Leadership behaviour – The few things that can make a huge difference to safety… positively, or negatively:
One of the most significant leadership factors that appear during workplace “accident” investigations is a lack of clarity (or perhaps a lack of understanding) amongst leaders of the size of the shadow their behaviour casts. What is often underestimated is the impact the leader’s thoughts, words and subsequent actions can have on their team’s behaviour, their team’s approach to safety and the beliefs their team members have of them as a leader.
I am not aiming to share my complete thoughts on leadership with you, but rather to talk through those few leadership ideas, behaviours and actions that can make the biggest difference in creating ‘safety’ – getting it right, and in workplace incidents – getting it wrong.
My goal in this blog is to encourage you to think a bit differently about how you go about your day-to-day leadership activities.
The topics I cover are in an order that I believe is important and are in some ways hierarchical in nature. They are certainly not an exhaustive collection of actions and I openly acknowledge there are many other topics and behaviours that also are capable of making a difference out there in the real world.
It is all about ‘Relationship’
I suppose that in talking about ‘relationship’, I am not off to a good start if this blog is supposed to be all about behaviours and actions, but the overarching topic of ‘relationship’ is way too important not to start with. The attention you pay, as a leader to the state of ‘relationship’ you have with your team can make or break all the rest of the work you do in the leadership space. Building trust is done in many ways by the positive enactment of, inter alia, the other behaviours and actions I discuss here. Getting ‘relationship’ right gives you permission to engage, coach, mentor, guide, teach, encourage, inspire and otherwise help your team members be the best they can be. Getting ‘relationship’ wrong can make you and your team unhappy, resentful, untrusting – basically not a functioning team – with all the consequences of that situation, including adverse safety outcomes. I will not talk in detail about ‘relationship’ related behaviours and actions here as I feel the rest of the blog is ALL about that.
Leadership style
• Coaching Style, Field Leadership, Just Culture.
I have clumped ‘Coaching Style’, ‘Field Leadership’, and ‘Just Culture’ under the general topic of ‘Leadership Style’ as they are all intimately related.
I believe the most powerfully impacting leadership style you can adopt through your thoughts, words and actions is one of authenticity – of you being you. In order to make the biggest difference in safety you must be you, and more. Adopting some autocratic or copycat style of leadership that is not authentic is a waste of time and your team will; a) see straight through it as you behaving differently from your values sticks out like dog’s ears, and b) become confused at the inconsistencies that will inevitably leak through the façade that is not you.
Consistency in your behaviours is key here, Your people need to see that your leadership style does not flap around like the tail of a fish stranded on a sand bank, but is steady. Your leadership and behaviour will not always be perfect and correct of course, and exposing your weaknesses is OK as long as you are being you.
Learning all about intent-based leadership (David L. Marquet – Turn The Ship Around), seeing if it aligns with who you are, and then practicing it may also make a huge difference to the impact of your leadership and hence the behaviour and actions of those around you. This aligns with a coaching style of leadership. Asking rather than telling, giving context rather than directions, being curious rather than questioning, having conversations rather than monologues, and seeking out (and listening generously to) expertise are all actions that can truly transform your leadership and how you are seen by your teams.
I have included ‘Field Leadership’ here as it represents the manifestation of your leadership in the field – where people meet the workplace hazards and where they control risk. Leadership in the field through conversation is where the rubber hits the road and where people actually see and hear you as a leader. Too much telling and not enough curiosity and listening in your actions will undo any other words you may utter in meetings, pre-start meetings or in emails.
If you see field leadership activities as simply something that must be done to keep the boss happy and KPIs achieved I believe you are doomed as a leader. If you treat field leadership activities as great opportunities to make a difference, to really impact the likelihood of getting work right (safety), then, provided you are authentic about it and not formulaic in your approach, then all is good. . I have often seen during investigations field leadership activities being done prior to an incident but not being effective in correcting a known normalization of deviation, set of non-compliances to process, or correcting known inaccurate procedures.
