Safety is about leadership: that's not a new concept. Yet, for many years, leadership as it relates to safety has often been defined as support, which at times translates to just don't impede the process. Traditionally, leaders at the highest levels of an organization have fulfilled their mandate for such support by including safety in the corporate mission statement and the operational budget.
Of course, behavior-based safety (BBS) professionals have known for quite a while that the success of our efforts hinges upon how adept we are in building leadership support for BBS systems. However, over the years, our interest in, focus on, and definition of leadership support has evolved ... and for good reason.