We all get 24 hours in a day.
For many of us in the health & safety profession, it doesn’t seem like enough. There are always more reports to file, employees to tend to, and meetings on the calendar.
We won’t ever get more time in the day, but what we can do is be more effective with that time.
Enter The Seven Habits …
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is one of the best-selling business and self-help books in history.
According to Wikipedia, Time Magazine named it as one of The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books, and Bill Clinton even invited Covey to Camp David to counsel him on how to integrate these habits and principles into his presidency.
With that kind of recognition, the seven habits presented in the book are worth inspecting for nuggets of practical and actionable wisdom.
Following are the seven habits presented in the book and how they apply to Safety leaders.
Habit 1 – Be Proactive
The habit of being proactive is innate for effective safety leaders.
The big idea behind this habit is to be intentional about how you use your time. Don’t spend time worrying about events you can’t control. Instead, focus on the things you do have influence over and proactively use your time to make the greatest possible impact.
Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind
Imagine your retirement party and what others are saying and thinking about your career and what you accomplished at work.
Literally begin with the end in mind. What would you want people to be saying about your career? What would you want to have accomplished? What would you want them to be saying about how you accomplished your goals?
In this chapter on beginning with the end in mind, Covey writes about creating a personal mission statement. Can you codify in just a few sentences what your mission for your career / professional life is?
Habit 3 – Put First Things First
The central idea behind this habit is that most things we do every day can be divided into two categories – the urgent and the important.
Be proactive (see #1 above) and prioritize, plan and execute your week’s tasks based on importance rather than urgency. For example, doing strategic planning for your workplace ergonomics process is important. Answering a friend’s email about weekend plans is “urgent” but not getting you closer to your goals.
To be more effective, put first things first and don’t let yourself get into the reactive rat race of putting out small fires that prevent you from getting bigger, more important projects accomplished.
A good way to accomplish this is to define goals for the upcoming week and schedule them into your calendar. These are the important items you must get done for the week without getting sidetracked.
Habit 4 – Think Win-Win
This habit is a fundamental way to see all relationships.
Is there a way both sides can come out ahead at the end of an interaction?
This question is a great filter for your decision making process and the way you interact with co-workers. Are all stakeholders winning here? Is this decision good for the company and good for all affected parties?
Do your best to find solutions that allow everyone to win.
Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
The main idea behind this habit is that you should really try to understand as much information as possible before suggesting a solution.
Investigating and getting to the root of problems is a hallmark of effective safety leaders. Communicating solutions becomes easier and more effective when you have all related information available to you.
Habit 6 – Synergize
Synergy is, “the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Covey points out that highly effective people are able to lead a team to accomplish goals that the individual team members couldn’t have accomplished on their own.
Safety leaders recognize that the art of injury prevention is effectively leading people toward a common goal – the safety and health of every employee.
Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw
This final habit focuses on the need to do things that renew you in several different ways: physical, mental, spiritual, and social/emotional. In other words, take time to focus on taking care of yourself.
If you take the time to work on yourself, you’ll find yourself on what Covey calls an “upward spiral.” This will result in personal growth, change and continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Safety professionals have an important job and not enough time to do it in. Applying the seven habits above will help you be more effective at your job and make the most of the time you do have.
