By S.S. Suarez
“What are the characteristics of a good safety engineer/officer?”
I came across this question while I was visiting the Facebook page of the Safety Officer and Practitioners Group. Actually, I was also asked this question many times over during my safety lectures. Once I posed the same question to my participants to get their feel and their opinion on the subject. As expected, the question elicited different answers. I don’t want to sound preachy or self-righteous either while I try to shortlist the 10 important qualities of a safety practitioner.
So what makes a safety officer tick? Rather than focusing on skills, I emphasized on the intangible traits a safety practitioner should possess. Ability to conduct inspections, audits, training, analytical and other technical skills can be acquired through training. However, learning the intangible traits is an entirely different matter. But I can share some stuff based on personal experiences.
Here is my list of the 10 characteristics of a good safety practitioner:
1) Genuine concern for people. This definitely tops my list. Being a safety officer is a vocation. It is more than a job, it is an advocacy. One must be ready for self-sacrifice rather than being self-centered and self-serving. The responsibility attached to this job is larger than our individual self. If a safety officer fails to conduct inspection, audit or training, the consequences could be damaging, or worse, fatal. Whenever I get weary, I motivate myself with this thought -- that our profession plays an important role in preventing accidents and saving lives. If there is negligence on our part, we are accountable for our actions. Remember the Deming Principle. Most accidents traced their root causes to mismanagement. As part of management, what a safety officer does or failed to do will always have an impact on people and systems. We are given a privilege and duty to make a difference on people’s lives with our safety lectures and leadership. This is how real men are separated from the boys. Safety officers without higher purpose take their jobs lightly and see it as another way to earn a living. But real safety officers take their jobs seriously because they believe in a higher purpose.
2) Leadership by example. This maybe too cliché already but it still works. To quote William Wallace in the award-winning film Braveheart, “Men don’t follow titles, they follow courage”. The late Sec. Jesse Robredo said the same thing after he was bypassed three times by the Commission on Appointment as DILG secretary, “Never mind the (CA) confirmation, our people (in DILG) only look for actions”. Safety officers must be able to walk the talk. In our profession, credibility is very important. The medium is the message and we are the medium. What we do and say is always connected. As a saying goes, you cannot give what you don’t have. A classic example is when an insurance agent has been pestering me for years to acquire life insurance. But when I finally asked him if he himself has an insurance policy, he sheepishly replied, “No, I don’t have one yet.” Practice what you preach then people will comply and follow you. We must live, breathe and think of safety 24 hours a day. This is easier said than done but that’s what we are. We are a living testament to our safety programs.
3) Hungry for knowledge. I am envious of my daughter’s craving for knowledge. She never gets tired of reading, exploring and learning new things. Whether or not it’s the arts, music and food science, she is a voracious reader. Continuous learning is one of life’s lessons that we should not ignore. Learning does not stop when we graduate from school. As safety practitioner, we must continually upgrade ourselves, intellectually and emotionally. Gone are the days when safety officers are only knowledgeable in safety. Today, the safety officer is also tasked to conduct quality and environmental audits. Integrated management system is not merely a fad. It is now a reality in every industry. Thus the safety officer must be able to cope up fast by getting out of his “comfort zone”. Don’t play it safe. Try to do things that you have not done before. Successful people faced risks to achieve what they have gained in life. If we failed once, we should not be afraid to try again. Take Thomas Edison’s example. Failure did not stop him to create inventions. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work,” he said. Don’t rest on your past laurels. A little knowledge could be dangerous. Take up advanced courses on safety. Learn new things. Discover new places. Meet new friends, expand your network. Read new books. Expound your horizon. The public who are attending our lectures deserve to know the latest trends and best practices in safety. Our God-given talents would be useless if we don’t apply and share them. God gave us tools, now it’s our duty to use them. Life is too short to put these talents to waste.
4) Result-oriented rather than task-oriented. Nowadays, the safety officer no longer works alone. Organizations are now getting rid of the “silo” mentality, hence quality, safety and environmental management systems have been integrated. With increased awareness, companies now understand the importance of having a safety officer. The safety officer is now part of something big, a grander scale to effect change in organizations. He is part of a working team to get things done and ensure that results are happening. Our job does not end with accomplishing our individual tasks. It ends when we achieve the desired results or the end-goal of the team. When faced with challenges on the job, we must not get distracted. We maintain our focus and remain result-oriented. “Be part of the solution, not the problem,” my boss always says. Inspirational speaker Francis Kong came up with “The Loser’s Creed” in his book entitled “The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”. In his book, he said that losers retreat when the going gets tough. A loser is someone who whines a lot, blames others except himself. He complains when things get rough, but avoids the extra work or doing the extra mile when adversity comes.
5) Humility. With newfound knowledge and authority, the safety officer must show humility. The late DILG secretary is humility personified. He did not crave for attention and recognition. He’d rather does his task silently without the hype. We could learn a lesson or two from him about humility. If we don't get credit for what we have accomplished, don't fret. It is God's way of teaching us humility. That is why recognition and accolades should not be our motivation. Recognition or promotion should never go to our heads. Pride is like venom that inflicts the mind and heart with jealousy and restlessness. If we are boastful, we will never be contented. Boastful people are just pretenders to what they are really not. If we are sincere and have genuine concern for our fellow being, that is more than enough to motivate us in our work. Sometimes, it is a thankless job but we can find satisfaction and fulfillment with the number of lives we touched.
(To be continued…)
