safety culture

WHAT MAKES YOU SUCCESSFUL IN SELLING SAFETY

/ Denis Baker / Leave a comment

“Those who really want success always work till they get it”

DENIS BAKER

Whether you like it or not, your ability to sell your suggestions, ideas, and programs determines your success and the health and safety of your workforce. The good news is that you don’t have to be a natural-born salesperson to succeed in the world of safety. However, if you have a passion for people’s safety and best interests at heart (with an eye for reducing risks), you already have the makings of a great salesperson.

Selling safety is not something they do to people, but as a collaborative process between themselves and the workforce and leadership. Great salespeople can influence the person or group and persuade them to adhere to what is right. Good sales skills can mean fewer injuries and a strong culture.

FIVE QUALITIES EXHIBITED BY SUCCESSFUL SAFETY PROFESSIONALS

Regardless if you’re trying to improve your skills or coach or mentor your team, I recommend looking for these characteristics. You will increase your sales skills by cultivating these five qualities.

1. They are Competitive – Effective Safety Professionals who successfully sell safety don’t want to sit at a desk, staring at their computer for 8 hours, and then go home. They live and breathe, selling safety to the workforce in person; it’s almost like a high. They’re often energized by the idea of exceeding company or facility goals and being rated the best in the organization.

Good salespeople seek out chances to improve performance because that makes them better. I say this often…………….” You can’t change a culture from behind a desk.”

2. They Listen – When you think about “sales,” you might picture a slick-haired, smooth-talking car salesman. He won’t take no for an answer, and he’s just running his mouth without listening to the customer. This stereotype is for bad salespeople. Good Safety Professionals shouldn’t treat employee interactions as a chance to pontificate what they expect. Instead, you need to ask questions and listen to their answers, suggestions, or anything else they want to discuss. You must approach these as honest conversations. You should still lead the path, but you need to allow responses. When you listen to the employee or leadership pain points, you can better align their needs with your directions.

3. They are Robust – I have spent much time researching and learning how to be a successful salesperson throughout my safety career. However, I have learned that selling safety can be a tough gig. The best salespeople are robust people. They are persistent in their approach. If you can’t sell it the first time, you reflect, analyze, and approach it differently 2, 3, or even 10 times. But, if it is correct, you never back down! However, let failure motivate you to succeed.

4. They are Confident – Confidence is the currency of selling safety. Selling your confidence means people see you as in control and informative — even if they are not fully onboard. It’s all about how you present yourself to people. Does your voice tremble when you talk, or is it engaging and bright? Even if you don’t feel confident, presenting yourself that way will bring trust and security to your pitch. At the same time, your tone and body language matter, your choice of words significantly impact your message.

5. They are Honest – Selling safety is not about manipulating people into buying into your direction. That’s not only dishonest and wrong, but it’s also an awful approach and will result in disrespect and loss of trust. Safety Professionals should be honest and transparent from the start and only want to sell something to improve safety. Be honest with the workforce about what you commit to. Can you meet their needs? Be realistic; if your team can’t meet their expectations, it will only frustrate them. And yes, that means being honest — even if being honest means losing a sale.

“Great Safety Professionals are relationship builders who provide value and respect to their workforce so they go home every day.”

DENIS BAKER

SO WHAT, NOW WHAT

Look, you don’t have to be a natural-born salesperson to be a successful safety professional. I encourage you to cultivate these five qualities to increase your sales skills. But remember, this isn’t something that happens overnight. Practice and grow your sales skills over time. Approach them like you would any other skill, and you will see an increase in success.

5 STAGES OF CULTURE CHANGE, The Beginning of Coaching for Safe Behaviors

/ Denis Baker / Leave a comment

“We can change culture, If we change behavior. If we change behavior, we eliminate incidents”

Denis Baker

We are all in a position of power—a manager, a team leader, or someone who has the ear of a leader—we can effect change.

Culture has a significant impact on everything from safety to employee engagement to productivity. In addition, it gives people a sense of belonging and self-worth in their workplace.

However, the stark reality is that organizational culture is a complex web of relationships, and as those relationships change and shift over time, everyone must embrace change. This will serve to maintain any positive change that has been affected and continue along a productive path. The ability to eliminate unsafe behaviors is determined by the quality of relationships we have with people. Regardless of your position or title, you are in the place of growing, developing, and improving people. And those people are relying on you to train, communicate, and coach them to perform their jobs or tasks safely. 

Coaching is a skill that every safety professional and leader must master. The implementation and integration of behavioral change is a crucial aspect of achieving a sustainable safety culture. 

Coaching facilitates a culture transition through the stages of behavior change to achieve safe habits. Effective behavioral change requires that we identify what we are changing, why we are changing it, how we change it, and then create a strong plan of action to maintain effectiveness.  

In this blog series, I will focus on creating a culture change through individual behaviors.

WHAT IS BEHAVIOR CHANGE?

Before we get too deep into how to change a culture, let me identify what behavior change is. Behavior change refers to the “transformation or modification of human behavior,” with a new or altered safe behavior being the end-point.

“To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior.”

Maxwell Maltz

I have identified five stages to achieve culture change. However, the process of implementing and maintaining change seems to be a spiral rather than a straight line. I have found that most people regress in the beginning stages, so constant and consistent coaching is required.

5 STAGES OF CULTURE CHANGE

Throughout my career, I focused my expertise on changing culture and ultimately changing behaviors. As a safety professional, when you first start at a company or facility, you must become familiar with the current culture, identify areas of concern, and identify a strategic improvement plan. Safety professionals play an integral role in a company or facility culture change. Therefore, you must be accurate in your evaluation and plan.