The same applies to ‘just culture’. It is very important that any just culture process you apply is done so consistently. This is more important than anything else about the process, including the consequences. It has been said many times by some for the greatest current safety thinkers “you can either learn or blame – you cannot do both”. And there is not a much more destructive leadership behaviour than blaming.
In a nutshell, be authentically you, only more so.
Wariness of Risk Controls
• Chronic Unease, Feral Vigilance, Expectations regarding procedural compliance, Curiosity in WAD, WAN and WAI, Normalization of Deviance / Drift, Acceptance of the level of quality of procedures.
I first read about chronic unease in James Reason books and loved the idea – as long as it is not taken to extremes, which some leaders have done in the past. It is all about a healthy scepticism about whether stuff is going to be OK or not. I have heard the phrase ‘wariness about risk’ and ‘vigilance’ popping up quite often in references about chronic unease and I recall a discussion in one of Reason’s books about ‘feral vigilance’ used by Western Mining Corporation (now BHP) which also points to a constant look-out for what could go wrong implied by chronic unease. So, what does the behaviour or action of a leader look like if they possess chronic unease and how can it impact safety?
Leaders who show chronic unease ask questions in order to encourage their team to question the way they work. They ask questions in order to encourage their team to question the accuracy of the procedures they are expected to use. They ask questions in order to encourage their team to challenge any normalization of deviance and drift. They ask questions in order to understand for themselves what is driving any differences between Work-As-Done, Work-As-Normal and Work-As-Intended (Prescribed).
This questioning approach will drive openness and ‘safety’. Doing the opposite, intentionally or unintentionally, will drive the opposite. i.e., if you demand procedural compliance, you may drive violations. If you are not always questioning and exploring any gaps between Work-As-Done and Work-As-Intended, Work-As-Normal will drift away from Work-As-Intended and increase the likelihood of an incident. If you are more interested in the fact that a Task-Based-Risk-Assessment has been completed, than being extremely curious as to its quality, don’t be surprised when somebody gets hurt or killed because a critical step was missed or risk not controlled.
Mindset
• Growth or Fixed?
Last, but certainly not least, we need to talk about how a leader’s mindset can impact safety in their team. Whether you have a growth mindset – believing we can all learn, get better and grow, or whether you have a fixed mindset – where things are simply how they are and that is it, will greatly impact your thoughts and hence your words and actions. I have seen during workplace incident investigations, the impact of a fixed mindset. It can manifest as leaders not providing the right human resources (people) for risk assessments, training and field leadership activities et cetera. The right resources doing what they need to do for these activities has a direct impact on the likelihood of getting it right (safety) or wrong. The growth or fixed mindset can also manifest in the way leaders search out for and listen to expertise. If they have a fixed mindset and believe that they know all they need to know and do not defer to expertise as and where it resides, then trouble ensues.
In summary, just like the fact that your shadow late on a clear summer’s afternoon is much larger than you are, so too your leadership shadow is much larger than you are. The way you think, speak and act plays a direct role in the way your people think, speak and act. Your behaviour therefore directly influences the safety of your people. If you do not display authentic leadership, apply a coaching style, listen generously, have a nice level of chronic unease, and have a curiosity to what is driving any differences between Work-As-Done, Work-As-Normal and Work-As-Intended, all balanced with a growth mindset, your actions may well be directly and adversely impacting the health and well-being of your people, even if that is not your intention.
As it has been said (by Edgar Schein and others) culture and leadership are two sides of the same coin. We sometimes forget that as leaders we create the culture we see in the bits of the organizations that we play in, and that what we think, say and do can make a huge difference… positively, or negatively to the safety of our people.
To reiterate the points, I truly believe that the few things a leader must do every day in order to most powerfully assist in the creation of safety is through strong relationships driven by authentic leadership, applying a coaching style, listening generously, being appropriately wary of the effectiveness of controls, and having a high level of curiosity to what is driving any differences between Work-As-Done, Work-As-Normal and Work-As-Intended, all balanced with a growth mindset.