Research in Industrial/Organizational psychology has identified various individual characteristics that shape how an individual will lead safety. These traits make up an individual’s personal “SafetyDNA” and leadership style, which greatly influences how they perceive risk, enforce safety policies, implement safety initiatives, and many other safety leader behaviors.

Using validated psychological assessments to measure these individual characteristics, global companies are now using this methodology to develop stronger safety leaders at the supervisor, manager and executive level.  As a result, leaders gain valuable insights into their tendencies, decision-making and skills in a personalized manner. When coupled with proper training, coaching, feedback and action planning techniques, leaders develop concrete safety leader skills that truly impact safety at all levels of the organization.

Key Takeaways:

• An overview of leadership traits and skills with the greatest statistical impact on leading and lagging indicators of safety.
• Common safety leader behaviors associated with these profiles, and how they specifically impact the risk of a leader’s team members.
• Best practices for using these tools to provide safety leadership training, coaching, and development that is personalized and measurable.
• Examples of how this approach has been implemented and led to improvements in safety performance.