Master how to sell your safety ideas and inspire action

Safety professionals, business leaders and managers, lend me your ears!

Today, I want to share some guidance on how to master the art of influence and persuasion and sell your safety ideas in the workplace.

As safety advocates, our success lies not only in our technical expertise but also in our ability to sell our ideas and convince others to embrace safety initiatives.

Let’s dive in and explore practical strategies that can inspire action and create a safer work environment.

Understand your audience:

You must understand your audience’s perspectives, needs, and motivations to influence and persuade effectively. Put yourself in their shoes, empathise with their concerns, and tailor your approach accordingly.

Sell what’s in it for them.

Example: If you’re presenting a safety initiative to the operations team, focus on how it will increase efficiency, reduce downtime, and enhance productivity, as these are their primary concerns.

Build relationships:

Establishing strong relationships based on trust and respect is essential for influencing others. Invest time in building connections with key stakeholders, including supervisors, workers, and management. Show genuine interest in their ideas, concerns, and goals.

Example: Engage in casual conversations, attend team meetings, and actively listen to their experiences. Building rapport strengthens your credibility and makes it easier to sell your ideas.

Communicate with clarity and confidence:

Effective communication is vital when selling your safety ideas. Clearly articulate the benefits, risks, and steps required to implement your safety initiatives. Be confident and passionate about your message.

Example: Use simple, relatable language, avoid jargon, and support your points with real-world examples. Paint a vivid picture of your idea’s positive impact on safety and the organisation’s overall success.

Tell compelling stories:

Stories have a powerful impact on human emotions and can make your ideas more memorable. Craft stories highlighting the consequences of unsafe practices and the positive outcomes that can be achieved through your proposed changes.

Example: Share stories of real incidents that occurred and explain how your safety idea could have prevented them. Also, share success stories of other companies or teams that embraced similar safety initiatives and experienced significant improvements.

Use social proof:

People are more likely to be influenced by the actions of others. Use social proof by highlighting success stories, testimonials, or case studies demonstrating positive outcomes of your safety ideas. This provides evidence that others have embraced similar changes and reaped the benefits.

Example: Share statistics or testimonials from workers who have witnessed the positive impact of implementing safety initiatives. Show how their peers’ support and commitment have improved safety and overall performance.

Appeal to values and emotions:

Connect with the values and emotions of your audience. Frame your safety ideas to resonate with their personal beliefs, aspirations, and sense of responsibility.

Example: Emphasise how your safety initiative aligns with the company’s values of prioritising employee well-being, creating a positive work environment, and being responsible.

Be a catalyst for change

Influence and persuasion are powerful tools for safety professionals to effect positive change in the workplace. By understanding your audience, building relationships, communicating effectively, and appealing to values and emotions, you can inspire action and convince others to embrace your safety ideas.

Remember, your passion for safety is contagious, and through your persuasive efforts, you can create a culture where everyone is committed to prioritising safety. It’s down to you to embrace the art of influence and persuasion and become a catalyst for change, making your workplace safer and more fulfilling for all.

And in the words of Columbo, “Just one more thing”

Before we wrap things up, let’s pause for a moment and reflect on everything we’ve covered. We’ve journeyed through the ups and downs of this topic, exploring its nuances and gaining valuable insights along the way. But now, my friend, it’s time to take action.

I want you to ask yourself: What will you do with your newfound knowledge?

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.

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.

Five Tips For More Engaging Safety Briefings

Briefings are crucial for creating an effective culture of safety and communicating the important messages colleagues need to hear.

Without proper communication, people can fall out of the loop with procedures, rules, and updates, which can, in turn, put them at risk of serious injury or worse. When people are on the same page, you expect things to run smoothly.

But safety briefings have a reputation for being, well, dull. When most people who aren’t safety managers hear those words, they immediately think of endless Powerpoints and the dreaded flip chart.

I’ve worked with safety managers for over 20 years. In that time, I’ve noticed that very skilled and knowledgeable individuals often struggle when it comes to communicating that knowledge to others. This is understandable, as these are two different things, and not all of us are born with the gift of the gab.

Unfortunately, the bottom line is that if people aren’t switched on and engaged when you’re talking about something important, they’re unlikely to take it in – even if it might save their life. They have to be hooked onto the topic instantly, and people will ask themselves, “what’s in it for me?” WIIFM, if it’s nothing, you’ve lost them before starting.

Thankfully, there are a few ways safety managers can change things up to communicate better, get people engaged with safety briefings, and ultimately ensure a safer workplace.

Tip 1: Know your audience

Although some might disagree, I believe that safety managers should be salespeople too. It’s no good knowing what needs to be done if you can’t communicate it in a way your audience can understand and buy into.

One of the most important things any salesman needs is understanding their audience. They can’t use the same pitch for everyone, as the needs and experiences of their client will depend on who they are and where they come from.

The same goes for health and safety. You will need to amend your ‘pitch’ depending on whether you present to leadership, middle management, or employees.

For example, briefings with those at the coalface will generally focus on daily exposure to risks, how to avoid them, and why they must follow procedures. Conversely, briefings with leadership should be more general and consider how changes to policy might impact the long-term running of the business.

