Something struck me very hard that day.
I was just having a short walk inside my apartment complex when I noticed a vegetable vendor pulling his mobile cart outside our apartment gate. These were the Covid lockdown days, when the movements are curtailed and availability of essentials was limited. I decided to step out and see what vegetables are available. A stern voice challenged me “Don’t step out without wearing a mask. Its for our safety”.
It was from a young girl who had come to buy vegetables. My reactive part of brain jumped into action. ‘how dare she can talk to me like that’, ‘ I have just stepped out of my apartment just to see what’s available’. I was fuming within and came back inside my apartment.
Once the dust got settled, my logical part of the brain got activated. ‘What’s wrong in her words’, ‘is it not what’s expected out of us – to wear mask when we step out of our house’. This brought in the required change in my behaviour. To me this is LEADERSHIP.
“Leading is the art of Influencing people to strive enthusiastically & willingly towards achieving the Goals”
What makes a Good Leader?
- Walk the Talk : People don’t just listen to what you say but also watch what you do
- Inspire with a Vision : Followers look forward to leaders for showing a direction
- Challenge Status Quo : People who take uncharted waters reach new destinations
- Enable to Act : A good leader is one who develops lot of other leaders
- Encourage the heart : A basic need of every human being is to get recognised
Any person who can show the above characteristics can be a good leader. The young girl in my experience would easily tick the first 4 characteristics
What would be an appropriate Safety Leadership Style?
- Tough Coercion : “Do what I say” style of leadership. When you see it from outside it may look like ‘Bossism’. But this is effective style when the leader has built trust and credibility among the followers. Without that it will be short term.
- Tough Controlling : “Follow the Process” style of leadership. Leaders spend a lot of time setting up sytems and processes to enable safe working. Then the role of the leader is to enforce the rules to make people follow the process.
- Tough Caring : “Be Safe because someone is waiting for you back at home”. Leaders influence followers to follow safety rules for themselves and not because they are asked to do. This would be the most successful leadership style but very time consuming and takes lot of efforts to reach there. This leads us to the new concept of “Behaviour based Safety (BBS)”. More about it in my next blog.
SAFETY MANAGEMENT IS NOT SAFETY LEADERSHIP
