Certain straightforward organization strategies can confront poor safety performance, but strategy is required for true health and safety excellence. Successful safety strategy should be constructed on a knowledge of the rules for employee performance. However, before examining the formulas and abilities essential for excellence, let's run through what excellence is.
Excellence is not just a momentary raise in performance, but the ability to second that peak time after time. It is not accidental and it acquired through deliberate action. It is the application and endless advance of a strategy in safety that accomplishes and measures its own improvement. Nonetheless, most companies do not really have a safety strategy that leads and also joins the countless safety efforts into a consistent whole. Not many companies effectively measure their safety performance in a way that permits for an insightful understanding of what is working and the power to match it in the future. Excellence in safety at the company level needs safety excellence at the employee level. Managers must know the fundamental formulas for performance if they are to achieve this aim.
The principle rule for safety excellence is P=AM (performance equals ability times motivation). Numerous leaders disburse the majority of their resources to increase the ability of their work force, rather than the motivation. They may be focusing on an element of performance that already is suitable and difficult to improve, and disregarding a section that is weak and easily enhanced.
You don't lead an organization to safety excellence simply by being an excellent leader; you do so by leading excellent people! You lead people to excellence by helping them improve both their ability and their motivation. Most safety leaders don't realize or act on this important difference; People of mediocre skills need to improve their abilities. People of great ability need to be motivated.
Employee Involvement
It has been argued that workers don't need to be driven to be safe; they are the ones who get injured if they are not safe and have a vested interest in their own safety. This is true, but overall organizational excellence is not just about everyone looking out for him or herself; it is about everyone looking out for everyone else as well. You don't have to be inspired to look out for your own self-interest, but if the organization wants its people to go well above and beyond self-interest, they should inspire staff to do so.
The next rule is I+P=M (inspiration plus participation yields motivation). This kind of motivation is not accomplished by the old carrot-and-stick methods of the past. It is accomplished by involving everyone in the rationale and benefits of safety excellence. It must answer the "what's-in-it-for-me" (WIIFM) question in a way that inspires employees. This is motivation through a team-building exercise in which everyone is expected to go above and beyond his or her own self-interests. This is motivation based on a deep caring for both the team and the organization. Such motivation is based on the pride of winning the war against accidents and celebrating the victory. The two greatest human needs are affinity and affiliation (the need to believe in something and the need to belong to something), and safety excellence can be a meaningful part of fulfilling these two basic needs.
Inspiration should be followed by participation. Deming noted that people support what they help create. Few workers have a significant part in creating their own safety programs. Most leaders express a desire for workers to be more participative, but few design such opportunities into their safety processes. Leaders also may not realize that participation is a form of delegation. If the leader does everything, what is left for the worker to do? Allowing workers to be involved and help create safety programs can feel like letting go of control to many leaders, which is uncomfortable to some and completely unacceptable to others. However, it is a necessary skill for leading excellence.
Delegating & Coaching
The two key skills of leadership are delegating and coaching (leadership equals delegating plus coaching). Leaders who fail to develop the talents of their team or hand off work will stifle the growth of their organizations. Coaching is the ability to help improve the performance of another person. True leaders constantly strive to improve the people they lead because they realize that leaders are evaluated as much by their teams as they are by their own performance. Organizational growth directly is dependent on the growth of each member of the organization. As individuals perform better, the collective performance of the organization will improve.
A large part of this coaching is down to imperative training completed by the employees and the employers. If management are not proficient in the areas of health and safety, then how likely is it that other employees will be? It is the line manager, supervisors and top management that set the standards in the company's health and safety and have to support employees in the continuity of such standards. This is helped by managing safely courses such as the widely respected iosh elearning courses, available specifically for management.
Delegating is how leaders create momentum and set out accountability. It also is how they amplify their own aptitude to get things done. If leaders could do all jobs themselves, the employees would be uncalled-for. Only by means of delegation can leaders further their career in the business and take on even more strategic tasks.
Health & Safety should be a strategic part of business quality. The key skill required to achieve excellence is leading individuals by developing their capabilities and incentives. Following such development with delegation and trust is the next step toward the goal. Leaders ultimately must recognise the acute significance of these key stages and start to embrace delegation as others in their business lean into roles of leadership. As businesses become capable of excellent health & safety performance without the ceaseless comments and intrusion of management, the up keep of excellence takes longevity.
