(47c) Establishing a Personal Philosophy for Promoting Safety, Health and Environmental Excellence

Successful managers have long recognized Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE)

performance as an essential factor for outstanding industrial operations. In recent years, however, the requirement for a personal commitment to SHE by front-line managers has taken on the added dimension of representing how they are perceived by wider stakeholder audiences, including employees, family members, communities, news media, governmental agencies and ? with increasing scrutiny ? financial markets. Additionally, overall SHE performance has become a key determinant in whether an organization ? public or private ? even continues to exist or not.

Programs designed and implemented to achieve new and/or expanded SHE success can strengthen organizational performance ? most notably, financial results. At the new heart

of SHE continuous improvement is the need for operating managers to develop and adopt

a Personal Philosophy for SHE excellence.

Based on lessons I have learned through the years, essential components of a SHE Personal Philosophy should, at a minimum, include:

? Recognition that delivering outstanding SHE performance to Stakeholders---Family, Community, Co-Workers, Regulators, Customers, ---is everyone's Responsibility

? Excellence in HSE improves Financial performance

? Meeting or exceeding HSE goals satisfies the Permissive for allowing continued operations

In short, line operating managers can no longer simply delegate SHE responsibility to

staff and back office administrators. Lip service is unacceptable. The consequence of any commitment less than passionately promoting a Personal Philosophy can become career limiting for line managers ? and undesirable for the overall organization.