Posts filed under ‘Leadership Development’
The Season of Gratitude
Alex Pollock
The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas provides lots of time for reflection, assessment and for expressions of gratitude. In the last week we have all been reminded just how fragile and how sacred life really is.
I’m sure we are all feeling thankful for our spouses, family, friends, and especially children, but I wonder if “my job”, “my work mates” or “my boss” appears on our “I am thankful for” list? If not then I wonder why? What can we do to move these further up our list in 2013? Some actions may be beyond our control, but upon reflection we may have more options available than we initially think. An EHS career is a terrible thing to be wasting.
I recently read that “work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship and sexuality. Without meaningful work we sense significant inner loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically and spiritually.” ( “Every Good Endeavor”, Timothy Keller,2012.) Can you relate to these sentiments? Our need to work goes way beyond a paycheck. In essence our well being is linked to our job and our feelings of self worth can either be buoyed or dashed by the workplace experience.
Most of us in EHS roles are responding to a deep sense of “calling” when we go to work. We should be thankful and excited by this chance. We have a mission to fulfill as we eagerly embrace new and exciting opportunities under the “sustainability” umbrella. All of us should be loving our jobs. We should be generating camaraderie with our workmates and enlisting them to the cause. We must believe we can make a real difference to our environment as well as to the health and safety of those around us. Does this prospect still pump you up? I hope so.
Now to a closing challenge: Did you dedicate your knowledge, skills, passion and time into improving the life experience of those around you in 2012?
2013 awaits us. In the new year ,let’s all resolve to make a world of difference.
Leadership Traits of a Great President
Alex Pollock
With little Abigael from Colorado wiping away her tears as she realizes that television will no longer be dominated by the campaigning of “Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney” we can exhale a little and watch the respective campaign teams begin their post-mortems.
We can marvel how each candidate tirelessly shared his vision, rallied an army of supporters to win the minds and votes of the electorate and in the process devoured a mountain of cash.
In his book “The President as a Leader” (2011), Michael Siegel examines the skills of five recent U.S. presidents and concludes that four qualities are essential to have a successful presidency. These are:
- A compelling vision
- A committed and effective team that transforms words and images into realities
- The ability to select and deliver upon a few goals at a time
- The wisdom to understand the consequences of decisions that are made.
Powerful as these qualities are they are not unique in my view to the presidential role. They are fundamental to anyone in a position to lead others. May these serve as reminders to each of us that leadership provides a unique window of opportunity to make a difference.
Alex Pollock has been studying leadership effectiveness for more than 30 years. A former leader in environment, health and safety, and public affairs at The Dow Chemical Co., he learned that we all have leadership roles to play. He enjoys discussing new ideas and sharing practical ways we can all become better leaders.
Creating and Working Your Career Development Plan
Mark Manninen
As an EHS leader within a large corporation, I regularly get asked for input related to professional development. The difficulty in answering these questions is that there are no simple answers on this topic. Every company, person and situation is unique. However, there few items that have been helpful for me as a leader in my organization.
Having a plan of where you want to go and what you want to do is easier said than done. As busy as we all are, it’s really hard to set time aside to think about professional development. However, if you don’t have a plan, it makes it difficult to vision how you’re going to get somewhere. It’s like getting in your car and going on a cross-country vacation, and not having even looked at how you’re going to get there. A sketch or “mind map” can be really useful. As a part of this plan make sure to include both short-term and mid-long term components.
From there, you can incorporate the some of these short-term items as tactical action items into your annual goal setting to ensure you are taking the time to make progress on development. Developing a long-term plan can be tough. Work on developing skills that could be applied to multiple positions that possibly interest you in the years to come will provide more value (towards your long-term goals) rather than focusing on a specific title that might not even be available a few years down the road.
As you implement this plan leverage your resources to help you in this process. If you’re in a setting where you can make your career interests know to your manager, make sure to do so. I have found that having a manager who knows your professional interests can be very helpful. It provides more focused guidance and insight in many areas such as: skills development, expanding your network, setting annual goals and insight on opportunities not within immediate department/group.
