After seeing all the complaints online about the referees in this weekend’s NCAA Women’s Championship game I was reminded of how too many safety pros take on the role of “referee” rather than a “coach” at their facility. It is a mistake made by many younger safety pros who do not have a mentor in their careers and trust me, the people who should OWN SAFETY are more than happy to let the young safety pro make this mistake.
As safety professionals, we can either be a Safety Coach or a Referee. This analogy comes from Kevin Burns and ever since I read it in 2016, it has stuck with me…
Referees enforce the rules BUT they DON’T help players improve their skills to be successful.
Coaches build their players’ skills, IMPROVE their performance, INSPIRE and MOTIVATE, and help their players perform better within the RULES of the GAME.
So which do you prefer to be?
Source: PeopleWork – The Human Touch in Workplace Safety, Kevin Burns, 2016
