George Robotham Safety Leadership

OHS Leadership

ByGeorge Robotham

Safety Reflections by the late George Robotham

OHS Leadership

Having survived a number of years in industry the author is acutely aware that leadership of an organisation can make or break the organisation. The importance of leadership is vastly underrated in Australian industry, leadership is the forgotten key to excellence in business. Leaders send out messages, often subtly, about what they value and expect.

Livermore(in Carter, Ulrich & Goldsmith, p46) observes “The best system or model in the world is not going to do your organisation a bit of good unless you have a top down commitment to making it work. Once mid-level management and low level employees see top executives leading the way, most of them will begin to support the initiative as well.”

The most important quality people look for and admire in a leader is personal credibility. Credibility is the foundation of leadership. If we do not believe in the messenger we will not believe the message. Leadership is about influencing people to follow, management is about maintaining systems and processes

Four critical characteristics of effective leaders(Private communication)

1 Courage (make hard decisions, stick to them)

2 Loyalty (Upwards and downwards, without hesitation)

3 Integrity (In little as well as large things, be above reproach)

4 Knowledge (Know your people, know their fears, dreams & strengths, know your mission)

Quotable quote

“The people are fashioned according to the example of their king and edicts are less powerful than the life (example) of the king”

Claudian, c. 365,Egyptian epic poet

How to be a safety leader

The author is grateful to Dave Cowley of HP Hood LLC, Chelsea , MA 02150 (October 2000)for sharing the company tip card.

Five tips on how to be a Safety Leader

1 Walk the Talk-Visibly demonstrate safety by your actions, practice what you preach, wear proper protective equipment, employees look to you for example

2 Give Recognition-When you see an employee doing a job safely praise them for it, reward safety every chance you get

3 Report All Incidents-Report all incidents no matter how slight, emphasise it is vital to be on the look-out for near-misses, minor mishaps and close calls instead of waiting for an actual injury to occur

4 Follow-Up-If a safety concern has been raised, always perform follow-up and provide feed-back to the employee

5Ask Questions-Are employees using equipment that has been inspected(hand tools, forklifts, motor vehicles etc.)

References

Carter, L., Ulrich, D., Goldsmith, M., 2005,Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organization Change ,John Wiley & Sons ,San Francisco

Claudian,365,Egyptian epic poet, exact source unknown

Private Communication-Jan, 2007, D.Sayers, D.Sayers & Associates , Canada, Re Canada’s Ex-Chief of Defence Staff, General Dextraze, J.A.

 

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George Robotham

George Robotham

George was a Legend in the Safety World who passed away in Sept 2013 but left us with a great legacy
George Robotham
I have worked in OHS for most of my working life, many years in the mining industry including over 10 years in a corporate OHS role with BHP. Since leaving the mining industry I have worked in a variety of safety roles with a variety of employers, large & small, in a variety of industries. I was associated with my first workplace fatality at age 21, the girl involved was young, intelligent, vivacious and friendly. Such a waste! I was the first on the scene and tried to comfort her and tend to her injuries. She said to me “George, please do not let me die” We put her on the aerial ambulance to Rockhampton base hospital where she died the next day. I do not mind telling you that knocked me around for awhile. Since then I have helped my employers cope with the aftermath of 12 fatalities and 2 other life-altering events. The section "Why do Occupational Health & Safety" provides further detail but in summary, poor safety is simply very expensive and also has a massive humanitarian cost. My qualifications include a certificate I.V. in Workplace Training and Assessment, a Diploma in Frontline Management, a Diploma in Training & Assessment Systems, a Bachelor of Education (Adult & Workplace Education) , a Grad. Cert. in Management of Organisational Change and a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Hazard Management. I am currently studying towards a Masters in Business Leadership. Up until recently I had been a Chartered Fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia for 10 years and a member for about 30 years. My interest is in non-traditional methods of driving organisational change in OHS and I have what I believe is a healthy dis-respect for many common approaches to OHS Management and OHS Training. I hold what I believe is a well-founded perception that many of the things safety people and management do in safety are “displacement activities” (Displacement activities are things we do, things we put a lot of energy into, but which when we examine them closely there is no valid reason for doing them). My managerial and leadership roles in OHS have exposed me to a range of management techniques that are relevant to Business Improvement. In particular I am a strong supporter of continuous improvement and quality management approaches to business. I believe leadership is the often forgotten key to excellence in most aspects of life. I hold the Australian Defence Medal and am a J.P.(Qualified). I have many fond memories of my time playing Rugby Union when I was a young bloke.

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