When it comes to safety, people need your leadership. More importantly, they need the right kind of leadership. After all, you can insult people with too much supervision, or confuse them with too little. To effectively take the lead in safety, you need to know what style of leadership is required. This means practicing empathic observing, listening, and questioning.
This month, I want to discuss the value of empathic leadership. It’s a follow-up to last month’s column on “empathetic correction” — the need to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes before diagnosing
a behavior-related problem and offering advice for improvement.