Building Better Performance: Enhance your coaching strategy to improve motivation

A construction site embodies a symphony of progress in the cacophony of clanking steel and the persistent hum of equipment. Each worker, a crucial note in the symphony, brings expertise and dedication to create structures that stand the test of time.

But just like any composition, perfecting the harmony requires adept leadership, guidance, and a touch of finesse.

Enter my effective coaching strategy course (7-days by email) tailored for the construction workplace and beyond, a beacon illuminating the path to improved performance and motivation.

Navigating the labyrinth of construction sites demands not just technical skills but also effective coaching abilities. The ability to motivate, guide, and inspire workers to perform at their peak is a hallmark of a great leader.

My 7-day email course is the guiding star for Leaders, Managers, and Supervisors seeking to fine-tune their coaching prowess in this high-energy, demanding setting.

Imagine a construction supervisor facing a team struggling to meet project deadlines. Instead of reprimanding them, the supervisor employs techniques learned from undertaking this course, delving into constructive feedback and setting achievable milestones.

And the result?

A motivated team, united in purpose, surpassing expectations.

This email course transcends conventional training methods by integrating real-life scenarios and practical examples. It’s not just a theoretical discourse on coaching; it’s a toolkit brimming with strategies, tailored for the construction environment.

From conflict resolution amidst the chaos of heavy equipment to nurturing teamwork within diverse teams, this course equips leaders with the finesse to navigate complex workplace dynamics positively.

The coaching strategy course doesn’t just focus on remedying issues; it’s a proactive approach to cultivating a culture of growth and excellence. It empowers leaders to foster an environment where workers feel valued, inspired, and encouraged to contribute their best.

And the significance of effective coaching in a construction workplace cannot be overstated. It’s the linchpin that transforms a disparate group of workers into a cohesive, high-performing team.

This coaching strategy email course makes the evolution from good to exceptional leadership tangible.

Are you interested?

Are you ready to harness the power of coaching to elevate your construction team’s performance to new heights?

Tap here to learn more about my 7 day coaching strategy email course.

Inspiring Safety Excellence: Leading by Example – Mark’s Journey

Are you a business owner, manager or supervisor?

An inspiring case study follows how a Safety Manager named Mark successfully transformed his company’s safety performance through coaching, lasting behavioural change, and exemplary leadership.

Mark’s journey is a testament to the power of compassion, dedication, and the ripple effect of positive change in creating safer and healthier workplaces.

We have the challenge:

When Mark took on the role of Safety Manager at a construction company, he observed a significant gap between safety policies and actual safety practices. Incidents occurred, and workers seemed disconnected from safety protocols, leading to many near misses.

So help was on hand with several areas that made an improvement.

It all started with a coaching approach:

Mark already believed that meaningful change begins with understanding the workers’ perspectives and guiding them towards a shared vision of safety excellence.

Listening and Empathy: Mark learned to actively listen to the workforce’s concerns, fears, and suggestions without judgment. He showed genuine empathy, recognizing the value of their input and experiences.
Building Rapport: Mark fostered trust and rapport with the workforce through regular safety meetings, encouraging them to see him as a partner in their safety journey.

Doses of positive reinforcement and recognition:

Understanding the power of positive reinforcement helped Mark introduce several initiatives to recognise and reward safety-conscious behaviours.

Safety Champion Awards: Mark initiated a monthly Safety Champion Award, where individuals or teams were acknowledged and celebrated for outstanding safety contributions. This recognition uplifted the morale and motivated others to strive for excellence.
Safety Success Stories: Mark shared safety success stories from the workforce, highlighting instances where proactive safety measures prevented potential accidents through near-miss reporting. These stories inspired others to follow suit.

Moving forward with leadership development:

Mark firmly believed that leadership goes beyond titles and that everyone could be a safety leader in their own right.

