Learning from mistakes
I have learned a lot about people over the years. It came about through many mistakes.
The biggest mistakes led to the most emotional pain. We don’t think of these as injuries, because they are not physical, but in reality, if they cause us pain… then they are just that. Injuries. And we learn from our injuries. Or at least we should.
My emotional injuries came from the way I used to speak to people.
Without respect, direct, and uncaring. This led to much pain. And much learning. I learned that to be effective in influencing a safety culture, I had to improve how I spoke to people. All people.
I worked at it.
And as I did, I noticed something about my effectiveness. I became more….
Influential.
Why? Because I was now speaking to everyone with more….
Respect. Empathy. And understanding.
I listened more. I asked better questions to try to understand workers and where they are coming from, why they are doing it that way or not.
My tone of voice changed because my empathy changed. When you work to understand people, where they come from, who they are, what their story is, why they work and so on…
You become more empathetic and understanding. You become respectful. And people are influenced by that. It is one of the keys to influence. It comes about not only in words, but expressed in the tone of voice, facial expressions, body language, and ease of speaking to others. I stopped feeling the emotional pain that was caused by my lack of respect and started to feel the emotional highs of influencing others.
This is especially good when it protects workers from injury.
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Thank you for all you do for safety, and I’ll see you out there.
Seth (Aka Safety Culture Pro)
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