Personal Safety Interventions

We are often unaware of our impact from what we say and, more importantly, what we do (or don’t do).  When it comes to safety, it’s not simply a matter of praising safety, a leader must act.  Many leaders discuss the importance of safety, then take actions to promote productivity or schedule over safety.  Below is a list of examples most leaders have taken that are inconsistent with making safety personal:

• Sharing a safety moment but failing to make it personal or seeking to connect with employees.
• Spending a minute to talk about safety at the beginning of a meeting then spending an hour on production issues without mentioning safety again.
• Visiting a job site to resolve an issue but failing to take the time to go into the field and talk to workers.
• Sitting in safety meetings while talking, looking at emails or texting

All these examples show a leader that talks the talk but does not follow up with real concern or awareness of safety issues.  How a leader acts speaks volumes about what is personal to them.  They must become more aware of their own actions if they are to help themselves and other understand the personal nature of safety.

Take a moment to reflect and ask yourself, am I making safety personal?