Executive Leadership
In the past 40 years I have met hundreds of CEO’s and Presidents of companies large and small. Each expressed their commitment to workplace safety and their desire to eliminate, or at least minimize, incidents and their related cost. Many have been effective in creating the conditions which ensure safety excellence some have not. Here we will look at some of the requisite actions the successful Executives have used to radically improve HSE performance. When we speak of “leadership” we are also speaking of “management”. To be effective you have to be both a leader and a manager.
One of our earliest clients had a CEO who took action and changed a middling performer into a best in class performer. This CEO would regularly visit the company’s various production sites and he liked to get “out and about” to talk with employees at all levels of the organization. On one such visit he met an employee named Russ who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. Russ and the CEO hit it off immediately as they discussed work, family and shared hobbies. Each time the CEO would visit this facility he would make sure to visit with Russ. About 2years after their first meeting the CEO was in his office at Headquarters and he received a call from Russ’s Site Manager who explained that Russ had been a terrible accident and that he had died. His friend’s death had a profound effect on the CEO who decided then and there that this would never happen again.
After he was assured everything possible was being done for Russ’s family and that the accident would be thoroughly investigated, he picked up his pen and wrote the outline of a manifesto on safety, which was for more than your typical one page HSE Policy Statement. It clearly articulated a set of principles and beliefs that would the decisions and actions of all employees moving forward. This outline manifesto was produced as a videotape (remember this was some time ago). The CEO ensured the tape was seen by everyone of the company’s 15,000 employees and with assurance from there group or facility leader that the CEO was fully committed to eliminating incidents and loss. Within 5 years this company went from a 3rd quartile performer to become the leader in their industrial segment. Here is a question for you: how much of this improvement can be attributed to the tape? I believe the manifesto was a good start, but without the actions necessary company’s processes and culture the video would have had only a minor and temporary impact on performance. I have seen this story; all be it in less dramatic and less tragic fashion, play out in hundreds of clients. Let explore some of the essential actions Russ’s CEO took to improve performance, process and culture.