Moving From ‘Bitter’ Towards Better Safety Leadership

When it comes to leadership, people see things very differently.

• By Robert Pater
• Nov 19, 2024

When it comes to leadership, people see things very differently. (Case in point: Googling “leadership” yields “about 4.35 billion” results!) But to me, the highest level of leadership is founded on courage, the willingness to face discomfort. Starting with squarely seeking out, acknowledging, and dealing with the elephants in the room that impede progress.

Sure, when all is going well and humming along smoothly, it’s easy to bask in the glory of positive results. No doubt that even during such bountiful take-the-bows times, strong leadership is still greatly needed, both to reinforce what people are doing well AND to remind them to not get lost in the laurels, to stay on a continuous improvement track – to avoid complacency (where “good” or “very good” becomes the enemy of “great”), or worse, deterioration (where “pride goes before a fall.”) This is especially important when in safety, where even one incident can be devastating.

Improving is always a process of dusting off the rust, letting go of dysfunction, and replacing what is tired and no longer true. Essential to this is the inner strength to be a willing recognizer. Courage is required to seek and then call out what isn’t working, such as surfacing those mixed messages that seemingly every company transmits to some degree (the specifics vary, but even the best cultures send contrarian directions, such as “Safety is Number 1!” along with “Get it done faster, we have deadlines” etc. Or promoting Safety dis-believers to higher levels. Or not allocating sufficient time to focused training.)

I recall presenting a multi-day safety leadership seminar for an international manufacturing company where I’d pre-interviewed the regional Safety director participants. After I shared a summary of anonymous reports of concerns, the directors were raring to delve into strategies for moving well above and beyond. 

Unfortunately, an executive visiting from their remote corporate headquarters was visibly chagrined upon hearing concerns about their culture. This particular vice president accused the Safety leaders of being “disloyal” for harboring and sharing any negativity about current imperfections. While we had to work our way through this, the VP’s message still dampened potential safety leadership energies. I’ve seen similar “you better not even think this, certainly never surface this” messages from other senior leaders, often ones who ironically espouse positive values and messages but whose actual actions run counter to their talk. 

Contrarily, in the words of a master internal martial artist, the most effective people, those who transcend the ordinary, are willing to “eat bitter.” Seeking out, rather than avoiding or even suppressing adverse feedback. These individuals don’t lie to themselves and do not encourage false Pollyanna-ish responses just to make themselves feel or look better. Refusing to fiddle while Rome burns, those who “eat bitter” do not surround themselves with “yes” people who bolster a house of cards founded on a false sense that all is well, and if anything is less than ideal, it could only be the fault of others. After all, the leader is doing everything she/he possibly can. They can’t help it if they are saddled with resistant people who won’t do what’s good for their own safety. 

Have you heard anything like that? These outlooks are always signs of leadership insecurity and weakness. And while there may be some who go along with praising such leaders, there will always be those who privately see – and disrespect – that such “emperors have no clothes” and are actually naked in the face of harsh elements, despite denials or gaslighting.

Smartest leaders know that where the bitter exists, even if seemingly well-hidden – ongoing unsolved problems, tenacious injuries that are minimally addressed, “hidden” low trust status quo – these can detract, even pollute their culture. That, as famed changemaster Kurt Lewin found, the most effective way to develop significant and sustainable change is less through doing more, not just rehashing what has mundanely been done. But by identifying what actually gets in the way of/blocks improvements, then removing or at least reducing some of these forces. 

In other words, the way to the highest level of safety is through the uncomfortable; it takes treading into and then beyond the “underworld” (see Joseph Campbell’s “Voyage of the Hero” work) to get to the higher ground of turnaround change.

Do you find yourself on a safety plateau? Have you tried several approaches but remain frustrated that nothing seems to really change? If the well of your safety culture is even somewhat polluted, the only way to get potable water is to dredge out and then get rid of the sludge. Don’t allow cultural toxicity to remain. It takes courage for anyone to “eat bitter,” to be willing to honestly look at failures or disappointments, and for a leader to ask him/herself, “What was my part in this?” and “What might I have done differently?”

Some ways to accomplish this? Individually and privately seek out those workers who are respected by their peers to listen to their frank concerns (Ask, “On a scale of one to 10, where 10 is ‘great,’ how would you rate our Safety culture and performance? Why would you rate it as high or as low as you did?”) Be sure to include some who represent the “naysayers.” Seed your Safety Committees so these aren’t solely populated by those retired on active duty or those who have found it politically expedient to go along with the status quo. Set the tone with everyone that, while you certainly don’t want to dwell on negatives (and that it’s as important to surface what’s going well), active problem-solving towards improvement means examining the warts in your Safety culture.

For the strongest leaders I’ve seen, calmly unearthing and then dispelling what they sense or fear might be awkward, uncomfortable, or worse, but it can be a powerful pathway to significant and lasting safety step-ups.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2024 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.