Safety Leadership Training: Mark’s leadership development helped him prepare workshops focusing on effective communication, coaching techniques, and empowering his workforce to take ownership of safety.
Leading by Example: Mark consistently demonstrated his commitment to safety through his actions and decisions. He works closely with front-line workers and supervisors, leading safety initiatives from the front and setting an inspiring example for the entire business.

There were outstanding results:

Mark’s new skills in safety coaching, positive reinforcement techniques, and leadership development helped radically transform the company’s safety culture.

Reduced Incidents: Safety incidents significantly decreased, with near misses being reported and addressed promptly.
Increased Employee Engagement: Workers actively participated in safety initiatives, contributing innovative ideas and becoming safety advocates in their respective teams.
Improved Communication: A culture of open communication and trust flourished, enabling a seamless exchange of safety-related information.
Safety as a Core Value: Safety became ingrained as a core value within the business, transcending mere compliance and becoming an integral part of the company’s identity.

And that was only the beginning:

Mark’s journey as a Safety Manager exemplified the immense impact of coaching, lasting behavioural change, and leadership in creating a safer and more fulfilling work environment.

His dedication to understanding the workforce’s behaviour, recognising their efforts, and nurturing safety leadership at all levels inspired business owners to embrace safety excellence.

Learning from Mark’s journey and remembering that everyone can influence positive change and build a culture of safety that empowers and protects individuals at work. Even you.

Together, we can make a lasting impact and create workplaces where safety is a value and a way of life.

Do you want to learn to be like Mark and help inspire safety excellence?

Get in touch today. I’m ready to help.

The Power of Influence: How to make a positive impact in your workplace

Influencing a colleague at work can be challenging, but it’s an important skill to achieve common goals and build a positive working relationship.

Here are a few strategies you can use to influence your colleagues:

Communicate effectively: Ensure you are clear and concise when communicating with your colleagues. Use facts and data to support your ideas, and be open to feedback.
Build a relationship: Take the time to get to know your colleague on a personal basis. Find common ground and create opportunities to work together. Building trust and respect will make it easier to influence them.
Lead by example: Show your colleague you are committed and dedicated to your work. Be a positive role model and demonstrate the desired behaviour or attitude you want them to adopt.
Use persuasive language: Use persuasive language to present your ideas in a way that will be more likely to be accepted. For example, use words and phrases that emphasize the benefits of your proposal, such as “this will improve efficiency” or “this will increase productivity.”
Show the benefits: Show your colleague how your ideas will benefit them and the company. This will make it easier for them to see the value in what you are proposing.
Be flexible: Be willing to compromise and find a middle ground. Listen to your colleague’s concerns and find a solution that addresses both of your needs.
Seek support: Seek the support of others who may be able to influence your colleagues. For example, if you have a good relationship with your manager, they may be able to offer their support.

By using these strategies, you can effectively influence your colleagues and work towards achieving common goals. Always be respectful and professional in your interactions and open to feedback and new ideas.

If you want help and learn how to influence colleagues, don’t hesitate to contact us and ask about our safety coaching program.

How to approach employees not following the safety rules and improve safety culture

Let’s set the scene.

Senior company executives are concerned that their sites aren’t being managed effectively and want to know what can be done to improve safety performance and develop the organisational safety culture.

It’s a busy construction site in the middle of the city centre, and employees are using noisy tools and equipment that creates dust, working from Stepladders, Scaffolding Towers, and the PPE provided to protect their health and welfare is not being worn, and the site rules are not being followed properly – Get the picture? Okay.

My immediate question is, “Why and how are these employees allowed to work in this manner?”

And my next question is, “At what point did the employees decide to work at risk and what were their reasons for this behaviour?”

What works for me

When engaging with the employees, I would approach them, introduce who I was, and ask them to talk me through what they were doing. I would ask about their background (where the employee is from, family, hobbies, etc.).

Next, I would ask about how long they have been working for the company and how long they have been on the site. Then I would ask about their co-workers to get an insight from their point of view.

I would also ask about their supervisor/manager to understand their relationships. And after getting to know them a bit more. I’d ask the employees about “near miss reporting” and what that would mean to them.

