Tag: Leadership Development

Don’t Leave Employees to Fill in the Blanks

Written by Dave Sowers on April 26, 2016. Posted in iP Security Articles.

Early in my marriage, my wife asked me to pick up some groceries on my way home. This task seemed easy enough; after all, I had been feeding myself for years. How hard could it be? We needed food and the grocery store had food for sale. The path to success appeared to be pretty well laid out. All I needed was a method of payment and a shopping cart with four functioning wheels. As I negotiated my way up and down the aisles of the grocery store, I put great thought into what I added to my cart. I made sure to get the basics, including bread, milk and eggs, and I rounded out the cart with some...

Growing a Human Performance Culture

Written by David W. Bowman on February 16, 2015. Posted in iP Security Articles.

Human performance methods help us to understand some key aspects of business: accountability, conservative decision-making, and overall commitment to goals and values. These fundamental principles comprise a larger objective known as organizational alignment. The concept of organizational alignment derives from years of studying, using and teaching human performance techniques, and even from an old TV rerun, which I’ll soon discuss. The constant challenge is demonstrating to employees how to relate to management and vice versa. I have continued to search for the reason why there are disconnects....

Behavior-Based Safety: What’s the Verdict?

Written by Mike Caro, CUSP on October 16, 2014. Posted in iP Security Articles.

From its infancy in the late 1970s and early 1980s until now, behavior-based safety (BBS) has been a source of conflict in the safety profession, among company and union leadership, and even between practitioners. Nonetheless, after 30-plus years of use at companies that run the gamut of industries in dozens of countries around the world, it seems safe to assume that the theory and practice of BBS are here to stay. And since that is the case, this reality begs several questions. What is it about the BBS system that companies, safety professionals and practitioners find appealing? What are the...

Passing the CUSP Exam

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 19, 2013. Posted in iP Security Articles.

The Utility Safety & Ops Leadership Network’s Certified Utility Safety Professional exam is like no other in the safety industry. There is strict criteria an individual must meet to sit for the exam, and the exam itself is challenging, but for good reason. From the beginning, members of the USOLN exam development team challenged ourselves to create a valid process to identify the skills a utility safety professional should have, and then to establish a process to validate those skills. The culmination of these processes is the CUSP credential – a reliable means for employers to identify...

Learning Leadership: Leadership Skill Set 3: Self-Motivation

Written by Parrish Taylor on June 21, 2013. Posted in iP Security Articles.

A fundamental requirement of leaders is the ability to motivate. A leader must lead by example by first motivating himself. Once that’s been accomplished, a leader can then work to motivate others through the art of emotional intelligence. The five core skill sets of emotional intelligence empower frontline leaders to become more effective and efficient in achieving personal and team objectives. In the February issue of iP, you learned about self-awareness and the importance of becoming more cognizant of your thoughts and emotions. In the April issue of iP, you learned how critical self-regulation...

Oh, No! Changes in the Workplace

Written by Andrew G. Green and Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on August 8, 2012. Posted in iP Security Articles.

Change is rapidly becoming a common denominator for many utility safety programs for a variety of reasons. New equipment and automation bring changes to traditional work practices. Generational differences are changing the demographics of the workforce. Safety programs no longer focus just on OSHA compliance and lagging indicators. Certifications, such as the Certified Utility Safety Professional credential, are focusing on leadership, human performance, standards, hazard identification, operations and incident prevention techniques to achieve safety excellence. Introducing change into the...

T&D Best Practices for Crew Leaders

Written by Ronald J. Schenk, CUSP on October 20, 2011. Posted in iP Security Articles.

In iP’s earlier installments of the Supervisory Series (April 2011, June 2011 and August 2011), we discussed the importance of career development for lineworkers targeted for supervisory responsibilities. We also discussed the supervisory skills required to be effective as a crew leader or foreman, including a full article on human behavior and communication skills. In this installment, we will discuss a concept of fieldwork known as best practices. As you will see, it is not enough that the foreman be effective as a personnel supervisor. It is just as important to understand the work practices...