A mentor or a group of trusted resources serve as a great sounding board and can be really helpful in providing feedback on career development and assessing opportunities. In many cases they have been in the same situation and can provide great input based on their experiences. I rely on a group of trusted resources. It allows me to get guidance from within my current organization, as well as input other resources outside my organization. With this approach I’ve been to: 1) continue to expand my network get great guidance from outside my organization, and 2) get specialized feedback when needed from individuals that know me and understand me and current organization well.
Be patient, the opportunity you are looking for quite likely won’t happen overnight. It may take time for an opportunity to arise. Sometimes it is simply being the in the right place at the right time, but usually there is more to it than that. With an aging workforce and change within large companies over time, opportunities will arise. If you spend the time now on professional development, you can position yourself well as opportunities arise in the future.
Mark Manninen is an Environmental Permitting Manger within 3M Co.’s Corporate Environmental Operations. In his current role, he leads a group of environmental engineers and scientists responsible for environmental permitting for all of 3M’s U.S. manufacturing and research and development operations, as well as providing permitting and compliance support for 3M international locations.
Using Change to Drive EHS Improvement
Stephen Evanoff
In a business, change presents an opportunity to eliminate environment, health and safety (EHS) risks, and learning how to initiate and drive necessary change is an important skill for EHS leaders to cultivate.
Here are a few observations on how to reduce EHS risks by taking advantage of change:
- Identify the relevant opportunities: One of the key challenges is to explain which opportunities merit your involvement and why. While this may seem obvious to you, it may not be to your leadership or to the project managers who are under pressure to deliver results on schedule, under budget. There are the big opportunities such as a facility move, consolidation, or expansion, and new or modified equipment. These offer excellent opportunities to implement fire protection systems, machine guarding, electrical safety devices and ergonomic principles. New or reformulated chemicals or materials and changes in chemical use offer a more subtle opportunity to reduce EHS risk by substitution, improved control and more efficient use. New product introduction can be an opportunity to address long-term, regulatory-driven challenges such the European Union Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive or the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive. New customers, contracts and suppliers may be game-changers where EHS requirements are concerned.
Business leaders need to understand the EHS risks and opportunities that come with these new relationships. - Get a seat at the table during the initial planning phase: This requires networking upfront with key process leaders as well as infusing EHS into the policies and procedures of the engineering, manufacturing and procurement departments. It also means engaging in strategic planning and product development processes. These relationship-building investments will pay dividends in the long-term. I have experienced missed opportunities due to lack of upfront involvement, such as failing to conduct a Phase I ESA prior to leasing a manufacturing facility and not specifying fireproof ceiling materials when renovating a building. Typically, trade-offs in material and equipment selection and capital investments are much more palatable when considered as part of a change.
- Make the business case in broad, but tangible terms: When conducting the traditional return on investment analysis that we are all familiar with, consider the financial benefits of EHS- driven investments that improve quality, improve productivity (e.g., more efficient material flow, reduced labor, and shorter cycle time associated with ergonomic improvements), reduce insurance premiums and avoid the cost of regulatory compliance administrative tasks (e.g., regulatory reviews, operating permits, and compliance training). Lastly, customer and employee satisfaction and retention are highly persuasive aspects of making a business case, if you can do it in credible, concrete terms.
- Reinforce the value of your involvement by measuring and reporting results: This is often forgotten in the swirl of the work day and the pressure to move on to new challenges. Once the change has been made and you are operating at steady state, do the analysis and demonstrate that the change has delivered what was promised. It will make people more receptive to your input the next time a change is contemplated.
What advice do you have for ensuring EHS is included in the management of change process? What lessons and success stories can you share?
Stephen Evanoff is Vice President of Environment, Health and Safety for Danaher Corp., a Fortune 250 global science and technology company. To learn more about the habits of effective change agents, tune in for NAEM’s Emerging Leaders webinar on “Strategic Influencing: How to Drive and Manage Change” on Sept. 20.
Stuff I Learned the Hard Way
Alex Pollock
I recently had the opportunity to share the key lessons I’ve learned in almost thirty years of managing and leading work groups. The exercise of reflecting on my work left me with a heart filled with gratitude. What a privilege it was to be part of the daily lives of those that walked with me, some for months, but many for years. I also realized that I got so much more from these experiences and relationships than I contributed. My learnings include:
- Leadership is not about position, it’s about who I am as a person.
