leadership | Safety Excellence For Business

Leaders: You Must Understand This in the Workplace!

September 12, 2022 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

I’m presenting at the New York State SHRM Conference in Verona, New York, this coming weekend.

That is the state-wide gathering of Human Resource Managers – it is good to be able to return to this big conference (post covid). I’ve also spoken in the near past at Safety Professional gatherings around the fact that it matters what Leaders do or don’t do!

Whether we are HR Managers, Safety Leaders, CEO’s, Supervisors or Managers – the same message applies.

Notes:

I am amazed by how few Safety Leaders understand that the Cultural side of Workplace Violence (which can negatively manifest into bullying, harassment, incivilities, and dysfunction) is part of Safety – having a workplace free of intimidation and abuse is how we eliminate psychological and emotional injuries and incidents.
I am concerned how many Human Resource managers (many of them siloed into various positions, like “I only deal with Benefits; or I only deal with Talent Recruitment; or I only deal with onboarding”), have shunned their responsibility for behavioral dysfunctions within the larger organization. Yet, they do consider themselves Leaders.

Consider this: A Supervisor/Leader walks by an obvious Safety hazard/condition in the workplace, that if not corrected, will likely lead to a physical injury to someone. When that Leader walks by, ignoring it, he/she is telegraphing to the organization what their standard is – it doesn’t matter enough to him/her to take action – it’s okay if someone gets physically hurt.

Similarly, when a supervisor or leader observes or overhears harassment or bullying or disrespectful things being said, or gestures being made, and does nothing to stop it – he or she, again, conveys to the organization that it doesn’t matter – in other words, it is okay if someone is being hurt emotionally / psychologically – in effect, the Supervisor by not stepping up, allows the disrespectful dysfunctional behaviors – and because they go unchecked, these behaviors continue.

This begs the question: Why are Leaders timid? Afraid to step in? Lack the managerial courage? Is it lack of skill? Lack of will? Fearful of how they may be seen? Afraid of not being liked? Afraid of not being supported? There is always something underneath that every leader needs to understand about their own Leadership. How about YOU?

At Nagele and Knowles, we teach Leaders HOW TO LEAD. It is about stepping up, stepping in, and staying in the heat. The heat is hottest in the nosecone of the rocket. Do you need to learn more about handling conflict, engaging, and being better at confrontation skills?

Call us at 716-622-6467. We teach Leaders how to Lead effectively.

Building a Stronger, More Sustainable, Safer Business

August 10, 2022 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to talk with the owner of a small mechanical contracting business.

He is a fine man with a very difficult, complex task facing him every day. He has all the burdens of the financial, business, and safety sides of the business on his shoulders. He markets, works with the bank and his accountant to pay the people, the bills and the taxes to keep everything going with no one getting hurt. He seems to be doing quite well with this, but it is a difficult scramble.

He also needs to be in conversation with the local Craft Union Halls to ensure a supply of trained mechanics, brick layers, and pipe fitters. He has a base workforce of about 10 people and augments this with people from the Union Hall as the level of the business projects fluctuate. But the Unions are having trouble getting people to train so the supply of trained craft people is limited, and this causes a lot more strain on him and the business.

He does residential and commercial work of all varieties and complexity, so the people need to know what they are doing and do it safely. As various jobs come up, he has to send the right craft people, with the right skill levels to staff the jobs. He has a central office, a large storage area, and a truck garage, but the work is all scattered across a wide geographical area, so he is highly dependent on the people doing the jobs well and safely.

Since some of the newer craft people from the Union Halls are not highly skilled, he also has to do specialized training to bring them up to speed. But discipline is lax; some people come to work late, holding up jobs, while others spend their time on their cell phones rather than paying attention to training videos. This is highly frustrating.

With the wide-spread use of cocaine and other drugs, he is also constantly worrying if the people are mentally ready to do their work. He tries to visually assess the people, but it is very hard to judge drug impairment, so this is a constant worry.

His mind is constantly racing.

Are they setting up the work area so it will be safe? If they are going to use a high-lift, are they setting it up properly with the out riggers properly positioned? Are they lifting properly so they do not hurt their backs? Do they have the right glasses, gloves and other protective equipment and are they using them? Are they looking out for each other? The questions race through his mind.

So here is a good man with a vast array of priorities trying to cover and manage it all. I was impressed at how well he actually was doing.

We then talked together about how he manages and leads all this. Mostly, his approach is to tell the people what to do and remind them to work safely. Several times a week he goes out to see the various jobs and check on their safety. But mostly the people work alone or in pairs and self-manage themselves. He hopes they are always working safely but is concerned that too many of the people may be cutting corners. Several years ago, they did have a very serious injury so that is heavy on his mind.

