Leadership

Elevating safety through the leadership lens

Courtesy of the Construction Professionals Skillnet

“The job of a leader is to build trust, develop cohesion, create clarity, and enable others to thrive while delivering results in line with organisation strategy and shared values”. Great leaders don’t just manage work they shape the environment in which people do their best work and shape the cultural norms.

However, whether in construction, corporate, or community settings, a leader’s role can be distilled into five core responsibilities:

1. Set Clear Direction: “Leadership begins with clarity.”
2. Inspire and Influence: “People follow belief before they follow plans.”
3. Develop People and Teams: “The best leaders grow other leaders.”
4. Drive Accountability and Results: “Leadership delivers.”
5. Model the Culture You Want: “Culture is shaped by the behaviour a leader tolerates.”

In today’s complex construction environment, traditional trade-offs between safety, quality, and efficiency are no longer tenable. High-performing leaders are reframing the challenge and rather than balancing competing priorities, they are aligning them. By embedding leadership practices that reinforce all three dimensions, construction companies can unlock performance gains, reduce risk, and build reputational capital.

However, of the three, safety might be seen as the number one priority and it is not just a tick box exercise, it’s a mindset. And that mindset is shaped every day, not just by policies, but by the behaviour of leaders in what is said, what is actioned, and, most importantly, what is tolerated.

People take their cue from their leaders. If briefings are rushed, shortcuts are taken, if speed is praised over safe execution, leaders are sending a message louder than any poster or policy that safety is optional.

But when leaders walk the site and ask the right questions, when a job is paused because something doesn’t look right, when leaders thank someone for speaking up, we’re doing something powerful. We’re showing our teams that safety is not just a box to tick, it’s a reflection of our care for our teams.

Because that’s what leadership in safety truly is, it’s care in action. It’s standing in front of your team and saying: “You matter, your life, your health, your ability to go home every day and our safety values are non-negotiable”.

Great leadership delivers results without ever compromising people, being collectively accountable and be the custodian of our culture. That’s the standard leaders must hold in every shift, every decision, every site and the values and cultural beliefs are the responsibilities of leadership first and thereafter all to follow.

So, ask yourself today:

1. Is safety included in my team’s top strategic priorities, is it included in our cultural norms?
2. Do I visibly role-model safety behaviours?
3. Is my team trained not just in procedures, but in proactive leadership when it comes to safety?
4. Are my subcontractors held to the same safety & cultural expectations?

Construction Safety Campaign Podcast 2025

Listen to the full series on Spotify