Safety and the Supervisor

MODULE SIX : DEMONSTRATING SAFETY LEADERSHIP

Introduction As you learned in Module 3, adequate supervision occurs when the supervisor detects and corrects a hazardous condition or unsafe behavior before it causes an injury or illness. That's a pretty simple definition, but it requires the supervisor, through observation, inspection, and analysis to take action on all hazards in their workplace before one of their employees get hurt. To do this effectively requires sound management and leadership skills.

What is Supervision?

If you look up the word "supervise" in Webster's, you'll see that it means... "to look over and direct the work and performance of." So, we may conclude that supervision is primarily a management skill or the ability to organize and oversee work. However, as we noted above, effective supervision also requires sound leadership which is the ability to develop sound working relationships.

To learn about what leadership is, let's first discuss what it's not:

Leadership is not power - Power is the capacity to bring about desired outcomes and prevent those not desired. (Gardner) Power is derived from status, position, money, expertise, charisma, ability to harm, access to media, control of assets, communications skills, physical strength. Leaders always have power, but the powerful are not always leaders. A thug who sticks a gun in your back has “power” but not leadership Power is self-centered, ethically neutral (can be used for good or bad), amoral. Leadership is not status - Status is derived from position and performance. Status or position may enhance the opportunity for leadership. Some may have status or position, yet haven’s a clue how to lead. Position is assigned from above...leadership is conferred from below. Leadership is not authority - A supervisor may have subordinates, but that doesn't mean they are followers. People will follow someone upon whom they have conferred leadership. Leadership will be conferred only if person acts like a leader. Leadership is not management - Good management is the ability to control work through planning, organizing, and supervising. Managers know how to organize processes, policies, plans, procedures, programs. Managing is an planned activity. Leadership is more spontaneous than planned. Managers do things right. Leaders do the right things. Leadership is not common sense - Common sense does not actually exist. Personal sense does, and it's based on each individual's experience. Good sense is individual. Common sense would result in common leadership styles. Actually, a person's unique individual (hopefully good) sense influences their leadership style. Consequently, leadership styles are quite unique.

The key to safety supervision is a tough-caring leadership approach

Supervision requires super vision! Effective supervisors see themselves as real leaders and are therefore tough on employees when it comes to safety: They insist on it! Why? Because they care about the safety and health of their employees. In fact, it's all about the success of their employees whom they visualize as their internal customers.

The people are fashioned according to the example of their king; and edicts are of less power than the life (example) of the ruler. Claudian, c. 365. Egyptian epic poet.

What leadership style works best in safety?

That's a very important question. Does a controlling leadership style, the result of a lack of trust in employees, work in the safety arena? Not usually. It is based on incorrect assumptions about human nature. Some of these assumptions include:

• Management makes decisions, drives the process, and organizes people and production only for economic gain.




• Workers must modify their behavior to fit the needs of the organization. They must be directed, controlled, even coerced in this effort.




• Management must be actively involved to prevent passive, resistant, counterproductive employee behavior. Employees must be persuaded, rewarded, punished, controlled so prevent them from being indolent, slothful, and just plain lazy. Because employees lack ambition, dislike responsibility, and prefer to be led, management's task is to prod employees along.




• Management is "getting things done through other people."

• Management and employees make decisions and drive the production process for economic gain.




• Workers are not passive and lazy by nature, but have become so due to experience and socialization in organizations. When motivated they are capable of self-directed work behavior and decision making.




• Employees seek safety, job security, responsibility, and recognition. They want to develop a high degree of pride in the work they accomplish. Management's challenge is to provide employees with the means to recognize their potential, and work at the highest possible level.




• Management is "organizing the workplace to best provide employees with the resources they need to be safe and achieve their own goals and objectives supporting organizational success."

Motive is everything!

How do you demonstrate a tough-caring leadership approach when you uncover hazardous conditions or unsafe work practices? It's important that you do the right thing in a timely manner. The approach you take when pointing out unsafe behaviors will, to a large extent, determine how successful you are. For example, let's take a look at this scenario:

Get outta there! Bob is working on a large mixing machine which should have been properly locked out before beginning the maintenance. During your daily walkthrough inspection, you notice he is working hard inside the mixing unit, and you notice the mixer is not locked out. Bob could be seriously injured at any time. You approach Bob, and consider what you're going to say to him.