To get there, I have outlined the Five (5) stages to change a culture. While every company and facility is different, the culture change process is still the same. By following these five stages, you will help to ensure an actual culture change.

Setting the foundation

Before behaviors can be changed, organizations must identify the areas of focus needed to understand why the current behaviors exist. These areas typically include; missing policies or procedures, lack of training, leadership failure, et. Still, they may also be in the pre-contemplation, action, or maintenance stages. The current safety position is generally determined through active observations, listening, curiosity, and asking open questions. This knowledge will contribute to developing the organization’s safety strategic plan and creating the required coaching journey.

Contemplation

In the contemplation stage, the organization is “aware of existing safety issues and is creating a plan to address the issues, but has not committed to taking action. This stage can last for a long time as organizations struggle with dysfunctional employee behavior and the amount of effort, energy, and cost to create, change and implement programs and training. In the contemplation stage, the mindset of “We may” change or implement generally creates a delay in the path forward. 

Preparation

This stage combines intention and behavioral criteria. For example, an organization in the preparation stage may have reduced some unsafe behaviors but have not reached the criteria for sustainable, effective behaviors. They can be considered to be in the mindset of “We will.” Their intention and motivation are firm, and they plan to implement their change plan within a short period. 

Within this stage, the leadership will brainstorm possible approaches and solutions. Successful behavioral change requires identifying the right approach and protecting our upcoming changes from distractions and conflicting goals. Anticipation, planning, and engagement are crucial for maintaining safe behaviors. 

Action

Now the organization is committed to implementing programs and conducting training to begin the behavior change process. Organizations in the action stage are considered to be in the “I am” mindset and consistently implement their new behavior expectations. When clients are in this stage, they are likely to achieve fewer incidents and experience more robust safe behaviors. In addition, the Behavior Coaching Process (discussed in a later blog post) will result in even fewer incidents and help ensure consistent safe behaviors. 

However, once the action stage is entirely in progress, there becomes a risk of complacency and a focus on production, which causes employees to fall back into exhibiting unsafe behaviors. Keep in mind that the initiation of programs and training will be efficient, but the failure to be persistent in the expectations can create a culture backflow. 

Maintenance

In this stage, we want to continuously improve to prevent relapse, consolidate the gains attained during the past efforts, and increase safe behaviors. In my experience, this stage typically comes into play around 18-24 months. Cultures in the maintenance stage are considered in the “I still am” mindset and are considered to be in this stage when the new behavior becomes a habit. While in the maintenance stage, leadership and safety professionals are generally confident they can maintain the improved behaviors. However, they must be diligent in maintaining this change. There will be challenges and concerns. However, if the leadership has built an engaging culture, it doesn’t generally present a significant risk and can often get back on track and even create more robust, safe behaviors.

CONCLUSION

Many of us have behaviors we would like to change. Understanding the stages of change and applying each one effectively and timeously will support a meaningful, sustainable, and, ultimately, empowering behavior change, resulting in improved safe behavior and fewer employees getting injured. My next blog will focus on effectively coaching leadership and employees to change behaviors through their mindset.

Remember, our actions determine the result!

“A change in bad habits leads to a change in life.”

Jenny Craig

Denis is an Executive Director for the John Maxwell Group and is a certified leadership coach, trainer, keynote speaker, and DISC Behaviorial Consultant. Denis is a senior safety professional and a strong, passionate influential person. He is committed to teaching and communicating practical and relevant influencing techniques.  His unique, passionate, and emotionally driven style resonates with many, creating a desire to become an effective leader. 

You can contact Denis at dbaker@leaderinfluence.net for information on coaching, leadership, team and culture training, DISC Behavioral consulting, or to be an inspirational speaker at your next event.

9 SAFETY CULTURE QUESTIONS WE NEVER THOUGHT WE WOULD HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES

/ Denis Baker / Leave a comment

When considering the last few months, if we had been given a glimpse of this crazy year ahead of time, we would have thought the world had gone mad.

I feel It probably has.

There has been a significant change in the safety professional’s approach to influencing the workforce and leadership in safety. For some, organizations have a healthy and sustainable culture indicating that the only need is to reinforce the culture and look for continuous improvement. But for most safety professionals, organizations either; don’t have a safety culture in place yet, or the current culture is not strong enough to sustain a consistent, safe workforce. 

While we can’t approach safety the same we have done in the past, we have to ensure our current safety culture is continuously building up strong through our leadership and employees. 

I recently thought about this and came up with 9 questions I believe we need to focus on to ensure the workforce’s safety in this current situation. 

  1. Do your employees feel comfortable with COVID-19 protocols and procedures put in place?
  2. Is safety still a core value, or is the entire focus on revenue?
  3. Are your employees still stopping work when they feel unsafe? 
  4. Do your employees still feel comfortable approaching their colleagues if there is an unsafe condition or situation? 
  5. Are the employees exhibiting safe behaviors?
  6. Are people managers still engaged in the safety process?  
  7. Is safety integrated into every conversation? 
  8. Are your employees under pressure and more inclined to take shortcuts? 
  9. Is the leadership team thinking differently? 

I encourage you to ask yourself these questions first. Ask your team, the workforce, and leadership what their thoughts are and develop an immediate implementation plan to address the shortcoming or redesign processes. The answers to these questions will determine the plan as we advance. 

Your ability to ask questions will hlp determine the path forward.

“The ability to ask questions is the greatest resource in learning the truth.”

Carl Jung