Leadership – the key to

unlocking high performance in

safety critical industriesWendy Anyster

Consulting Occupational Psychologist

The Leadershipvine Ltd

The psychology of human performance

Organisational culture: “a set of deeply

embedded behaviours, beliefs, and mind-set thatdetermine ‘the way we do things around here”.Cultural drivers influence the way people act andbehave, how they talk and inter-relate, how long ittakes to make decisions and how effective they areat delivering results” .

Culture manifests

itself through

behaviours or

human performance

Antecedent Behaviour Consequence

Antecedents and

consequences

influences the quality of

human performance

Beliefs are reinforced,

modified or changed

depending upon the

consequences of

behaviours – what is

experienced.

Beliefs Behaviour Results

Leadership – the key to unlocking behaviours for

success

“…A good safety-culture cannot simply

emerge and be self-sustaining. It has to

be encouraged by senior managers,

then sustained with peer discipline and

overt management safety behaviour

leadership. The alternative will be an

organisation liable to pockets of safety

excellence and areas of safety chaos”(Dr John B, Taylor, 2010).

“An organisation is strongly influenced

by and is very responsive to perceived

expectations from the top…these

perceived expectations can and often

do have a profound impact on the

behaviour of individuals in the

organisation” (Dr Zack T Pate – Former CEO

of INPO, past Chairman of WANO).

“Leaders need to wake up to the power

of Culture. Often misunderstood anddiscounted as a soft, nice-to-have

component of business, culture is neither

intangible nor fluffy; it is one of the most

important drivers to the creation of long-

term, sustainable success” (Sean Culey,

2012).

Leaders through their actions, decisions & interactions create & shape an organisation's culture.

Culture is shaped by:

What leaders’ pay attention to

How leaders react to critical incidents

How leaders’ allocate resources

The behaviour leaders demonstrate (role model) daily, teach & coach

What gets rewarded, what gets punished

(Edgar Schein, 1992)

An informed culture

A reporting culture

A learning culture

A flexible culture

A just culture

Elements that contribute to

the development of a strong

safety culture

Reason , 1998

Leadership styles & the impact on human

performance

Style of leadership

Scale of influence

Level of dependence

Directive Commanding

Collaborative Coaching

Compliance (have to)

Commitment(want to)

Parent - child Adult-adult

What does good

leadership look like?

How do we influence

organisational action

that will deliver the best

results?

What leadership behaviour

motivates high

performance?

Levels of influence (compliance vs commitment)

Rights

Relationships

Results

Reproduction

Respect

Correct

Teach

Ask & learn

Build relationships

Want to

Have to

Positional authority

Trust based relationships & connection

Track record of performance -winning team

Coach & develop others –personal positive impact

Character (personal will, professional humility)

Power of voice

Power of connection

Compliance

•Compliance with policies, regulations & procedures ensure safety

•Doing the right thing

•Motive: fear, avoidance of negative consequences

•“Have to ….”

•Thinking domain

Commitment

•Understand and agree with the rationale behind the policies, regulations, rules

•Doing the right thing for the right reasons

•Motive: passion, caring, positive consequences

•“Want to…”

•Emotional domain

“It’s possible for people to operate out of compliance while

they have very little commitment. But the opposite is

virtually impossible. If one is truly committed, compliance is

rarely an issue” (Duncan, 2014).

Key leadership behaviour: what does good

leadership look like?

Seven key safety leadership

characteristics and associated

behaviours that can influence Safety

Culture

(T.R. Krause, 2005)

•Credibility

•Action orientation

•Vision

•Accountability

•Communication

•Collaboration

•Feedback and recognition

Connect

Clear Direction

Collaborate

Coach

Co-create

Leadership behaviour that will unlock

behaviours for success

Need transformational leadership skills to generate

employee engagement which in turn generates the commitment to drive organisational action that will deliver success.

