What does leadership style have to do with building a strong safety culture? Is there a style that works better than others? Well, in our experience the short answer is, “yes”.

The idea of ‘transformational leadership’—the kind of leadership that makes change happen in an ongoing and seamless fashion—is not new, but it takes on a new meaning when we consider how it might effect the uptake of safety messages, and the outcomes across an entire organization.

Transformational leaders tend to be:

challenging: they provide new ideas to improve problem-solving
engaging: they help employees commit to change
inspiring: they set high standards and communicate a vision that resonates
influencing: they provide a sense of purpose and mission, and instill a sense of pride and optimism in reaching it
These four attributes are particularly relevant to ‘safety’ messages and behaviors because they turn the focus away from a top-down, hierarchical management style where safety is ‘mandatory’, and instead focus on the positive and collective outcomes of safety measures.

Relying on a culture where people wait to be told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, is not conducive to maintaining high safety standards over the long term—and this is the greatest motivation to change the way you lead your organization.

This post is an extract of Follow the Leader - Avoiding Mixed Messages in Safety Management.