“S.E.A.T.” Coaching, Step 1: Stop the Action

SEAT: Stop the actionIn our last issue we introduced a safety coaching method that you can use to coach unsafe behaviors no matter who it is you’re coaching, or what your level is in the organization. All it requires is leadership, confidence and a passion to keep people safe. Remember, the S.E.A.T. method stands for: Stop, Engage, Agreement, Thank.

S.E.A.T.

Stop the action”

Engage the employee”

“get Agreement”

Thank them”

The first step is to STOP the action. Keep it simple, keep it direct, and keep friendly. Say something like, “Hey, John, do you have a minute? I need to talk with you about something.”

The goal of this step is to remove them from the hazardous condition, and to get them to a safe spot so that you can have a conversation with them. So get their attention, and get them to a safe place, but do it without yelling or threatening, or being confrontational about it. You must do this in a way that deescalates the tension so that you don’t shut down the person you are coaching.

Now, you’re setting the stage in this step to engage them in a dialogue about the impact and consequences of that unsafe behavior. And we’ll look at how to follow through with that dialogue in our next issue. But that’s it for this edition of Recordable Insights. We’ll see you next time.

~ES

 

About the Author

SBI
safetyBUILT-IN is the safety-leadership learning and development division of SCInc. We believe sustainable safety performance is best achieved through a core-values based safety culture, and that culture must be driven by leadership. Our safety-leadership programs are competency-based, and focused on performance outcomes. We believe in building capability and ownership into our client organizations—as well as sustainability into our programs—so that our clients can continue running those programs long after we’re out of the picture. Our emphasis is on building better leadership presence, better leadership communication and better leadership coaching by first building relationships of trust with people and learning how to engage them on the level of their core values and beliefs.