You want to send the right messages when you approach Bob: Messages that say you are concerned about his safety and the safety of other workers. In this case you would probably tell Bob to stop work and get out of the mixing unit immediately. You would want to find out why he did not lockout the equipment, but only after expressing concern for his safety.

If Bob does not believe you are concerned about him, but are only "out to get him," he will react defensively, to protect himself. You won't get the truth out of him.

Find out the real reason. You may be surprised to find out that "you" may be part of the problem. Maybe Bob hasn't been properly trained, or he is under stress to "just get it done," at any cost. He might have been trained by an individual who did not value lockout procedures, and this attitude was adopted by Bob. You will find out that most of the time, a missing or inadequate step in a process is the root cause. Don't play the blame game: Go after the system cause and fix it. Recognition: Leaders know how to use it...

Leaders understand the power sincere recognition has in creating a successful relationship with their employees. Employees should be recognized for safety whenever their performance meets or exceeds expectations.

Safety behaviors you want to recognize

Three mandated behaviors all employees should be recognized for are:

• Complying with company safety rules.
• Reporting hazards in the workplace.
• Reporting injuries immediately.

• Making safety suggestions
• Involvement in the safety committee and other activities.

Safe behavior is professional behavior!

Each of these behaviors mark a worker as a professional. Complying with safety rules indicates a worker values safety, and that they have the personal discipline to follow important company policies. Reporting hazards in the workplace may save lives and substantially reduce accident costs. Reporting injuries, no matter how minor, as soon as possible is highly professional because it minimizes the negative impact on both the worker and the employer. A win-win situation. We will talk more about these behaviors in the next module.

What's the most common inappropriate behavior rewarded today?

You may have guessed it....the most common employee inappropriate behavior is withholding incident and injury reports. When companies set up reactive incentive programs that reward a group of workers for zero accidents over a given period, peer pressure to withhold injury reports may develop. This occurs because the injury may be seen by others as a threat to their own success. "Hey, we want our pizza party (or some other reward)...don't mess up my chances." You can tell when your company may have a reactive incentive program when the banners go up declaring "80 Bazillion Work-hours Without a Reported Injury!" However, you and I both know there are likely people at work who are really hurting, but will not report their injury because they want to be loyal co-workers who don't want to ruin it for everyone else.

The problem with this situation is that, yes, you do may reduce the number of OSHA 200 log entries, but each recorded injury is usually more severe. Consequently, you may have fewer reported injuries but higher workers compensation and indirect accident costs. So, in your effort to reduce costs through a reactive incentive program strategy...you actually increase costs.

Believe it or not...

In America today, some companies do not recognize supervisors for their safety performance. In unsupportive safety cultures, where the message to employees is, "work fast (not safe) to maintain job-security," it's possible that inappropriate supervisor safety behaviors are actually rewarded.

Inappropriate supervisor behaviors that may be rewarded

1. The supervisor does something wrong to or for the worker.

   
   Examples of this might include:

   • Trains or promotes unsafe procedures,
   • supplies inferior personal protective equipment,
   • provides unsafe materials, equipment or tools.

   
   

2. The supervisor fails to do something right to or for the worker.

   
   Examples of this might include:

   • Fails to provide safety training,
   • Fails to give recognition for reporting hazards, injuries, and complying with safety rules,
   • Fails to provide personal protective equipment,
   • Fails to hold employees accountable for their actions.

An example of an inappropriate supervisor level safety behavior would be allowing employees to work using unsafe practices, thereby ignoring company safety rules. This very inappropriate behavior sends very clear messages to employees that safety is not as important as production. These behaviors are more likely to occur when the supervisor is working in a "production-only" culture which creates a conflict between production and safety. The supervisor does not believe safety is part of the job... they think, "That's the job of the safety director." Messages sent in such a culture are:

• If you work fast, your job is secure.
• If you work safe, your job may be in jeopardy.