Excellence is not just a momentary raise in performance, but the ability to second that peak time after time. It is not accidental and it acquired through deliberate action. It is the application and endless advance of a strategy in safety that accomplishes and measures its own improvement. Nonetheless, most companies do not really have a safety strategy that leads and also joins the countless safety efforts into a consistent whole. Not many companies effectively measure their safety performance in a way that permits for an insightful understanding of what is working and the power to match it in the future. Excellence in safety at the company level needs safety excellence at the employee level. Managers must know the fundamental formulas for performance if they are to achieve this aim.
The principle rule for safety excellence is P=AM (performance equals ability times motivation). Numerous leaders disburse the majority of their resources to increase the ability of their work force, rather than the motivation. They may be focusing on an element of performance that already is suitable and difficult to improve, and disregarding a section that is weak and easily enhanced.
You don't lead an organization to safety excellence simply by being an excellent leader; you do so by leading excellent people! You lead people to excellence by helping them improve both their ability and their motivation. Most safety leaders don't realize or act on this important difference; People of mediocre skills need to improve their abilities. People of great ability need to be motivated.
Employee Involvement
It has been argued that workers don't need to be driven to be safe; they are the ones who get injured if they are not safe and have a vested interest in their own safety. This is true, but overall organizational excellence is not just about everyone looking out for him or herself; it is about everyone looking out for everyone else as well. You don't have to be inspired to look out for your own self-interest, but if the organization wants its people to go well above and beyond self-interest, they should inspire staff to do so.
The next rule is I+P=M (inspiration plus participation yields motivation). This kind of motivation is not accomplished by the old carrot-and-stick methods of the past. It is accomplished by involving everyone in the rationale and benefits of safety excellence. It must answer the "what's-in-it-for-me" (WIIFM) question in a way that inspires employees. This is motivation through a team-building exercise in which everyone is expected to go above and beyond his or her own self-interests. This is motivation based on a deep caring for both the team and the organization. Such motivation is based on the pride of winning the war against accidents and celebrating the victory. The two greatest human needs are affinity and affiliation (the need to believe in something and the need to belong to something), and safety excellence can be a meaningful part of fulfilling these two basic needs.
Inspiration should be followed by participation. Deming noted that people support what they help create. Few workers have a significant part in creating their own safety programs. Most leaders express a desire for workers to be more participative, but few design such opportunities into their safety processes. Leaders also may not realize that participation is a form of delegation. If the leader does everything, what is left for the worker to do? Allowing workers to be involved and help create safety programs can feel like letting go of control to many leaders, which is uncomfortable to some and completely unacceptable to others. However, it is a necessary skill for leading excellence.
Delegating & Coaching
The two key skills of leadership are delegating and coaching (leadership equals delegating plus coaching). Leaders who fail to develop the talents of their team or hand off work will stifle the growth of their organizations. Coaching is the ability to help improve the performance of another person. True leaders constantly strive to improve the people they lead because they realize that leaders are evaluated as much by their teams as they are by their own performance. Organizational growth directly is dependent on the growth of each member of the organization. As individuals perform better, the collective performance of the organization will improve.
A large part of this coaching is down to imperative training completed by the employees and the employers. If management are not proficient in the areas of health and safety, then how likely is it that other employees will be? It is the line manager, supervisors and top management that set the standards in the company's health and safety and have to support employees in the continuity of such standards. This is helped by managing safely courses such as the widely respected iosh elearning courses, available specifically for management.
Delegating is how leaders create momentum and set out accountability. It also is how they amplify their own aptitude to get things done. If leaders could do all jobs themselves, the employees would be uncalled-for. Only by means of delegation can leaders further their career in the business and take on even more strategic tasks.
Health & Safety should be a strategic part of business quality. The key skill required to achieve excellence is leading individuals by developing their capabilities and incentives. Following such development with delegation and trust is the next step toward the goal. Leaders ultimately must recognise the acute significance of these key stages and start to embrace delegation as others in their business lean into roles of leadership. As businesses become capable of excellent health & safety performance without the ceaseless comments and intrusion of management, the up keep of excellence takes longevity.
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