The safety coaching process

The five letters of COACH represent the basic ingredients of effective safety 

Caring is the basic underlying motivation for coaching. Safety coaches truly care about the health and safety of their coworkers and they act on such caring. In other words, they actively care (Geller, 1991, 1994, 1996). When people realize by a safety coach s words and body language that he or she cares, they are more apt to listen to and accept the coach s advice. When people know you care, Ihey care what you know. 

Our emotional bank accounts. Covey (1989) explained the value of interdependence among people—exemplified by appropriate safety coaching— with the metaphor of an emotional bank account. People develop an emotional bank accoimt with others through personal interaction. Deposits are made when the holder of the accoimt views a particular interaction to be positive, as when he or she feels recognized, appreciated, or listened to. Withdrawals from a person s emotional bank account occur whenever that individual feels criticized, humiliated, or less appreciated, usually as a result of personal interaction. 

Sometimes, it is necessary to offer constructive criticism or even state extreme displeasure with another person s behavior. However, if such negative discomse occurs on an overdrawn or bankrupt account, this corrective feedback will have limited impact. In fact, continued withdrawals from an overdrawn account can lead to defensive or coimtercontrol reactions (Skiimer, 1974). The person will simply ignore the communication or actually do things to discredit the somce or undermine the process or system implicated in the communication. 

Many people accept a collective or team attitude when it comes to work productivity and quality. Coaching for production or quality is part of the job, but coaching for personal safety is often perceived as meddling. People need to imderstand that safety-related behaviors require as much, if not more, interpersonal observation and feedback as any other job activity. 

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The safety coaching process described here is founded on the basic premise of behavior-based safety. Injuries are a direct function of at-risk behaviors, and if these behaviors can be decreased and safe behaviors increased, injuries will be prevented. Indeed, the well-known Heinrich Law of Safety implicates unsafe acts as the root cause of most near hits and injuries (Heinrich et al., 1980). 

Who will be on the steering committee to oversee the safety coaching process, answer these and other questions about process implementation, maintain records, monitor progress, and refine procedural components whenever necessary ... 

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