June 12, 2019

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Health & Safety leadership, or just leadership?

Leadership is a set of professional skills we all can learn, it is about getting great things done through positive relationships and these leadership skills define your success as a professional, according to Dr Neil Sheehan, Director at ALFA Consultancy.

Neil SheehanThere are no secrets of how we lead our people, leaders need to be reminded how to engage, motivate and develop their influencing skills in this fast and complexed world of work. “As leaders, we have a responsibility to provide and maintain a healthy and safe working environment,” said Neil.

“Behaviour based safety has remained main stay for some time, but what is really going on below the surface and how can we delve into the human factors to increase health and safety?”

Neil has 42 years of leadership, both in the military and as a civilian, under his belt. “The model I use is applicable for all business, it’s not just for construction or safety. It’s not even about safety leadership. It’s simply about leadership.”

When people are looking for new ways to lead, Neil says people can find all the information they want, if they want to find it. “All that has been said and written has already been said and written, it’s all out there.”

“What’s needed,” says Neil, “is a recalibration. Stripping everything back to basics and refocusing on what they have been taught. We need to find is the practicalities of leadership, rather than adding extra complexities into an already complex world.”

Neil’s simple model is the universal military model, taught to him during his time at Sandhurst. It focusses on ‘Task’, ‘Team’ and ‘Individual’. “You can’t do one without the other. You need to listen to what leadership is and strip it all back to the root cause.

“Resilience is the foundation of leadership in this modern-day world. A leader must give Direction, provide supporting structure and allow their team the freedom to get on with it.”

Neil will be bringing this subject to life in a fun and interactive workshop on 19 June in the Networking Forum at Safety & Heath Expo. The session will look at the root causes and factors influencing our actions and will provide a ’15-minute makeover’ of pragmatic solutions that can be applied to improve health and safety in the workplace. It will provide attendees with the tools to make themselves better, their team better and their business better.


Safety & Health Expo takes place from 18-20 June at London’s ExCeL. To register for your free ticket, click on the link below.

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