How to Improve Workplace Safety with Coaching
Improving workplace safety cuts risks, increases productivity, and supports a stronger “triple bottom line” for people, profit and planet.
Companies don’t succeed just by following rules; they succeed by building good habits.
Research shows that when organizations improve their safety habits, the positive changes spread throughout the entire culture.
Performance Consultants has been pioneering a coaching approach to Safety leadership since its start in the 1980s. Working with industrial giants such as Linde Engineering to train thousands of employees in HSE and beyond, we proved that when leaders and teams build strong coaching skills, safety performance gets better, communication improves, and business results follow.
Another great example is Paul O’Neill’s famed approach to safety at Alcoa when he became its “Safety focused CEO” (1987- 1999). When he made safety the main drive, it led to more open communication, better problem-solving, and stronger teamwork at every level as well as commercial success.
More recently, Amy Edmonson, Harvard Business School professor conceptualized and popularised the idea of psychological Safety in her book “Right Kind of Wrong: Why learning to fail can teach us to thrive” and subsequent work. Prof. Edmonson notes that taking an instructional approach may successfully fix a single situation and treat the symptoms of an unsafe action – but coaching is more likely to lead to a long lasting cure through behaviour change.
The results were impressive: operations became safer, people felt more empowered, and profits increased significantly.
Why Coaching Improves Safety
Coaching helps build two key qualities needed for safe performance:
- Awareness of ourselves, others, and the situation
- Responsibility, which means taking ownership of actions and their consequences
Sir John Whitmore said that awareness brings clarity, and responsibility leads to better choices. Together, these qualities help people make decisions that keep themselves and others safe. Coaching turns safety from just a set of rules into a shared way of thinking.
A Proven Approach: Linde Engineering
Performance Consultants works closely with Linde Engineering to embed a Coaching Style of Management that strengthens behavioural safety.
The traditional approach of teaching safety through compliance training reduced accidents, but it didn’t lead to a big drop in fatal incidents. Linde Engineering saw that the next step needed to focus on behaviour.
Together, we introduced a new way of working:
- Leaders involve teams by asking better questions, not just giving instructions
- People learn from their experiences without placing blame
- Safety conversations become open, regular, and constructive
- Responsibility is shared by everyone, not just handed off to others
- This approach built a real learning organisation where trust and ownership help people make safer decisions every day.
“One of the most well-thought-out programmes I’ve been involved with… it will affect our performance in a positive way.”
James M. Suddarth, Construction Engineering, Mechanical
What started with 7,000 employees in Construction and Manufacturing has now grown across The Linde Group, with many people using interactive e-learning modules.
Coaching for Safety Performance Programme
- Three 2-day workshops
- Six interactive e-learning modules
