The primary reason for a lack of understanding around safety leadership is too much conversation and not enough communication.
I differentiate between conversation and communication in this way—conversation is merely filling the airwaves with noise; communication is reaching a shared understanding. In conversation, the term “safety leadership” is often used in a vague sense, with the user of the term assuming safety leadership means the same to others as it does to them. To communicate a shared understanding, we need to precisely and concretely define safety leadership.