Who knows how many thousands of books and articles have been written about leadership? In contrast, blog articles written on leadership typically have 500 or fewer words. So, here is a short version that deals with my interpretation of material taught at West Point and applied in a practical manner by many individuals (with editorial license here and there on my part).
From time to time when I am introduced in public, I get questioned about the three initials that follow my name—PhD. People in my community seldom know I have such a degree. The few that do know sometimes give me their humorous definitions of what the three letters mean to them: Piled Higher and Deeper, Push Harder Dummy, Post Hole Digger and the like. You may very well have some others to add to this humorous list.
Providing a published document that states the organization’s values is a common business practice for many companies. This values document, in turn, should lead to strategies that help establish a culture that lives and delivers these values. Many times, employee safety is a stated value.
Many private and public organizations publicize significant accomplishment of downstream safety measures, such as the reduction of injury rates. I am not fond of this recognition, but I do acknowledge that celebrating “an adequate number of injuries” seems to be a current weakness of our profession.
What is truth when it comes to safety? The regulation-oriented data tells us a part of the story with respect to training, incident records, safety meetings, work orders, policies/procedures and the like. Observations add a bit more insight to what our people are actually doing when they are occasionally being watched/evaluated by others.
Former U.S. president Harry Truman had a rule: any letters written in anger had to sit on his desk 24 hours before they could be mailed. If at the end of the “cooling off” period, he still felt the same sentiments, he would send the letter. By the end of his life, the letters that Truman never mailed filled a large desk drawer.
The regulation-oriented data tells us a part of the story with respect to training, incident records, safety meetings, work orders, policies/procedures and the like. Observations add a bit more insight to what our people are actually doing when they are occasionally being watched/evaluated by others.
Way back in time I had the distinct opportunity to join a military service branch and go through the boot camp experience. “Young and stupid,” physical fitness at its peak, “10 feet tall and bullet proof” – all these and other attributes, like adrenaline and testosterone, made each of us raw recruits confident we could take on the world and come out unscathed.