As we talked, it became apparent that he and his 10-person core team had to change their working relationship from one of top-down orders to one with everyone pulling together so the business can really succeed, be sustainable and no one gets hurt. This core group would all share the leadership responsibilities and ensure that everyone was working at the highest level of safety and fulfilling the demands of their particular jobs.

A Half-Day Workshop

We talked together about bringing them all together for a half-day workshop to talk together about doing things differently. We’ll begin to build the trust they need, to share the information about the need to keep the business profitable, to improve customer relations, to work safely, and keep paying good wages. We would draw out good ideas and insights from everyone and build on these to get better. The collective intelligence of the whole group will rise as we work together in this workshop.

We decided to use the Cycle of Intelligence tool to hold and guide the workshop conversation. We’ll begin with the question “How can we build a stronger, safer business together?” As we talk together, everyone will get a better view of what is going on and see the whole business as well as the parts and the interaction of the parts.

Trust will build and together they’ll develop a plan to move forward transforming the business and safety to much higher levels of performance. The key parts of the conversation will be written onto a big wall chart as we go so everyone can see it and keep track of what they see and decide they need to do. This chart will be used as their strategic plan and guide going forward.

I have done many workshops using the Cycle of Intelligence, and improvement always emerges as long as the people are willing to talk together, listen and learn. This is going to be a fun project to see develop. I’ll keep you posted.

If you find that your business can relate to this situation, give me a call at 716-622-6467.

Filed Under: Safety for Business, Safety Leadership Tagged With: accidents in the workplace, Cycle of Intelligence, higher levels of safety performance, leadership, leadership responsibilities, strategic planning for safety, sustainable business, working relationships for safety, working safely, workplace safety

Caring for Each Other: How to Hold Those Meaningful Conversations!

August 12, 2016 By Richard N. Knowles Leave a Comment

In my June 29th presentation at the American Society of Safety Engineers 2016 Professional Development Conference, I discussed the fact that one of the best ways for the safety professional attending the talk to help to improve the safety performance in their workplaces was to show the people that they cared about them and to enable them to make decisions about their specific work. I want to elaborate on these ideas in this newsletter. This is not just for the safety professional. This is for every team leader, supervisor, and workgroup leader. Going into your workplaces and opening up the conversations is a journey; each time you do this it gets easier and more effective. (Caring, Understanding and Openness!)

Meaningful caring to me means that we treat each other with respect as adults.

As managers and supervisors we get out of our offices and go into the workplace.
Help people to see that it is okay to talk together and be open with each other.
We sit down together in their work place and have a cup of coffee together. We are not in a hurry just trying to make some specified number of contacts.
We share the truth together as best we can knowing that today’s truth may be different than the truth for tomorrow because the world keeps changing, and reminding them that you’ll be back tomorrow if things have changed.
We ask about how we each are doing. How is the day going? What good things are happening? What have we learned today or over the last few days? We listen to what we each are saying.
We try to build on each other’s good ideas.
We talk about how the business is doing? We talk about the contributions we are making to the success of the business.
We discuss problems together sharing our viewpoints and seeking possible solutions. If people ask you questions which you can’t answer, tell them you do not know and will get back to them…then do it. We pay attention to the dynamics and do not over stay our visit.

As we get to know each other better we begin to explore what is really going on around here.

Are we really doing what we say we want to be doing?
How can our communications get clearer and better?
What is the rumor mill saying? Talk together about the rumors and clear them up.
Do you see better ways to go after the problems around here than we are doing? What are we missing?
Are there hidden elephants we need to be addressing?
When we have made a mistake, we own up to it and say we are sorry. We ask for their help.
Are there better ways that you see to get your job done well?
What information do you need to get your work done more effectively? Let’s talk some more about your good ideas and see if you can make some improvements.
What is going on over and over that is really bugging you?

As you get to know the people even better, there will be opportunities to inquire about how the family is doing. You can ask…how the kids are doing in their sports and schoolwork, ask if there are things that you can be doing to help them, ask how everyone’s health is, etc. You need to use good judgment as you get into these personal conversations and not push things too far into their privacy, by accident.

These are the kinds of conversations that most of us would like to have with our own managers. How many times have you wanted to talk together with them to share an idea or problem and have not had a chance to do it? How often do you get to talk with your boss’s boss? What is important and good for you in talking with your boss is about the same as for you talking with the people in your organization about the things that are important to them.

We are all partners in making our workplaces to become healthier, physically and mentally, and helping the people in them to be the best they can be. This is a key element of Partner-Centered Safety!

Filed Under: Safety for Business Tagged With: injury-free workplaces, leadership, safety