- Leadership is not about being served, it’s about the opportunity to serve others.
- Leadership is about setting the vision and saying “thank you”.
- I can’t change anyone. I can counsel and coach them but ultimately change comes from within them and not me.
- People change as they climb the ladder. Unfortunately, egos get bigger. Be sad but not surprised.
- Ego is “edging God out” and many others who care.
- I can do so much more through others than I can accomplish myself.
- I get much more from people by encouraging them.
- I learned little when I was talking. Listening is an essential life skill.
- People need to know I care before they care what I know.
- Money demotivates more than it motivates.
- Perseverance serves you better than bursts of brilliance.
- Blessings are always around you…even when you can’t see them.
- I can’t control my circumstances but I can control my reactions.
- Moments of being in “flow” are rare but priceless.
- Be truthful in the small stuff and you won’t be found wanting in the big stuff.
- I must tell people how much they mean to me now…not later.
I hope you find these lessons thought-provoking. They have been wonderful guideposts for me.
For more than 32 years, Alex Pollock was an influential leader of business operations for the Dow Chemical Co., providing strategic expertise in the area of EH&S, Sustainability, Change Management, Merger Management, Public Affairs and Community Relations. He retired from Dow in June 2008 to pursue his passion, through his own company Equipping You LLC, to encourage and equip EH&S leaders to bring the very best out of their followers.
Sandy Stash: “Not on my watch”
With more than 30 years in the oil and gas, and hard rock and coal mining industries, Sandy Stash has significant experience representing business on controversial natural resource, public health and environmental issues. A petroleum engineer by training, she spent her early career as one of the first women to work as a drilling engineer and drilling rig foreman at ARCO locations across North America. Today she is the Global Senior Vice President of Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Operational Assurance at Talisman Energy. Her current project is introducing a holistic operational management framework that will govern risk management across Talisman’s global businesses. We spoke with her at NAEM’s recent Environmental Women’s Leadership Roundtable about her career.
GT: You were one of the first women to work as a drilling engineer. What was it like for you back then?
SS: Actually, it was a blast! In all seriousness, I made a conscious decision, particularly as a woman, to get some good solid field experience. The first thing I learned about was the equipment. I also gained a better understanding of the culture of the oil industry. And finally, I learned an awful lot about influencing people because as you might imagine, I was a 22-year-old female thrown on a drilling rig, ostensibly to be “the boss,” yet I really didn’t know what I was doing. I think I learned a lot about how to listen to people, how to influence them and how to build the teamwork necessary to make me successful.
GT: Throughout your career, you’ve also been involved with driving change in a lot of complex organizations. What are some of the strategies you’ve used?
SS: Well, first of all, it’s very, very hard work because I think that as human beings we tend to be change resistant, so I think it’s important to take the time to understand everyone’s perspective. Number two, there’s a bit of collaborative work that needs to be done to come up with a common vision. In other words, it’s a lot easier if you own part of the change, rather than having someone else telling you that you need to change. The third thing is that once you’ve made the decision, you need to be very clear about who is accountable for the outcomes. And finally, and this may be the toughest part, you’re always going to have some people who don’t want to get on board, and you need to get them out of the way.
GT: You have been involved with structuring the EHS guidelines for Talisman’s hydrofracking operations. One of the most important components you identified was a commitment to transparency. Could you explain why you included that?
SS: Hydrofracking or ‘fracking’ comes under a lot of pressure because of the concerns that people have about the materials or the chemicals that go into the frack jobs. Truthfully, it’s a very, very small percentage because mostly it’s water and sand, but we feel that we can dispel a lot of concerns and bad information by just fully disclosing what chemicals are in our frack jobs. And finally, by being transparent about chemical usage and whatever it is, the next very important step is that you actually set metrics to improve, reduce or increase whatever the metric is. So transparency leads to very important target-setting, which is important for all of us to continuously improve our businesses.
GT: You also said that your attitude when it comes to incidents is “Not on my watch.” What did you mean by that?
