Category Archives: Blog

As a safety person, I have found myself wearing many hats for an organization. I was the one that had to set the vision, make the plan, and lead the work to be done. Early in my career when asked to do all the things, I had no training or tools at my disposal. IContinue reading “Mentorship Part 9 – X-Matrix Planing”

When I started the series of mentorship blog posts, I never expected to find such a personal passion for planning and prioritizing. It was quite strange to realize that over the years I have developed a layered approach to keeping myself on task and track. I also look back and see all the tools, tricks,Continue reading “Mentorship 7: Time Management: RAIL”

To be honest, Industrial and Organizational Psychology was an odd direction for a safety person. I/O Psychologists are more of leadership coaches or Human Resources people. It was early in my career when I realized that the technical aspects of safety do not change easily or often. The more I worked in the field ofContinue reading “Mentorship Part 6: Soft Skills: Elevator Speech”

Picture this. You are mentoring a new professional. They come in and report an injury. You pick up a chair, walk out to the shop floor, and sling it. Old school Bobby Knight coaching technique 🙂 When it comes to coaching as a mentor, it is more about the essence and spirit of coaching thanContinue reading “Mentorship 5. Be a Coach”

Do you have a career plan? Do those that you supervise or mentor have one? One of the most interesting and value-oriented exercises that can be performed is to make a career plan. Sure, it can change at any time. A career plan is not at all static. It is a living, dynamic document thatContinue reading “Safety Mentorship 4: Make a Plan”

Have you read the book “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake”? I have one similar for you. “If You Give a Safety Person an Audience.” It goes like this. If you give a safety person an audience, they will want a stage. Once they have a stage, they will ask for a microphone. WithContinue reading “Mentorship Part 2: Listen”

It has been interesting in the last few weeks how many times I have had to recount how I chose the safety field (or how the safety field chose me). I owe so much to have great mentors early in my career. At one point, I was able to host a summer intern and haveContinue reading “Mentorship Part 1: Be Available”

You might have noticed that I have not posted a blog in a month or so. I felt that in the new situation we are in with COVID19, the discussion of “world class safety” should be paused for a while. That left, though, a void of what I would discuss. I gave it a monthContinue reading “Why Me? Why not me!”