One of the keys to success that is talked about in many circles is to read and learn – a lot. The amount of success can be correlated to the voraciousness of reading non-fiction books, whether they are historical, biographical, self-improvement, financial or business books.
In safety, having leadership is a secret to success. The workforce, left to its own devices, will often be too chaotic and inconsistent to regulate itself in safety. Often what is more efficient to do won’t be the safest thing to do. Leadership is vital to guide the ship on the right course, which likely includes a culture of safety that is woven into the fabric of the business and is not dependent on the individuals in the business.
So if reading books is one step to success, and leadership is a way to success in safety, then why not read a book about safety leadership? Sounds like the best of both worlds!
James Schultz and Brian Fielkow recently wrote a book called Leading People Safely: How to Win on the Business Battlefield, which is about the principles of safety leadership and gives practical guidance and tools to develop leadership skills that will be necessary to implement a culture of safety in any organization.
How important is leadership is safety? ASSE holds an annual Leadership Conference, as one example, and leadership sessions are featured at SeminarFest and other annual conferences throughout the year. But talking about leadership and what it is doesn’t make it just happen; it comes from introducing practical steps and encouraging safety officers to take those steps in their workplace to develop leadership in safety and to make safety a central tenet of the business.
Tom Butler, a safety professional in San Pedro, Calif., wrote a quick review of the book in a recent issue of Professional Safety magazine to encourage magazine readers to pick up the book and read it to help fortify leadership needs and skills in a workplace. Butler called the book “an informative read” because it includes practical steps to improve leadership ability, engage managers and colleagues, incorporate best safety practices and reveal ways to overcome challenges and obstacles to implement positive safety culture in the workplace.
The authors of the book are longtime business executives who have more than 70 combined years of experience with safety culture and developing safety culture in various organizations, so they have seen most everything out there and have tried-and-true steps and techniques to implement safety not just as a concept but as a way of life in an organization.
If you are interested, look up “Leading People Safely” by Schultz and Fielkow, published in 2016 by Northloop Books in Minneapolis, Minn.