Unless there was an imminent danger to an employee… I would not address the PPE issues or the site rules directly with an individual. I would end the conversations there with the entire team.

Onto the management

Next, I would have a private conversation with the site manager/supervisor to understand their knowledge of and relationship with the employees and their knowledge of the company policy, site rules and procedures.

Part of that conversation is to bring to the manager’s/supervisors’ attention the at-risk observations and employees’ concerns, discuss safety coaching techniques that can help improve the organisational safety culture – and provide them with a leadership development opportunity and strategy to engage the employees, correct the issues, and lead.

Finally, followed by a feedback session with the senior executives to discuss the findings and the solutions offered, how these would work in practice, encourage them to get involved and commit to a continuous safety improvement program.

Does that sound interesting to you?

When you’re ready to improve your organisational safety culture with coaching and strategy get in touch using the contact form below.

Coach, Don’t Manage: Working Together For A Healthier Safety Culture

If you’ve ever read my blog or seen one of my posts on LinkedIn, you’ll know that I firmly believe in coaching, not managing. But what do I actually mean by this?

I am a big advocate of honest, open communication in the workplace, no matter your role because I know it can make or break a business. This goes double for those responsible for safety, as communication can often be the difference between life or death.

Long gone are the days when it was fine for safety managers to walk around, clipboard in hand, shouting orders and telling people off for not wearing their hard hats. To have any impact, these managers should instead be asking themselves why that person wasn’t wearing their hard hat in the first place.

Coaching comes in; a more diplomatic, empathic way of doing things to get the best out of your team.

However, I know this management style doesn’t always come easily. The good news is that these skills can be learnt, and with an open mind and a willingness to change, safety managers can shift the way they do things and ensure a safer workplace.

Change things up

Sometimes, when things don’t seem to be working, a change in mindset is all it takes.

Empowering people to reach their conclusion, make their own decisions and take responsibility for their actions can be far more effective than telling them the answer.

Rather than drilling the ‘right’ answer into employees, managers should be focused on empowering others to make their own reasoned choices and make daily safety tasks subconscious.

This subverts the idea that employees should ‘do as they’re told and instead equips them with the ability to act independently and dynamically, freeing managers to take a more effective big picture approach rather than getting bogged down in the day-to-day.

Get to know your people.

I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t know who your people are, what makes them tick, and their ‘why’, your efforts will always be in vain.

Everyone is different and has their reasons for doing what they do, and something that works for one person will not work for another. This is why cut and paste safety briefings are so ineffective.

You will never learn anything about your team by locking yourself in an office and waiting for them to ask for help. Showing you care, engaging with colleagues, asking questions – not just about the workplace but about their lives too – and offering guidance is a far more effective strategy.

Take time to walk and talk with co-workers and keep them up to date with developments. It shows that you care about them as people can work miracles though it takes commitment and patience.

Your involvement and genuine interest in who they are will result in an engaged team that will want to work with you and take your advice on board. Building relationships is a superpower that not enough managers take advantage of.

Ensure your employees have the information they need

As a safety manager, it is your responsibility to make sure that colleagues have access to the latest safety regulations and procedures and the relevant training that will help them build a stronger safety culture together.

This sounds easier said than done, however. We all know how easy it is to throw a few PowerPoint presentations together and call it ‘safety training’. But unfortunately, such training is rarely put together with the worker in mind, and most workers will zone out before they take it in.

When putting together training materials, you should know who your audience is, their pain points, and which training method they’ll respond to best. Don’t overwhelm them with things they don’t need to know.

By giving employees relevant information and training so that they can put it into practice, you’ll be equipping them to respond to situations safely and dynamically, ultimately reducing the time and financial cost of micro-managing.

Show, don’t tell

Think about coaching this way: you are like a parent who needs to teach their children the life skills they need to figure out how to do things independently. Although it feels more straightforward and quicker to tell someone exactly what to do and how to do it, you’re just creating further problems down the line.

