DARE to Correct Employees

Will you DARE to correct your team?

Jerome, Superintendent, for a general contractor in Battle Ground, WA., told Session 8b of Turbo’s Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

“About a month and a half ago I got a call from our safety officer, he was letting me know that he had found a hook without a safety latch on Kyle’s truck. I called Kyle and told him that I just got chewed out by the safety officer because he had an open hook on his truck.  I told him to get it fixed.

“About a week ago I was on Kyle’s site and did an impromptu rigging check.  I found a set of two way chains that were missing the certification tags that ensure they are safe and legal to use. I thought to myself, well, the abrupt phone call last time didn’t work so it’s time to hit Kyle with some genuine Leadership Development Lab, DARE+ correction.

“I brought Kyle over and explained to him that I had found untagged rigging on his work truck. Then I asked him what happened.  He said that he was not sure where they had come from or how long they had been there but he was sure that the crew had not been using them. I reminded him of our standard that all rigging stored on a work truck must be tagged with the weight it is certified to lift.  I explained that this is important because we do not want a new guy on the job grabbing untagged rigging without looking at it.  I also explained that we do not want to argue with OSHA about untagged rigging because this would result in a fine even if we were not using it. They are pretty clear about rigging that is not tagging be disposed of or being marked “do not” use until it is recertified.   I asked him if I could get him to agree to keep only tagged rigging on his work truck.  Kyle did agree to this.

“The best part was that I was able to dissect DARE + with him with a fresh example to look at. In doing this I was able to empower him to use DARE+ with his crew.

“The lesson I learned is that DARE+ works for me. I can in a respectful way secure the agreement required to keep us running safely.”

“The action I call you to take is to commit to passing DARE+ and positive coaching onto your team members and help them use these performance improving tools to gain improved work habits.

“The benefit you will gain is your crews will be more disciplined and productive on their own, and you will find it easy to beat the bid.”