Dan, a safety leader with a major utility company, was preparing to introduce me. I was about to speak to one of his groups regarding the need for everyone to be a leader — a safety coach. Suddenly, I realized that Dan was talking about something very important. No, it wasn’t my background as a consultant, coach or speaker. Dan was talking about teamwork, and the belief that alone, no one individual could help the group achieve their goal of zero-accidents and zero-incidents. But together, if they believed in this achievement as a team, a unit, and took the correct steps toward building the right kind of culture, they could achieve it. This was their vision for success!
In psychology, “self-efficacy†is the individual belief that influences a person’s ability to reach a certain goal. It’s important, but current research suggests that “collective efficacy†— the belief that “we can do it†— is more important than the belief, “I can do it.â€