SS: I think that as HSE professionals we should be preventing accidents, not responding to them. We may always have the need to respond, but the more we can do in the way we design our plants, operate our plants, train our people and create clarity around people’s accountability, the better we will be at preventing accidents in the first place.
For more interviews with speakers from the Environmental Women’s Leadership Roundtable, please visit www.youtube.com/NAEMorgTV.
Aspiring Leaders Take Smart Risks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZmCNEFfAtM&list=UUVUkp0BUrdpiXhDnIVQLwWQ&index=1&feature=plcp
Amy Franko, Founder and CEO of Impact Instruction Group, shares her advice for the behaviors and attributes aspiring leaders should develop.
Susan Eisenhower: Leadership Requires Commitment, Service
This week, NAEM held its inaugural Women’s Leadership Roundtable, a symposium of women in leadership positions in the environmental field. The opening keynote speaker, Susan Eisenhower, set the stage for the conversation by highlighting the attributes that true leaders exhibit every day. She also shared stories about the leadership style of her grandfather, 34th U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Leadership and Management: “It Takes Two”
Kelvin Roth
There has been a lot of discussion recently around the differences between leadership and management. In fact, NAEM presented a great webinar in May about this very topic. While these discussions often provide good insight, too often they belittle the role of managers and stress leadership above other attributes.
To me, the difference between leadership and management is definitional rather than philosophical. Things are managed; people need to be led. However, in order to be effective one must have both leadership and management skills.
Effective leaders inspire others to elevate their game — but they also understand the technical issues, leverage their specialized knowledge and utilize data correctly. As the great Canadian physician Thomas McCrae once noted, “More is missed by not looking than by not knowing.”
Too often these days, executives seem to be in a rush to label themselves as “leaders” rather than “managers.” I believe we are currently seeing a rash of instances in which a lack of management skills has done in prominent leaders. A recent example of this can be seen in The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of JPMorgan’s recent multi-billion dollar investment loss debacle:
“On April 30, associates who were gathered in a conference room handed [JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie] Dimon summaries and analyses of the losses. But there were no details about the trades themselves. “I want to see the positions!” he barked, throwing down the papers, according to attendees. “Now! I want to see everything!”
When Mr. Dimon saw the numbers, these people say, he couldn’t breathe.”
This was a leader who forgot to manage until it was too late — and it resulted in the loss of billions of dollars.
Over the years, I have seen many EHS initiatives fail due to lack of leadership. But I’ve also seen just as many fail because they were poorly managed. While leadership and management are different skills, they are not mutually exclusive. Both must be present to be effective.
So the next time you see an article touting the importance of leadership over managerial skills, remember that the most effective executives and managers possess and use both. As the 1988 hit song by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock reminds us, “It takes two to make a thing go right/It takes two to make it outta sight.”
Kelvin Roth is President of the NAEM Board of Directors and the Director of Environment, Health & Safety for AMCOL International Corp.
Recipe for a Healthy Corporate Culture
Alex Pollock
What are the ingredients in a healthy company culture? Most of us recognize a healthy culture when we’re part of one and can certainly sense the cold chill of an unhealthy culture when we encounter it. I’ll stay on the positive side, however, and enlist your help in identifying the ingredients you deem are essential for a healthy culture.
- Ethics; the willingness to do the right thing
- Candor
- Fairness
- Lack of fear
- Leaders that create vision, care for people, and protect the mission
- Team spirit
- Questioning; no such thing as a bad question
- People performing at the highest level
- People recommend the workplace to family and friends
- Leaders genuinely interested in how employees feel
- Employee health and safety comes first
- The “do good” to “look good” ratio is in balance
- Urgency and excitement to make a difference
- Employees before customers
What have I missed? Isn’t a culture that makes “every day a great day” a beautiful thing? Which company cultures you think exemplify this recipe?
For more than 32 years, Alex Pollock was an influential leader of business operations for the Dow Chemical Co., providing strategic expertise in the area of EH&S, Sustainability, Change Management, Merger Management, Public Affairs and Community Relations. He retired from Dow in June 2008 to pursue his passion, through his own company Equipping You LLC, to encourage and equip EH&S leaders to bring the very best out of their followers.
