Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
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MINE SAFETY "Courageous Safety Leadership is transparent and shows the terrible toll incidents and fatalities have on co-workers, families and friends. The impact of these situations reaches people on an emotional level, changes what they believe and ultimately results in a behavior change." vision. Courageous Safety Leadership focuses on people skills, communication, openness and transparency, honesty and integrity. It is also about empowering peo- ple to speak up when things are not right as well as accepting responsibility. That sometimes means confronting people and hierarchies, rather than just "going along to get along." Sometimes we must have the courage to do what is right regardless of the consequences to ourselves. At the same time, to encourage people to speak up, we need to create an open atmosphere and show them we will respect their opin- ions, listen to their ideas, and enlist their support in finding solutions. Courageous Safety Leadership is about treating people like people, building rela- tionships and trust, and empowering peo- ple to become part of the solution rather than remain as part of the problem. We mentioned communication. Some experts maintain 70% of communication is LIS- TENING. Listening is not generally a strong management trait. We helped our supervisors understand the difference between management and leadership. Some companies treat these two as the same. We believed there was a distinct difference and achieving a balance between the two was essential. It takes some emotional experience to drive a behavioral change. Why do people continue to use a cellphone while driving, even though it is widely known this is a very dangerous practice? It is because they do not want to lose their social contact. There is no reward for giving it up other than the intan- gible 'safety.' Unless we can communicate what is in it for them, they will not change their behavior. We have to connect emotion- ally with them so they "feel" the conse- quences of an incident. Courageous Safety Leadership is transparent and shows the ter- rible toll incidents and fatalities have on co- workers, families and friends. The impact of these situations reaches people on an emo- tional level, changes what they believe and ultimately results in a behavior change. Safety was always in the forefront. "Safe production" became our mantra. We measured, compared and published results from each site regularly. We presented awards to sites that achieved good safety performance. We also presented awards to individuals who contributed to the safety culture. We celebrated safety achieve- ments throughout the year. The senior leadership of the company was actively engaged in the recognition process so that employees could see safety was a priority for the organization. When we look at companies with world- class safety performance, we see they have leaders who are personally committed and 112 E&MJ; • JUNE 2012 www.e-mj.com