How Leaders Can Empower Safety
- By Robert Pater
- Apr 01, 2022
When you’ve heard a term repetitively bandied about, it can become mind-numbing, even blurring what it’s trying to convey. Prime to mind: “Empowering people” is a catchphrase that can lose meaning from being so frequently expressed while so infrequently explained. Words are nice. Principles better, but developing actual and proven ways to apply them are essential to improvement.
Empower = “power in.” Microsoft founder Bill Gates: “As we look ahead…leaders will be those who empower others.” M.D. Arnold: "A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them."
I think of power as “the ability to change the future.” That is, consciously veering beyond the just-ok or even dysfunctional tendencies where previous experiences and limitations momentum, towards making actions that move you more towards where—and who—you want to be. I realize this can just sound like more “new-age” talk. However, when grounded in specific methods, techniques, mindsets and skills, it transforms into a highly effective means for improvement. We know from long experience that this very specifically and statistically works in the safety arena.
Internalizing safety confidence, judgment, attention, self-control and those physical skills that result in greater performance has been a foundation of our work for almost four decades, with numerous large companies throughout the world. We think of “empowering” as helping people considerably understand, “aha!”-realize (so they convince themselves) that they have real power inside themselves they hadn’t previously realized. And learn how to realistically tap these.
When it comes to “power” and “empowering,” I’ve been strongly influenced by my practice of internal martial arts, along with the works of some brilliant and proven change-masters—most of whom unsurprisingly resonate similar messages. Wing Chun gung fu master, Chow Hung-Yuen wrote: “Power has to come from the inside out, not the outside in. Forget about the other person’s power. First, learn to control your own power.” Lao Tzu: “Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” Renowned football coach Pete Carroll: “Each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be let out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching and the greatest things can happen.”
This article originally appeared in the April 2022 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.