

Caring leadership helps to establish a more stable and sustainable foundation of influence and power.  For me, caring leadership is about putting others’ best interests in mind.  It’s about keeping people safe – sending them home the way they were hoping to be sent home. 

A big part of caring leadership is about listening.  Caring leaders become more approachable because others know they’ll be listened to and heard.  These kinds of leaders are open to differing viewpoints because they see the many benefits of gathering input from as many as possible and acting upon that feedback.  Broader forms of safety input bring about less resistance and greater forms of commitment from those involved.  Serious incidents and losses are avoided because open discussions lead to proactive interventions – before the Big One occurs!

But caring leadership takes time, patience, and it requires that we meet people on their ground, in their space.  Leaders will have to listen until it might begin to hurt.  But that’s how leaders acquire more empathy and become better leaders.   And that’s how we turn followers into safety leaders, champions, and safety coaches. 

Listening and empathy also puts us in touch with our people in a different way.  Getting in touch with our workers by spending time with them and listening is about getting an all-important pulse for safety.  To get a good pulse for safety we have to care enough, and get close enough, to touch them. 

Have an Open Mind

Many of you will agree with my thoughts while others will disagree.  There will always be exceptions to what makes for great leadership.  That’s at least one reason that various schools of thought regarding leadership keep evolving.  It’s why leadership is part science and part art form.  There’ll never be a silver bullet or all-encompassing silver lining when it comes to leadership style, model, or mode.  Be open, because we have to meet our followers where they are, based upon individual motivation, knowledge, and various organizational influences. 

When I shake off the leadership dust and some of the glitter, experience tells me that by demonstrating our credibility, fairness, and showing care for our workers, we can raise the bar and set higher safety expectations.  We can move others to another level of achievement.  And I’ve said it for years, when our workers believe we are credible, fair, and care about them, even love them, we can push them to another level – no matter how high that level may be.   What kind of safety legacy do you and your organizational leaders want to leave?

David J. Sarkus, MS, CSP is an author, speaker, consultant, and coach with over 30 years of experience. He has written five books and more than 60 evidence-based articles. He is president and founder of David Sarkus International, Inc., which provides a full menu of safety leadership and culture driven services for some of the biggest and best run organizations in the world.  Please visit www.DavidSarkus.com for more information. David can also be reached at 1-800-240-4601.

Your Spring Cleaning - Are You Behind?

When I was a young boy, I marveled at the time and effort my mother put into her annual spring-cleaning. Mom planned a great deal – shopping for her supplies early to make sure that she never had to start and stop once she got moving. And mom was really focused on every detail of cleaning the windows, walls, floors, and all of the furniture.

Mom also kept track of her cleaning materials, year-to year, so she knew what worked best. Yes, that meant materials and tools that made her work a bit easier, more effective, and efficient. Mom always knew that if she planned well, used the right materials, and with the right effort, she’d get the kinds of predictable results she always wanted. It was a lot of work but mom took great pride in her results and all of her family appreciated all of her efforts. We jumped in when we could but she mostly wanted to tackle everything on her own.

Does this sound familiar? When it comes to EHS performance, we need to take our spring-cleaning efforts very seriously and start in the fall rather than the spring. Think about what you should be doing for your annual safety spring-cleaning and what you need to measure. Much like production or quality, safety needs to have regular forms of measurement, feedback, and information so adjustments, corrections, and interventions can be make before an incident and serious accident occurs. Regular information could mean daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually.

I like to break out proactive measures in three separate categories and give you a few examples of what your measures might include:

Operational Measures: Hazard Assessments Conducted, Hazards Identified and Corrected, Open Hazards and Days to Closure, Routine Work Stops and Safety Protocol.

System Measures: Near Miss Reports, Corrective Actions from Risk Reports, Risk Identification Reports, Elevating and Lowering of Risks Identified, and Risks Mitigated.

Cultural Measures: Climate Survey Perception Gaps along Critical Dimensions, Behavior-Based Observations (Percent Safe and Unsafe), Number of Observations, Observers Involved, Quality of BBS Observations.

This is just a short sample of pro-active measures that can be addressed for regular forms of information gathering that will allow for more proactive interventions and responses. One should move further to ask:

1. Which of these proactive measures most align with success when in it comes to reducing accidents and incidents?

2. Does your safety dashboard reflect the four or five activities and measures that have the biggest and most positive impact on safety performance?

3. Do you carefully and regularly assess and clean your dashboard with groups of people to gain greater insights into what needs to stay on the dash, while removing measurables that might be to be replaced or at least refined?

4. Do you have the kinds of tracking systems that enable you to accurately assess near misses and other potentially serious events, so you can proactively control hazards through associated abatement strategies and tactics?

Spring-cleaning involves more than simply assessing your EHS dashboard, it includes planning, training, communications, coaching, increased engagement, and improvement in materials, tools, equipment, policies, risk assessment, and procedures. No one can argue that spring-cleaning is an arduous task – but it needs to occur often. It needs to be done so that you can ensure you are measuring the right activities that have the greatest impact, holding people accountable to perform those activities well, and ultimately aligning all of your EHS efforts for long-term success through a dashboard that works. It’s time for your annual safety spring-cleaning – get moving – I think you may be at least a few weeks behind!

Your Sphere of Influence

I like Subway and a few times a month I eat there.   But there’s one location I no longer visit.  Here’s why.  There’s a young worker who is impolite, very impersonal, and at times, just downright mean and nasty.  She certainly takes the “customer” out of “customer service.”  I stopped going there because it’s a negative experience and I have alternatives.

I often tell people that you never know who you might meet that can help you.  Any chance encounter could change your life.  It may develop into a new job offer or a career change that takes your life in an entirely new direction.  Always flip the switch and be professional, polite, and smile! 

You, Your Managers, and Supervisors

Some managers and supervisors don’t get it either.  They start out their day like the Subway girl.  Impolite, rude, and sometimes mean.  They become unapproachable and their workers avoid them.  Who would want to work for such a person or discuss a safety-related issue with them? 

Take a moment, and think about a front-line leader who you work with that never seems to be happy.   How do people react with them?  Do others avoid them?  Is that manager able to get increasing levels of engagement from their workers?  Do the workers’ behaviors and moods often seem to reflect the mood and demeanor of their boss?  Now, contrast that with the other manager. Think about the other leader who is polite, smiles, and has employees wanting to work in their department.  See the difference?  Is that difference reflected in lower absenteeism, incidents, and other important indicators?  

We can engage people or drive them away simply through our disposition and demeanor.  I remember once asking a frowning worker at a retail establishment, “Are you happy?”  She said,“Well yes.” I replied, “Well, you better let your face know it.”  She smiled and immediately, the entire climate changed as well as her demeanor and mine.  You,  your managers and supervisors have that power too!  Tap into it.  Relationships matter – relationships improve safety engagement and your ability to influence the safety-related attitudes and actions of everyone around you.

Your demeanor matters, so check it, monitor it, and be aware of it - every day!