Leaders are better communicators

Improving working relationships through effective communications is both an science and an art. You can learn all the technical aspects of communications (the science), but only experience, with all it's successes and failures, will improve your communications skills to that of a true artist.

Five strategies to improve communications

1. Give lots of feedback
   • Appropriate behavior is reinforced.
   • Feedback is determined by the recipient, not the giver.
   • The giver is in control. If the supervisor does not give feedback, the employee will get it somewhere else.
   • People would rather receive negative feedback than no feedback.

   
   

2. Measure performance
   • Measure behaviors that the employee can control.
   • Measure activity, not results.
   • Comparing present activity/behavior with prior personal bests.
   • Tells you how and when to use feedback.

   
   

3. Define clear goals in writing
   • Written rules are easy to understand.
   • Do accomplish - changing behavior to meet goals.
   • Don't rationalize - changing goals midstream.

   
   

4. Establish concrete consistent rules
   • Don't change in the middle of the game.
   • Can better improve our performance with consistent rules.

   
   

5. Allow freedom to choose
   • Results in “I want to” thinking rather than “I have to” thinking.
   • Supervisors feel they must tell workers how, why, what to do.
   • Telling how without their asking for direction it drains initiative.

Last words

Because safety is critical to both the welfare of the employee and the company, only a tough caring leadership style, effectively adopted by management, will benefit the company safety and health culture in the long term.

Boss or Leader The boss drives his men; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says “I”; the leader “WE.” The boss fixes the blame; the leader fixes the system. The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how it is done. The boss says “go!”; the leader says “let’s go!” Author unknown Adapted from John Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You p. 5

Well, it's about time we get to the module quiz. Answer each of the questions below

Module Review Quiz

46. According to the text, effective supervisors see themselves as real leaders and are therefore __________ employees when it comes to safety: They __________ it!

a. fair to, insist on
b. tough on, insist on
c. easy on, encourage
d. tough on, encourage

47. As a leader, you want to send the right messages when you approach an employee who is violating a safety rule. Which of the messages below is likely the most effective?

a. You deserve what you're getting
b. I'm disciplining you because it's policy
c. I'm hard on you because I care about your safety
d. You must learn that I'm the boss around here

48. According to the text, all of the below are required behaviors that should receive positive recognition, except:

a. No injuries for the year
b. Complying with safety rules
c. Reporting injuries immediately
d. Reporting hazards

49. What's the most common inappropriate behavior rewarded today?

a. Working a year without an injury
b. Creating hazardous conditions
c. Failing to warn employees
d. Withholding injury reports

50. According to the text, which supervisor leadership behavior below is not considered appropriate.

a. Conducts retraining as a form of discipline
b. Supplies quality personal protective equipment
c. Provides safe materials, equipment or tools
d. Schedules reasonable workloads.

51. In the most effective safety leadership approach the supervisor is _________ because he or she ____________ about the ____________:

a. participatory, worries, compliance
b. tough, must communicate, rules
c. controlling, cares, his or her job
d. tough, cares, employee's safety

52. This leadership style is the result of a lack of trust in employees and is least effective in a safety culture:

a. tough caring
b. tough controlling
c. tough coercive
d. tough committed

53. A thug who sticks a gun in your back has ____________ but not leadership:

a. power
b. authority
c. influence
d. status

54. According to the text, leadership must __________________:

a. insist on employee loyalty
b. be assigned by the employer
c. be conferred by followers
d. establish a superior - subordinate relationship

55. A tough-caring leader organizes the workplace to best provide employees with the resources they need to be safe and achieve their own goals and objectives supporting organizational success.

a. True
b. False

Congratulations on completing this final module! If you haven't been working on the course assignments yet, now is the time to download the assignments page to draft your responses.

Once you've completed your draft responses, return to the course outline page, and click on the "Submit Your Coursework" link.

I hope the information within these eight modules as been helpful to you and I hope to see you participate in another course soon. When you're ready, submit your coursework, evaluation, and certificate information. I'll see you in a workshop or another internet course! If you have any questions or comments, just drop me an email at larry.fipps@state.or.us.