Dear SafetyXChange Members:

I make it a point to regularly get out of my office to rub elbows with the pinstripe suits and bask in the ambient light of their BlackBerries and Treos. One of my recent "field trips" was to the World Business Forum: Leadership Speaks at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Produced by executive management education firm HSM, the event featured some of the top voices in the executive ranks. They came to talk about how to handle challenges.

The keynote speaker was former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who won national kudos for the leadership he displayed after 9/11. Almost four years to the date after that fateful day, Mayor Giuiliani stepped to the mike to recall the experience and share the lesson he learned from it. It was a fascinating and incredibly insightful speech about the essence of leadership. The principles he described apply not just to politicians but to safety professionals like you. So let me tell you what he said.

The Six Qualities of Leadership

Giuliani outlined what he called the six qualities of leadership:

Mayor Giuliani: The Face of New York City after 9/11.

1. Direction

"You must have a direction and goal or your leadership is reactionary," explained Giuliani. "Some elected officials are followers of polls." Good leaders accept the criticism that goes along with unwavering goals. Giuliani cited Ronald Reagan as a role model because of his ability to look to the future, set goals and then stick to them, whether they were popular or unpopular.

Giuliani's advice to the business leaders in the audience: Establish goals for your own company and evaluate every problem with the long-term outcome in mind. "Where do you want your company to be one year from now? Two? Five?" Giuliani asked.

2. Optimism

Giuliani credited optimism for driving his quick decision-making on 9/11. "I saw and lived through things I never imagined before and needed to be an optimist through the worst circumstances."

"My father taught me a lesson that helped on 9/11," Giuliani revealed. "He said that if you are in an emergency, people will panic. Become the calmest person in the room even if you don't feel that way." "Most follow those with hopes and dreams and have solutions to problems," noted Giuliani. "Pessimists will say that things are bad and will only get worse - follow me."

3. Courage

"Courage is not the absence of fear," said Giuliani. "It is acknowledging the presence of fear and overcoming it. Fear is a good thing because it acts as a warning," according to the Mayor. He cited firefighters as a prime example of courage. "They use fear to train, practice, reduce risk. They assess risk - not ignore it - and make the best decision."

4. Preparation

By mentally practicing for the worst possible situation, you can figure out the best way to handle things. Giuliani cited the New York Stock Exchange's ability to quickly recover from 9/11, saying that the organization was adequately prepared for worst-case scenarios.

Giuliani described the misinformation that abounded when the first plane struck the World Trade Center and how his team needed to quickly activate plans as events unfolded. "When the second plane hit, we knew it was a terrorist attack. This was beyond what we've ever seen. We had no plans for this. I had to start making decisions. I used the existing plans we had and built on them."

Communication became critical, and Giuliani's preparation and planning ensured that all team members were speaking the same language. "When I said, 'Cover priority targets,' our team knew what that meant. 'Get generators' - the head of emergency management knew his plan was to call GE."

5. Teamwork

Giuliani underscored the importance of creating teams that balance your weaknesses with the strengths of other team members. "No one single person can get you through anything difficult," he remarked. So having a team in place was crucial during the 9/11 crisis. "If I made a mistake, they could rectify it."

6. Communication

"It doesn't matter how good your plan is if you can't communicate it to others," Giuliani warned. "The best way to communicate effectively is the do the other five things and then just be yourself. 'Communicating' becomes just talking to people."

Conclusion

As leaders in public and corporate safety, Rudy Giuliani's Quick Leadership Tips can serve as inspiration throughout a career:

1. Train yourself to see problems as challenges.
2. Realize you will be afraid.
3. Do everything you can to learn how to handle situations.
4. Recognize that you don't know everything.
5. Love and care about people - not statistics. "Recognize that running an organization is about running human beings."

Have a great holiday weekend, everybody. Wishing you career success!

Lauryn Franzoni
ExecuNet
www.Execunet.com

MEMBER COMMENT

Katrina Relief & Safety Professionals

As a safety professional I was shocked and dismayed that the comments regarding the Katrina response by safety professionals did not have one reference to safety and health issues facing relief workers. Did the author ask questions or did she investigate the safety performance of contractors and their employees involved in clean up? Does the author know that OSHA has issued emergency guidelines for safety in hurricane response?

I would have hoped that SafetyXChange would have a stronger editorial policy regarding its titled interest. When we responded to the World Trade Center disaster workers, supervisors and managers ignored safety matters. Today there are many sick and injured workers who responded to the disaster. This may also be true with the Katrina responders unless safety professions put on their safety cap when they choose to go to assist in hurricane relief.

Victoria Cooper, Ph.D.
Department Chair Environmental Technology Program Wilbur Wright College
Chicago

EDITOR REPLY

Thank you for your comments. I want to reassure you that we are not unaware of or indifferent to the health and safety risks faced by the people involved in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. But the relief effort is a massive story with a myriad of different aspects. Last week's article was intended to cover just one of them - what safety professionals can do to help. But we agree that the danger to relief workers is an important concern that SafetyXChange should address - and we will, very soon.

Glenn Demby
Editor-in-Chief
SafetyXChange

LONG TERM TRENDS

More Jobs than People

Trend: Is unemployment on the road to extinction? According to a recent federal government report, there will be 151 million jobs in the U.S. in the next decade. But there will be only 141 million people to fill them.

Implication: Employers will have to compete for talent. This will force wages to rise and working conditions to improve.

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