With this method, you’ll more than likely have to give specific instructions repeatedly. This is unpleasant and frustrating for everyone involved: no one likes being told what to do, especially repeatedly. They’ll tune out.

Micromanaging people discourages initiative, engagement, and taking responsibility for one’s actions.

Instead, here are a few things you should focus on:

First, listen to what your team says and learn their pain points. Listening will help you come up with more helpful solutions.
Ask open questions, don’t just assume things – if you need more information or clarification, don’t be afraid to ask. Similarly, some individuals find it difficult to express their concerns or might not know where to start in conversations. But, again, asking the right questions can lead to a more fruitful discussion.
Give feedback. This is essential for improvement as it helps things move along. Focus on constructive feedback.
Show empathy. When we struggle or make mistakes, being shown empathy helps us unblock, move on, and learn. Showing empathy will help guide your team out of the slump and closer to your desired goal.

Use mistakes as learning opportunities.

Everyone makes mistakes. The safety industry itself was built on learning from our mistakes, so it’s only fair to continue to use mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failings.

No one wants accidents to happen, but when they do, your goal is to understand why the incident happened and work with the people involved to prevent it from happening again.

As a safety manager, you need to accept that mistakes happen. However, you should also do your best to use them as learning opportunities rather than automatically resorting to discipline.

If the same person continues to make the same mistakes, there is probably a bigger issue. Perhaps the person does not fit into your safety culture. But if it’s the first time, you have a golden opportunity to look at the circumstances around the incident and work with the person to make sure it does not happen again.

As a safety coach, your goal should always be to work with people towards better safety practices, not against them.

Keep investing in yourself.

As with any skill, practice makes perfect, which goes for coaching. No one is born a brilliant coach, and there should be no shame in admitting that you need improvement.

Many managers might not even be aware that they lack skills, and some might even think they are great coaches when the reality is different. As coaches and leaders, we need to develop the kind of self-awareness that will help us improve.

Checking in from time to time, asking for feedback from teams or direct managers, and keeping up with training needs is paramount for building a successful career that helps people create safer workplaces.

Get advice from the experts.

I’ve spent the last two decades working closely with safety managers and supervisors to teach them the skills they need to help develop their people and get the best out of them, ultimately ensuring a safer environment.

If you think you might benefit from learning the skills to be more coach-like, get in touch.

Set your sights higher with safety leadership coaching

Safety and risk management at work is easy.

When you spot someone flouting the rules, all you need to do is pull them aside, show them your laminated safety posters on the office corkboard, give them a telling off, then send them on their way with a newfound passion for safety.

Except that’s not really how it works at all.

Let’s be honest: no one has ever changed how they do things because someone told them off. Very rarely has someone skipped out of a meeting with the health and safety boss inspired to change their ways.

Just telling the worker what they did wrong isn’t going to do much because, in reality, they already knew what they were doing was wrong. They decided to do things their way for a reason, and it’s your job to figure out what that reason was.

The human factor, which I’ve discussed previously, is one of the most unpredictable parts of risk management on construction sites and beyond. It’s the health and safety manager’s responsibility to identify the triggers for rule-breaking and tackle them at the source.

Telling v motivating

No one wants to be told what to do. Very few people respond well to orders, especially when they’re being reprimanded.

Sometimes, pulling an employee up on something is an unfortunate necessity. If their actions put others at risk, or it isn’t the first time they’ve flouted the rules, then discipline is important.

However, if you find that all you’re ever doing is challenging people for breaking the rules, or it’s your go-to tool for enforcing safety policies, then you might be coming at things from the wrong angle. Too much modern health and safety is built around tackling safety behaviours after issues appear, rather than encouraging the right behaviours and skills from the start.

Ultimately, people won’t do something (or won’t stop doing something they want to do) without a good reason. So how do you find the right motivation?

The right motivation

To find this motivation, you need to go above and beyond the standard ‘person with a clipboard’ persona. It would be best if you moved away from the traditional compliance-based approach (‘stop doing this because the law says so’) to identifying motivational triggers and apply a coach-like approach instead.

