As a safety manager, you strive for effective leadership in everything you do. That’s great news for your employees – after all, a strong organizational culture often begins with standout leadership.
But as a leader who strives to set the gold standard for your organization, you also know you have a lot to learn, even if you’ve been in the business for 30 years. So we’re here to let you in on a little secret: there are some critical qualities that make a safety supervisor stand out, and many of them go underappreciated.
Here are three underappreciated qualities that define a standout safety supervisor, why they matter, and how to incorporate them in your leadership.
They Drive the Message in Every Aspect of Their Work
The best safety supervisor knows that safety isn’t a matter of checking boxes or wearing a hard hat. It doesn’t start on the shift and end when you clock out. Safety is a part of everything you do, and the best safety supervisor treats it that way.
For these leaders, safety is not a priority, it’s a core value. While priorities can shift, values remain constant, driving your actions and shaping your decisions at every turn. The best safety supervisors treat safety as a constant, and they demonstrate that in every action they take – even to the point of prioritizing their safety values ahead of their company position.
They Don’t Just Respond to Issues – They Anticipate Them
Another key quality of a truly great safety supervisor is that they don’t simply respond to problems when they arise. They anticipate potential problems and they take action to stop them.
In construction, for instance, anticipating risk is the difference between avoiding it and gambling a potential workplace accident. But even in safer industries, anticipating safety problems is critical to shifting out of crisis mode.
Think of this as always being on the lookout for a better way to do things. If you keep an open mind and approach every new challenge as a learning opportunity, you’ll be far better equipped to identify problems before they fester.
They Offer No Excuses
This is the least fun item on the list, but it’s true. The best safety supervisor is the one that offers no excuses.
There are times when things don’t work out the way you hoped. Times when you’re embarrassed or upset. Even just times when you’re running behind schedule. These are the times that define you as a supervisor just as much as your successes.
In these moments, it’s easy to offer an excuse. Don’t. Own up to your actions, take responsibility, and get it done right. That speaks louder than any empty promise, and your employees will remember it.
Building Your Skills as a Safety Supervisor
As a safety supervisor, your work is never done. Building the right skills takes time, but you also need the tools and dedication to put them in action.
As for the right tools, that’s where we come in, with safety management software that makes it that much easier to do your job well. Ready to take a better approach to safety in your organization? Get in touch today to learn more.
