Leading By Example

4 July 2019

Assertiveness
Communicate vision and objectives – In as many formats and as many times as needed, communicate the desired outcome and objectives.  Communication should leave no room for unclear vision or objectives and be linked to both individual and organisational objectives.

Provide training, coaching and mentoring whenever possible – Leaders don’t want to admit they don’t know everything about health and safety.  When growing into leadership roles, leaders need to dedicate time to address any areas of non-competence.  

Engage leaders in professional health and safety development to provide support and help build a common culture and understanding.  Spending time coaching and mentoring leaders, in either a covert or overt way, is also a way to allow them to understand some of the issues regularly encountered.

Health and safety improvement should be tied into business objectives – Many programmes prove difficult in calculating a tangible financial return on investment.  

Hold leaders accountable – Successful change is tied directly to the leader.  Leaders need to be onboard with the change and that inevitably means a benefit to them personally or departmentally.  Once a clear objective has been identified, individual leaders need to be held accountable for taking ownership for positively driving the change within their areas of influence.