It is often said that you need to be a ‘learning machine’ to truly succeed in many different aspects of business life. Leadership in health and safety is often thought of as one of the biggest factors that can improve the safety of a workplace, especially through transformational leaders. Here are some of the key skills that any great safety leader should possess if they are managing a large team.
- In-depth knowledge of the field that they are working in
Whilst several qualities are key when it comes to safety leadership, few are more important than having the relevant knowledge or experience of the field that you are leading in. As a part of Employee training, you would have to ensure that adequate knowledge on the different work processes is provided, through different forms of media that you find most suitable. This is in particular regard to the field of health and safety where good leadership can often be the difference between life and death. The technicalities that you know of may not be counted as common knowledge either, so you would have to deliver it in a systematic manner to your workers as well.
- The ability to empathize with the workforce
In many fields, empathy is often thought of as an undervalued skill. If you can take your employee’s perspective when attempting to lead them towards whatever health and safety objective you are striving for, this will help you work out what their motivations are. From this, you will be better able to make sure everyone is pulling in the right direction.
- Maintain the highest level of safety
Safety leaders can ensure that they comply with the highest standards by implementing proper protocols and procedures, conducting regular audits, training employees, and providing employees with protective clothing (made up of high-quality workwear fabric). Safety leaders may also need to be proactive in identifying potential hazards and taking steps to mitigate them.
- Safety leaders have good communication skills
Having good empathy is great but somewhat useless if you do not have the right communication skills to go with it. Make sure you know how to communicate with your staff on their level and in a non-aggressive way. This will help you to manage your staff and it can be the difference between safety compliance measured that is performed by an employee and one that is overlooked.
- Safety leaders empower workers through training
If you can communicate well to your employers, the next step is to start to truly empower them to be safety leaders in their own right. This can be done through good transformational leadership and the right training. Workers who feel empowered at work will naturally perform more safety positive actions and take ownership of their management of health and safety.
How can I encourage my staff to be safety leaders themselves?
Transformational leadership is about more than just making sure staff members are following current safety procedures; it is also about giving them to power to take action on safety issues that are not currently dealt with.
This can be done through educating your staff on the latest thinking and research in the field of health and safety and creating an open culture in which employees feel comfortable speaking up if they notice an issue.
