Governance Series – Getting Leaders Out There

Which of the following most accurately reflects your experience of getting leaders out into the field?

1. A gaggle of besuited corporate types gathered round one poor worker (terrified for her/his career prospects for saying the wrong thing), complete with fake and somewhat menacing smile with the immortal words, “You can be completely open with us,” like some sort of mafia syndicate offering protection because it would be awful if something bad happened, wouldn’t it?
2. Somebody clad in brand new, perfectly creased, brilliantly shining overalls pointing at workers from a distance (“Why are they not wearing their glasses?”), leafing through permit after permit until they find the unsigned one with an “Aha!” celebrating the gotcha moment. You can almost imagine them rubbing a white-gloved finger on the door frame to check for dust before going away and berating the identified individuals by email, or via their line manager, for not following the procedures.
3. Walking at great speed through the shop floor with cursory and furtive glances, but no engagement, so that they can get back to their air-conditioned office as soon as possible, grab a coffee and settle back in their executive leather chair and tick off the latest safety ‘leadership’ visit on their personal bonus scorecard. Only one more to go!
4. A genuinely curious conversation with real interest, good rapport and some insightful questions. Lots of listening to find out more about the reality of work, what the biggest risks look like in practice and what concerns or frustrations workers have.

Yes, (4) does exist. I promise. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and, if you want to see it too, read on!

Ok – that’s all a little tongue in cheek, but not too far from the truth. It can be bad enough with executive teams, but board directors are even more remote from the reality of front-line work. That’s not a criticism – it’s just the nature of being a part-time director – but it means that it’s even more crucial from a governance perspective to get leader visits right when you get the opportunity to get them to sites.

It is not enough for directors to simply accept information being given to them. They have to be more proactive than that. In New Zealand and Australia, the due diligence obligations in law require them to understand the business and its risks, but all directors need to, regardless of legal obligations, if they want good governance outcomes. They really can’t do that without getting onto site.

So, this is my message when talking to leaders about visiting site. If you want better outcomes, do this:

1. Reframe your leadership visits as learning visits, rather than safety walks. You are there to learn more about the reality of work so that you can make better decisions when you get back to the c-suite or boardroom.
2. Ask questions about work. People like to talk about their work. Find out what they enjoy about it, what is challenging, what frustrates them and what they’re worried about. Listen more than talk.
3. Don’t look for things going wrong – you are not there to police compliance. You have a whole team of people who can do that better than you and are paid way less. If you want to copy the job of someone way below your pay grade in a financially inefficient way, do it with someone in operations so you at least get a feel for the work they do.
4. Don’t go in groups like some sort of royal visit. Pairs is ok, but no more than that. You’re never going to get a good conversation going if there are seven of you surrounding a fitter, who’s uncomfortable enough anyway.
5. Don’t commit to anything you don’t know you can deliver. If you do commit to something, then follow through. Better not to offer than to offer and renege.
6. If you are going to monitor visits for reporting purposes, test the quality of the interaction rather than the numbers being done. Harder to do and takes a bit more effort, but will improve them over time.
7. Don’t spend time and effort inputting information about your visit into a system where it will disappear and achieve nothing but taking up a tiny bit of drive storage space for eternity. Discuss any key concerns with relevant people and with the rest of the executive/board. Commit to any required follow-up at that point.
8. Work with your safety manager to take you to places that are both good and bad. You need to know the reality of work, warts and all. Balance getting out regularly with not overloading operations teams and don’t turn up when they are under significant work pressure already. Go afterwards and find out what it was like so you can avoid it next time.
9. Make this a regular occurrence (within reason), because you will probably have to visit if something goes wrong and you don’t want to be that person that only turns up when something bad has happened and doesn’t care the rest of the time.

I boil leadership requirements down to two main activities. Firstly, build an environment of trust and secondly, set realistic expectations. You can’t do either of these without getting out, understanding what is going on and doing it in a way that is helpful and useful for all involved.

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