There’s no one size-fix-all for creating a truly effective safety culture in the workplace, especially when it comes to motivation. Every person’s motivational ‘sweet spot’ will be different, and different people need different triggers.

To find and encourage the motivators on your site, you could look beyond what isn’t working and look at what is. Why? Can you repeat it?

Make sure you’re reviewing people as individuals rather than a single monolith. Then, you can provide real supportive feedback on what they’re doing well and what they could do better. I’ve blogged previously about how to properly motivate staff to want to be safer.

These strategies and others will allow you to coach your team more into putting thought into health and safety. However, to see real changes in your staff, you might want to consider setting your sights slightly higher.

Focus on leadership

One of the worst mistakes a health and safety manager can make is assuming that only the workers on the ground need to be thinking about safety.

From my experience in the safety industry, I know first-hand that some of the most powerful changes come from above. I’m not talking about managers coming to the site and throwing their weight around. I’m talking about real changes from the top down.

For a business to have a truly effective safety culture, everyone needs to play a part: this includes managers and directors. When a company’s leadership shows real support for safety in their messaging and behaviours, it cascades down to the rest of the business. How can directors expect their employees to care about health and safety if they don’t?

When management shows a real, sincere commitment to safety, it encourages others to do the same. Workers do what managers do.

As the health and safety professional in your business, you should be putting at least as much effort into targeting the safety behaviours of management and leadership as you are into workers’ behaviour.

By implementing a safety leadership coaching strategy, you might soon find that you’re fighting fewer fires, and employees are more receptive to your risk management policies.

Hopefully, you can work directly with a leadership team, letting them know about the effect their sincere input could have on the business’s safety culture. However, you may have a tougher job if your business doesn’t put much stock in psychological safety.

For the most part, however, leaders will usually want to do what they can to improve safety when they know the benefits. A stronger, more well-rounded safety culture doesn’t just mean safer workers, but fewer potential legal issues and a much lower impact on efficiency, saving time and money. A safer business is a healthier business.

There are multiple ways to get leadership involved in safety. Directors should be sitting in on important safety briefings, taking notes, and showing a real interest in improving safety and wellbeing across the business.

Leaders are often unaware of how their leadership skills, communications, behaviour and even their body language can affect employees’ outlook, especially when it comes to safety. No one wants to work for a company that doesn’t care. This is why safety leadership coaching can be so powerful.

Via proper leadership coaching, management and supervisors can identify their own safety weaknesses. They can also learn the real benefits of better company culture, encouraging them to take an active role. Being more curious and asking questions. Once a leadership team is seen to be taking a sincere interest in safety, those throughout the company have a reason to do the same.

Bring in the big guns

I know first-hand how difficult it can sometimes be to instigate change from within a business. This is even more obvious when it comes to working with leaders: directors and management have a thousand and one things to deal with, and it can be hard to get face time to tackle the issues. Sometimes, you can be too close to the problem, and your pleas fall on deaf ears.

This is where external safety leadership coaching can make a big difference. By bringing in a third party, you can schedule coaching sessions in advance, creating a sense of obligation, and making it more difficult to avoid the issue.

Third-party safety consultants with a coach-like approach such as myself can also bring a fresh perspective, helping you and those in positions of leadership to identify issues with a safety culture that you may not have even thought about.

If there’s a deadlock when it comes to safety leadership, an unbiased consultant can help break it and get everyone back to the important work of improving safety.

Getting leaders involved in safety can be one of the most powerful tools in a safety and risk manager’s arsenal. When directors and managers show real willing and involvement in safety at work, it inspires others to do the same, allowing them to internalise the teachings and creating a sustainable safety culture.

I have two decades of experience in safety and risk management which includes coaching managers and supervisors to become good leaders. If you are curious about how I can help you, send me a message on 07814 203 977, or use the contact form below or if you prefer book a 15-minute virtual call. to talk things through.