Guest Post by Bill Promfret (first posted on CERM ® RISK INSIGHTS – reposted here with permission)
Back in 1990, I was introduced to Og Mandino, a best selling American author, just three of his books, “The Greatest Salesman in the World” The Greatest Miracle in The World” and “The Greatest Secret in the World” these three books alone sold over 50 million copies, his lecture was on “How to write and Speak.” In his presentation, which had been a tradition for more than 40 years, was posted on YouTube not long after his death in 1996. In it, he explains the relationship among three critical elements of any level of success: knowledge (K), practice (P) and talent (T).
“The quality of communication — your speaking, your writing — is largely determined by … how much knowledge you have, how much you practice with that knowledge, and your inherent talent, and notice that the T is very small. What really matters is what you know. Og Mandino presented me with a signed copy of all three, leather bound books, stored in their own box.
Dr. Bill Pomfret relates his “empowerment promise” and then delivers on that promise with what he would call, takeaways for life. It’s on video worth the time it takes to watch, Bill decided to re-publish a song from his youth in 1959, “Deck of Cards” which he put on U Tube, feeling so proud, he practiced the teachings from Og Mandino, and he even presented it from the Pulpit in church, U Tube Address IL Silenzio Deck of Cards – Bill Pomfret
It’s not what you look at that matters, its what you see.
Of course, we all know that knowledge is king, but how can we know which resources will deliver valuable insights? The internet has made each of us content creators and publishers if we want to be. According to Statistica, as of February 2020, more than 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute, which equates to approximately 30,000 hours of newly uploaded content per hour. (And of course, YouTube is not the only video platform! By some measures, TikTok is overtaking YouTube.) It’s safe to say that everyone wants to share their knowledge.
Yet, the sheer volume of content can make it difficult to find the “good stuff.” Search YouTube or Google for even a seemingly straightforward question for instance, how to braid hair — and you will be served up an endless list of results.
Even a seemingly narrow search — for instance, combustible dust and sugar — produces hundreds of videos. And then, of course, there are the Google Search results.
It has always been very clear that safety leaders are expected to be experts in the technical aspects of safety, but it’s the ability to communicate about safety that sets apart the great safety leaders from the mediocre. There’s a growing demand for sophisticated safety professionals who can influence and engage on safety. And you know what that means – dollars. If you want to earn great money in safety, then you must improve your communication skills.
But what are communication skills? So many safety professionals think it’s all about writing in a way that would make their school teacher proud of them. This means being grammatically correct, no spelling mistakes and using lots of big words. After all, that’s how you get an “A” at school or in academia, not so.
While I can’t halt the information fire hose, I can help you find a stream with high value content that directly relates to your job as a coach or communications professional. It’s not who you know that matters-It’s who knows you that’s important, personal branding builds up your reputation to the point where you have a presence even in your absence.
Being an effective safety leader requires us to be thoughtful and intentional about what we do and how we do it – it takes time and requires work. Taking the time to intentionally think about leadership may not get the attention it warrants, yet it is one of the most important things we can do to raise the performance of both ourselves and our organization. Og Mandino provided me an opportunity and a challenge to fine-tune my leadership philosophy and focus in on parts of my own leadership that needed further development. You will be challenged to think critically about their own approach to leadership communication and gain unique insights that will strengthen their abilities as a leader.
Developing excellent communication skills is essential to effective leadership, the leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader cannot get a message across clearly, and to motivate others to act on it, then having a message at all doesn’t even matter
In 2022, there will be a dozen or so national and International events that can help you increase your knowledge of industrial or Occupational Health, Safety and Loss Prevention processes and modern Risk Management technologies. These conferences will bring together equipment manufacturers, subject-matter experts, and users of Health & Safety Management Systems and support technologies, many will take place at a unique live event. There, you can see, feel and touch safety related equipment from a myriad of manufacturers and learn from professionals experienced with your products and processes at these conference program, being the key note speaker at so many of these events that have provided me with an outstanding career as a motivational speaker, writer, story teller, coach and mentor. Sir Winston Churchill once said:
“The difference between mere management and leadership is communication”
Bio:
Dr. Bill Pomfret of Safety Projects International Inc who has a training platform, said, “It’s important to clarify that deskless workers aren’t after any old training. Summoning teams to a white-walled room to digest endless slides no longer cuts it. Mobile learning is quickly becoming the most accessible way to get training out to those in the field or working remotely. For training to be a successful retention and recruitment tool, it needs to be an experience learner will enjoy and be in sync with today’s digital habits.”
Every relationship is a social contract between one or more people. Each person is responsible for the functioning of the team. In our society, the onus is on the leader. It is time that employees learnt to be responsible for their actions or inaction, as well. And this takes a leader to encourage them to work and behave at a higher level. Helping employees understand that they also need to be accountable, visible and communicate what’s going on
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