John Fulton is president of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company—at least until September 30 when he plans to retire after a distinguished career. CH2M Hill is a large construction and engineering firm that’s been associated with high-visibility projects, including nuclear closures for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
During his time at CH2M Hill, Fulton started a program to help management improve leadership skills and earned DOE’s highest safety recognition, the Voluntary Protection Program Star. In this article, he shares his successful leadership methods.
Learn Leadership
Fulton believes that leadership skills must be learned. He makes sure his managers not only know the safety rules but also know how to set expectations, hold people accountable, and help employees get what they need to work safely.
“Safety is a value that results in behavior, and you can’t change behavior without changing the value structure,” Fulton says.
That means leaders must act in an open and honest way, conveying to employees that they mean what they say. “If employees believe you, they are more likely to accept you. And more often than not, that leads to changes in behavior,” he says.
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Be a ‘Servant Leader’
“One thing I do from day one, and there’s nothing magic about it, is to establish expectations for how I want to do business,” says Fulton. He makes it clear to employees who he is, what his values are, and how he wants to operate.
The message is about safety, but it’s also about establishing himself as a “servant leader,” a manager whose job is to help workers excel in all aspects of their jobs.
Fulton’s role is to remove barriers that prevent people from working as safely as possible. “I also put that expectation on my management team,” he notes.
Fulton also passes on these essential tips you can put into practice:
- The organization will take a 24/7 approach to safety. “It’s not enough to have a strong safety program at work and then go home and mow the lawn in flip-flops.”
- All employees are to be treated with respect, whatever their role or title.
- Everyone is asked to give 100 percent effort every day with the understanding that some days it will be 90 percent, and other days it will be 110 percent.
In return, Fulton says employees can expect him to take full ownership of management decisions (“the buck stops with me”) and to communicate openly and honestly with them. Fulton delivers this introductory message in person or by video to remote workers.
Get to the Next Level
Fulton challenges top managers of already-safe workplaces to move to the next level. He does this by training workers to think in a new way—for example, by articulating the next level of possibility so that people begin to picture it. An example is going from a million hours without a lost workday case to a million hours without a recordable injury.
Committed leaders must devote time and resources to acknowledging safety achievement. Fulton is a believer in the power of a great meal. More than once, he and his management team at a former project served a steak and lobster lunch to several thousand employees in three locations over a several-day period.
“The employees were blown away and thought it was great.” A token reward like a coffee mug or a T-shirt is not nearly as meaningful as a catered meal with the menu selected by the employees themselves.
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Manage by Showing Up
The best way to ensure that employees have what they need to work safely is to walk the shop floor. “Show up on the jobsite in your personal protective equipment, walk the talk, and interact with employees.”
Fulton has been known to share a cigar with workers at a picnic table, and he’s a big fan of brown-bag lunches. By design, the conversation at these informal events focuses more on off-hour interests than on work.
Senior leaders need to get out from behind the desk and develop a relationship with their workers. If you don’t go beyond “preaching and writing memos,” you’ll never know what your people are up against, suggests Fulton. This is even more important for businesses that are experiencing cutbacks and layoffs. People are worried, and interacting with leaders can be reassuring.
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