Those in different business areas have other priorities, and your briefings need to reflect this.

Understanding the people you work with is integral to health and safety. You need to ensure you see colleagues as people, not statistics, as only then can you begin to communicate with them in a way that will be effective.

Tip 2: Minimise the Powerpoints

It can be easy to get carried away with PowerPoint. Unfortunately, too many safety managers pack everything into their presentations, resulting in verbatim repetition from slides that are far too busy, boring most people to the brink of sleep.

Powerpoints shouldn’t be your entire briefing. Instead, they should support your briefing with essential information, allowing you to expand on the subjects more engagingly.

According to Guy Kawasaki, former Apple founder and Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Powerpoints should adhere to a 10/20/30 rule. That means:

no more than 10 slides
no longer than 20 minutes total
and, perhaps most importantly, presentations should not contain text in a font size smaller than 30 points.

This ensures that you don’t try to cram too much information into the presentation itself, avoiding “death by Powerpoint”. Any information that can’t be included in your presentation should be given as a handout afterwards.

Tip 3: Watch your body language

We’re not all born presenters, and that’s fine, but one thing that it pays dividends to focus on is your body language.

Body language can be both conscious and subconscious and influences our interactions daily and during presentations more than you’d think. For example, the wrong body language, such as slouching, lack of eye contact, or crossed arms, can negatively influence your audience and turn them off.

Conversely, confident body language such as better posture and eye contact will engage people.

Body language is a huge topic, but you can start by paying attention to your physical actions during your next briefing and keeping an eye on how your audience responds to you. You might be surprised.

Tip 4: Get people involved

No one likes being talked at, and if your briefings consist of you standing at the front, droning on for an hour, you’ve already lost the battle.

Instead, you should make an effort to get people involved in the briefing. This can be small, such as getting people to guess answers or even using role-plays to illustrate new procedures. If people expect to be called on, they’ll be more engaged.

A very effective way to do this is to invite opinions about current safety processes as a sort of forum. This gives people a chance to share their thoughts and will, in turn, show that your business values their input. In addition, if people are involved in implementing rules from the start, they’re more likely to follow them.

Listening is a valuable weapon in any safety manager’s arsenal, and you should make the most of it.

Tip 5: Keep things moving

According to a study by Skipton Building Society, the average person has an attention span of just 14 minutes. However, in work meetings, they generally zone out after 13 minutes, like safety briefings.

Leading public speaking consultants and media training company Throughline Group suggest that a good presenter can hold an audience’s attention on a relevant topic for a paltry seven to 10 minutes. How long was your last presentation?

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should cut your briefings down to a few minutes, just that you should be conscious of attention spans and ensure regular transitions and breaks to keep your audience engaged. You can change things by moving to a new position, asking the audience a question, or just shifting to a new topic.

Remember that even the most talented presenters can only keep things moving for so long, so try not to spin the plates forever and drag your briefing out. Remember, people have other priorities, and if they feel that you’re taking up an unreasonable amount of their time, you’ll lose them.

These skills can be learned.

Many people assume being good at engaging others is something you’re born with. While it’s true people can be taken with a magnetic personality, there are plenty of tips and tricks you can employ to communicate more effectively in safety briefings and beyond.

My safety coaching package includes modules on how to communicate safety to engage others and, more importantly, keep them engaged, whether you’re talking to employees or employers. So if that sounds like something that might be beneficial to you, get in touch.

Six step approach to safety coaching

Have you considered safety coaching when employees don’t follow the rules? It’s quicker than issuing disciplinary action, which is a managers first thought. Regular safety coaching can also help maintain employees safe working behaviour when you observe it being done.

As I tweeted the other day safety coaching does not take long.

Supervisors coaching workers does not take long:

Safety coaching is a short conversation that takes 2-3 minutes of your time.

Spend time coaching on safety by talking to 5 workers each day, and it will take you 15-20 mins.

That’s not too much to ask when focusing on safety.

— david cant ~ CFIOSH (@davidgcant) August 2, 2021

A six-step approach to safety coaching you can try yourself

Step 1. Coach in the moment

Step 2. You go up to the worker

Step 3. State the behaviour you observed

Step 4. Ask open-ended questions. What? How? Why?

Step 5. Have a short conversation and listen

Step 6. End on a positive note and with praise

How a conversation can play out

Picture Bob working on a lathe.

Safety Supervisor – “Hey Bob, I noticed you were wearing eye protection while turning that component. What’s it like wearing safety glasses?”

Bob – “Absolutely fine. It’s not a problem.”

Safety Supervisor – “And you still followed the safe working procedure. So tell me, why is wearing eye protection so important?’

Bob – “Because if I didn’t wear the glasses, I might risk suffering an eye injury from a flying object.”

Safety Supervisor – “That’s great, Bob. Keep it up. You set a good example for others. Have a great day.”

Safety coaching takes minutes.

Having conversations to remind employees of the Why? helps maintain safe working behaviour and good habits.

I can help. If you are curious about how I can help you with safety coaching techniques, 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.