Creating a SAFETY CULTURE through Felt Leadership
By: by Melodie A. Schweitzer, Ph.D.
United States and Canada Sales Manager, DuPont Safety Resources

If you look closely at companies with effective safety programs that reduce the high financial and human costs of injuries and fatalities, you will see many common factors. For example, accountability is practiced at all levels of the organization. Leading indicators are examined and measured. Communication is constantly being improved.

But when you see a company with a truly sustainable safety culture, another factor comes into play—one shared by every company that has ever made the list of the world’s safest companies. That factor is felt leadership. Felt Leadership Defined

What exactly is felt leadership? For DuPont, felt leadership is respect through action for the well-being of people. Felt leadership is a public proclamation of an organization’s commitment to caring about people. It is a building block in constructing trust and real-world relationships among employees, customers, shareholders and communities.

When felt leadership is demonstrated within an organization in the area of safety, a cultural transformation can and will occur. More importantly, that transformation is sustainable because it becomes part of the fabric of the company and the environment in which employees operate.

To be more specific, felt leadership:

  • Is easily observable


  • Clearly demonstrates belief in safety


  • Makes a positive impression on employees


  • Demonstrates a personal commitment


  • Pervades the organization


  • Affects all levels of employees


  • Involves all levels of employees


    • Felt Leadership as Part of a Safety Management System

    At DuPont, felt leadership is a critical part of a safety management system. The safety management system that we use and train hundreds of companies to incorporate is composed of 22 key elements.

    The leadership elements include strong management commitment, safety policies and principles, challenging goals and plans and high performance standards. Organizational or structural elements include implementation of safety performance management techniques and use progressive motivation. Operational elements include effective communications, continuous training and meaningful auditing and re-evaluation processes.

    These elements, and the system for realizing them, form the best practice reference model against which we assess an organization’s safety.




    Felt Leadership Starts at the Top

    Strong, visible management commitment is the basic component of a successful safety management system, and this commitment must exist at the top, permeating all levels of the organization. To achieve the best safety results, the leaders must believe that safety is as important as any other business parameters such as quality, productivity and cost. Top management must remember that example, posture, attitudes and behavior will be seen as its level of commitment with respect to safety themes. What they say, speak and write must be reflected in the things they do.

    At DuPont, our CEO is also the Chief Safety Officer. Last year he accepted the Green Cross for Safety Medal from the National Safety Council. During the ceremony and later to employees, he said that of all the awards DuPont has won, the Green Cross was at the top of his list in importance. He takes great pride in our safety record and communicates clearly to all employees that safety is part of the company’s DNA. This attitude, backed by action, often surprises new employees who are not familiar with felt leadership. It makes them feel good about working at DuPont and is an essential part of employee retention.

    Principles of Felt Leadership

    DuPont uses 10 felt leadership principles to guide our training and consulting clients on their path to felt leadership and safety greatness:

  • Be visible to the organization.


  • Be relentless about time with people.


  • Recognize your role as teacher/trainer.


  • Develop your own safety functioning skills and pass them along to the organization.


  • Behave and lead as you desire others to do.


  • Maintain a self-safety focus.


  • Confirm and reconfirm safety as the #1 value.


  • Place continuous emphasis and clarity around safety expectations.


  • Show a passion for ZERO injuries, illnesses, and incidents.


  • Celebrate and recognize ZERO successes.


    • Felt Leadership in Action

    Felt leadership goes far beyond talking about safety; it is about behavior. Here are several specific actions in which top management must be personally involved:

    High potential and serious incident investigations, including the review of reports to ensure appropriate communication to prevent recurrence.

    Reporting of all injuries and significant incidents within 24 hours with compiled data presented just like production and cost data.

    Monthly reviews related to observations

    Personal goals and objectives, as well as those of line management.

    A Felt Leadership Framework

    The DuPont Felt Leadership Framework defines the behavior range needed to influence people. Leaders set standards and expectations by communicating with their staff in 3 modes, as appropriate in different situations. While the ultimate goal is always injury prevention, the required leadership behavior can range from inspiration whenever possible, to agreement, or even enforcement, if necessary. The following chart depicts this framework:




    Felt Leadership and the Journey to Excellence

    Safety excellence is a journey. Injury reduction, and ultimately elimination, requires an organization from the CEO to the bottom of the organization to move from a reactive state to interdependency upon one another.

    At DuPont, we believe creating a great safety culture is an evolution not a revolution. To keep this journey top of mind every day requires felt leadership that has a clear vision and a clear understanding of where the company is on the safety continuum. The chart below illustrates this safety continuum:

    Conclusion

    At DuPont, we believe you get the level of safety performance and excellence that you, as a leader, personally demonstrate that you want. A great company is filled with leaders who believe deeply in safety. A great company is led by someone who personifies this commitment to making sure that employees go home safe to their families. A great company believes that the goal is always ZERO.

    The first step in felt leadership is acknowledging that safety is a core business value and integral to the very existence of the organization. This acknowledgement has a profound effect on employees; they begin to see that their own accountability can have a direct effect on their financial well-being as well as their physical well-being. They become an active part of building a safety culture.

    With felt leadership, we can help change the statistics so that 16 people will not die in a work-related accident each day. Together, we will be able to protect what really matters.

    For information about DuPont safety training products, services and consulting, visit www.safety.dupont.com.


    Conclusion
    At DuPont, we believe you get the level of safety performance and excellence that you, as a leader, personally demonstrate that you want. A great company is filled with leaders who believe deeply in safety. A great company is led by someone who personifies this commitment to making sure that employees go home safe to their families. A great company believes that the goal is always ZERO.

    The first step in felt leadership is acknowledging that safety is a core business value and integral to the very existence of the organization. This acknowledgement has a profound effect on employees; they begin to see that their own accountability can have a direct effect on their financial well-being as well as their physical well-being. They become an active part of building a safety culture.

    With felt leadership, we can help change the statistics so that 16 people will not die in a work-related accident each day. Together, we will be able to protect what really matters.

    For information about DuPont safety training products, services and consulting, visit www.safety.dupont.com.

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