Safety Leadership

The role of leadership cannot be overemphasized in the success of a behavior-based safety process. Supervisors and managers should generally conduct observations as part of a behavioral safety process. Safety leadership is vital, whether it is from formal or informal leaders throughout an organization. Formal leadership includes supervisors and managers. Informal leaders are employees who take a special interest in safety; they are often union leaders and other employees who are well-respected by coworkers. Both types of leaders share important responsibilities for supporting safety. To maximize the success of behavioral safety improvement efforts, leadership responsibilities must be defined for both formal and informal leaders.

Readings on Leadership

Safety Leadership

Certain practices serve as the framework for supporting Values-Based Safety®. Executives and Sponsors must model these behaviors for the teams involved in the Values-Based Safety® implementation and for employees participating in the process. These behaviors will help you support the Design Team and Steering Committees in the organization as they bring about change the “right” way.

Safety Leadership: Challenges and Solutions by Terry McSween, Ph.D.

Paper presented at the American Society of Safety Engineers annual Professional Development Conference in Orlando, in June, 2000.

Building a Management Foundation for Behavioral Safety by Grainne A. Matthews, Ph.D.

A case study of safety leadership in an organization that wasn't quite ready for a behavioral safety process. The organization decided to improve Safety Leadership with a values-based behavioral approach before asking employees to become involved.

The Role of Supervisors in Behavioral Safety Observations by Scott Cook and Terry E. McSween (Published in Professional Safety magazine, October 2000)

Safety professionals have long recognized the importance of management support and involvement in achieving effective safety improvement. Based on Quality Safety Edge's experience, the authors have concluded that supervisors and managers should generally conduct observations as part of a behavioral safety process.

Leadership Issues in Implementing Change: It's All a Matter of Behavior by Ann Pinney, MA, MBA and Terry McSween, PhD

A bad leader can kill a good process! This paper addresses three questions: Why do we need leaders "on board" when implementing change? What specific actions do we need leaders to take? How do we get them to take those actions?

Adding Leadership Observations by Terry McSween, PhD

If you've been excluding management from participation in the observation process, how do you reverse course and convince everyone it's a good idea for management to be involved?

Sample Leadership Commitment Statements

Leadership support is essential to the success of any Behavioral Safety process. Many management teams elect to publish and post prominently Leadership Commitment Statements. These statements affirm to the employees that leaders understand the essential features of the process and publicly commit to supporting it. Here are some sample statements you might find useful.