Key strategies to unlock organisation wide

behavioural shifts

Current performance assessment

(where are we now)

Targeted future performance (where do we want to be)

Identify priority behaviours to

accelerate performance improvement

Develop & implement

robust plan to embed

behaviours

Communicate, reinforce, follow

through

Develop an integrated, holistic

behavioural strategy

“A positive Safety Culture is a culture in which

safety plays a very important role and is a

core value for those who work for the

organisation”. (IAOGP)

Key questions:

What is the broader organisational culture that we want

to establish?

What values should drive organisational behaviour?

How do these values translate into behaviours (what we

say & do)?

What does good look like behaviourally?

What are the strengths of our current culture?

When we integrate all our performance data, what are

the patterns, themes?

What behaviours will drive organisational action needed

to deliver the results we want? Behavioural

Technical

Environmental

Organisational

Key strategies to unlock organisation wide

behavioural shifts

Move beyond antecedents

Antecedents Barriers Motivate

& sustain

How can we trigger/kick - start the right behaviours?

What barriers may stop prevent the right behaviour?

How can we remove these barriers?

How can we embed the behaviours into everyday activities so that they become business as usual norms?

How can we integrate these behaviours into our existing activities/ practices?

How can we embed these behaviours so that they are hardwired into every aspect of our business and become a “way of life”?

How can we actively engage all teams/staff in bringing these behaviours to life?

Trigger/kick-start

Embed

Stop/prevent

Key strategies to unlock organisation wide

behavioural shifts

Strengthen collective leadership

behaviour

Results

Leadership capability

Culture

So what….? “That won’t make a difference…”

“Not only did many engineers not have leadership skills and

capabilities….but most did not acknowledge these skills as

critical components of their jobs. For NASA engineers to accept

these skills as important they had to be shown as relevant to

their work & to enabling mission success”(Christine Williams,

NASA, 2012).

“A manager’s style of leadership & visible demonstration (of values) through actions is important in shaping the organisation’s culture….long term focus, commitment & a willingness to “walk the talk” are more influential than campaigns or posters”. (IAOPG, 2013)

Practices

that work

Key strategies to unlock organisation wide

behavioural shifts

Make it easy for people to do the

right thing – embed into activitiesPre-job briefs

Setting to work

Post job debriefs

Behavioural objectives

Performance reviews

Team meetings

On-job coaching

Peer reviews

“A commitment to safety and operational integrity begins with management. But

management alone cannot drive the entire culture. For a culture of safety to flourish, it must be embedded throughout the organisation”

(Tillerson, R. 2010).

Lessons learnt & best practices

Focus

•20/80 Behaviours

•Targeted performance improvements

Align

•Behavioural language

•Behavioural descriptors: what goods like/sounds like

Develop

•Lead team collective behaviour

•Individual behaviours

Embed

•Activities

•Practices

•Processes

Leader-led – role model, reinforce, coach One size fits one – fit for purpose (what key will

unlock behaviours in your context?) Engaged thinking, co-creation and value-

driven action gets commitment Keep it simple – focus on 20% that will deliver

80% of results Bring behaviours to life through activities &

practices that will make it easy for people to do the right thing

Flywheel effect – start slow to move fast; consistent, relentless action will create momentum

Surface & share positive examples/stories

Wendy Anyster – Occupational Psychologist & OD Specialist

Wendy is a registered occupational psychologist with 24 years

experience in the field of organisational development and

behavioural change. During her corporate and industry years,

she held various leadership roles including Head of OD &

Training, Senior OD Advisor & Human Resources Development

Manager.

Her passion and strong interest to work with teams and

individuals to enhance their leadership capability, lead to her

starting a consulting service in 2004. Services to organizations in

various industries (including safety critical, engineering and

export) have included a range of organizational development

interventions, however a strong passion for leadership

development has led to this becoming her core focus.

Wendy is passionate about building capacity in others and has

worked with academic institutions (e.g. University of

Stellenbosch Business School), teaching Organisational

Behaviour & Change Management modules to MBA Students

and has presented at numerous professional & industry

conferences (e.g. Assessment Centre Study Group, Institute for

Personal Management, Future Leaders’ Conference, IAEA

FORATOM Management Systems).

Contact details:

The Leadershipvine LtdGloucestershire, England

E-mail: wendy.anyster@gmail.com