Leadership, workplace issues addressed in weeklong conference
How do you pick a respirator for ebola? Or deal with the use of medical marijuana in the workplace? These thorny issues and others were broached in training sessions presented at the 2016 Chicagoland Safety Health and Environmental Conference held on the Naperville campus of Northern Illinois University this week.
More than 300 health and safety professionals attended the four-day conference to take in 79 educational sessions presented by specialized experts.
"It's great for Chicagoland to have something like this for professionals in our field to be able to share, collectively," said Wes Scott, keynote speaker at the conference's Thursday luncheon.
Scott is the National Safety Council's director of consulting and training services.
A retired military officer, he is currently serving in the U.S. Army reserves.
"Being in the military kind of becomes who you are. I have a 'go' bag in my office and I have 'go' bag at home. I'm always ready to do what I have to do," he said.
Scott talked about how his military career shaped his vision and understanding of leadership.
"Most of my leadership experience came from the military," he said. "My personal definition of leadership is the art of getting people to do more than the science of management says they ought to be able to do. It's about motivating people to get the job done."
"The simple word that captures what leadership is all about is trust. Trust is the essence of leadership," he said. "In your company, are you simply doing what the rules say, or are you doing it with the mindset of, 'We're going to do the right thing.' Leading means we have to support (the company) mission to the best of our ability. How do we support that mission, but do it safely? How do we create that zero-tolerance mindset that says, 'We are going to do the right thing each and every time?'"
Scott talked about the importance of having a well-defined mission and valuing all team members.
"The mission doesn't count unless everybody understands it," he said. "Do they know that they're essential to the mission? People are our most valuable resource. Real leadership says everybody matters here."
Scott approached his audience of people often faced with managing dangers, hazards and even grim circumstances in the course of their professional lives with a measure of levity injected through wry anecdotes.
He relayed a story from his days as a base commander.
"I commonly would find a unit on base and go run with them," he said. "There was this one guy who was always the last guy. Everybody had a level of frustration with him because he couldn't keep up."
Scott said he took him out on a run and demanded a strong running performance.
Despite a few complaints, the soldier persevered.
"We made it the whole way. He made it. For the first time ever, he made it the whole way. When we crossed that line, his whole demeanor changed. That guy became one of the best soldiers at that base camp," he said.
Scott's conversational style and keen insights proved popular at the conference. "The most attended session we had this year is the one Dr. Scott gave yesterday titled 'Safety Leadership and Engagement," said conference co-chair Ken Orms, conference co-chair, said Thursday. Orms is a longtime member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, a nonprofit, Chicago-based professional association.
Three chapters of the ASSE - the Northeastern Illinois, Three Rivers and Greater Chicago chapters - partnered with the Chicago Local Section of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the Chicago Chapter of the Alliance of Hazardous Material Professionals to present the 28th annual conference, where attendees could earn continuing education credits, network with peers and relax at a golf outing today in Woodridge.
The conference was planned in association with OSHA, the NIU College of Engineering and the National Safety Education Center.