Safety leadership

Aggregate site superintendents can coach supervisors and managers into promoting better safety practices.

From the senior-most level to the front lines, people in the mining industry share a great value for safety. Despite this common ground, safety results don’t always match intention. As in all industries, production pressures and competing priorities in everyday work can push good intentions to the margins. This is why organizations committed to safety have increasingly focused on strengthening the middle of the organization, where intention meets everyday work.

When superintendents are well engaged, they help translate objectives into action. Photo by Istock.com/36clicks

In mining terms, this means strengthening the role of the superintendent in driving safety objectives. When superintendents are well engaged, they help translate objectives into action, remove barriers and enable safe work. When they are not, these leaders can send mixed signals and, in the worst cases, inadvertently encourage risk-taking that leads to serious injuries or worse.

So how can mining organizations leverage this powerful position for safety improvement? Superintendents are called upon to communicate management’s direction, implement new initiatives, take on special projects, and keep the operation moving smoothly. Given all of these demands, they often have little opportunity to lead safety effectively. But when they focus on a few key activities – the what, when and why – that align with their regular duties, they become critical partners and coaches in reducing exposures and promoting a culture dedicated to achieving zero injuries.

The what of effective safety coaching
Superintendents need to demonstrate the very best in safety leadership practices. They need to evaluate their supervisors, know their safety leadership strengths and improvement opportunities, and tailor their coaching to the specific needs of each supervisor.

The following are critical areas superintendents can focus on when coaching their supervisors and managers:

1. Safety contacts are any interaction with frontline workers initiated by a supervisor in which exposure is observed, feedback is provided, and a discussion is held to strengthen best practices and understanding of exposures. Workers are more likely to take ownership of safety if they feel their concerns and opinions are being heard.

2. Job safety briefings are pre-task discussions about exposures and mitigation measures. Superintendents need to ensure that site leaders clearly define what is expected of workers before work begins and that workers follow through on the responsibilities expected of them.

3. Life-saving procedures: application and verification. Often procedures that appear effective on paper don’t work in practice or are ignored in the name of efficiency. Together, supervisors and workers in open dialogue can identify and remove barriers that compromise the effectiveness of procedures designed to protect lives.

4. Physical hazard identification and mitigation is about eliminating exposure, which is more reliable than depending on performance. Superintendents can coach supervisors on: communicating about hazards; discussing how employees can protect against risk; working with management to alleviate hazards; and keeping employees apprised of the progress on eliminating hazards.

5. Incident response and root cause analysis. Superintendents need to coach supervisors on how to care for injured workers, secure dangerous conditions and address exposures long term. Supervisors must ask the right questions to understand the root cause and implement a successful plan of action going forward.

6. Accountability. Superintendents foster accountability by drawing on three principles: context, direction and tracking. Context is about helping supervisors understand their role in safety and how it benefits them. Direction helps supervisors develop clear safety objectives and enables them to achieve those objectives. Tracking uses data to provide supervisors with feedback in relation to goals.

The when of effective safety coaching
When to coach supervisors is as important as what to coach. There are specific opportunities superintendents need to focus on to improve supervisors’ safety leadership skills:

■ Safety-action plans. Superintendents can work with supervisors at the beginning of each year to develop safety action plans. They should then meet with them at least quarterly to go over the plan and make modifications and updates. Superintendents need to ensure that safety is part of each supervisor’s performance evaluation. Outstanding safety leadership should be praised, ensuring that supervisors know how important safety is to the organization.

■ In-field coaching. Superintendents create opportunities for coaching supervisors when they engage them in the field and observe them in action. The only way to know if hazards exist is to check personally. Leaders need to go to the site and observe the realities on the ground.

The how of effective safety coaching
Superintendents need to develop strong working relationships with employees. The best way to do this is to practice a transformational leadership style that is:

■ Challenging. Superintendents should challenge supervisors and others to rethink old ways of doing things, question dysfunctional paradigms and promote careful problem solving.

■ Engaging. Superintendents help others commit to the organization’s goals by coaching, mentoring and providing feedback and personal attention. They link people’s needs to the organization’s mission with sincere inquiry into their work and personal status.

■ Inspiring. Superintendents set high standards and talk about safety objectives enthusiastically. They inspire people from the heart and talk to them as though they are family members.

■ Influencing. Superintendents build a sense of mission beyond self-interest and a commitment to the organization’s vision. They gain people’s respect and trust by modeling the behaviors they want to see in others.

Turning your organization’s commitment to safety into reality requires multiple factors working in concert: good systems, a compelling vision, great leadership, engaged employees and more. As the lynchpin of the organization, superintendents are the ideal catalysts for connecting and improving these elements.

Michael Hajaistron is a vice president with BST, a global safety consulting firm. He works with organizations in the mining sector to customize, implement and support solutions that enable them to develop their organizational culture and achieve their safety, business and profit objectives.