“S.E.A.T.” Safety Coaching Method: Get Agreement and Thank Them

S.E.A.T. coaching model: get agreementWe’ve been looking at a safety coaching method that allows us to have a non-confrontational, non-threatening conversation with someone that we see engaged in an unsafe behavior.  The “Have a S.E.A.T.” coaching method starts with Stopping the Action and Engaging the employee.  The final two steps in this method are to get Agreement, and then Thank them for their time. [content_protector password=”seat-thank” identifier=”seat-thank”]

Remember, the S.E.A.T. method stands for:

Stop the action”

Engage the employee”

“get Agreement”

Thank them”

Now the first of these final steps is actually step # 3 in this coaching process; namely, to get Agreement.  It’s going to be important to transfer a sense of ownership for safety to the person you’re coaching.  So the goal here is to get a commitment from this person that he won’t engage in these types of behaviors in the future, but doing it in a way that evens the playing field, avoids heavy-handedness on your part, assumes good will on his part and gives him the benefit of the doubt. e-books-combined-new

So say something like: “[Name], I’m committed to leading our safety culture, and I know you are too.  I hope you don’t mind that I initiated this conversation.  And I hope you’ll do the same if you see me engaged in an unsafe behavior.”

This kind of statement communicates a measure of humility that’s needed in this situation to allow that person to save face and accept ownership for leading a safety culture.

The final step in this process is to thank them–thank them for their time, for their cooperation, for their consideration, and for taking the time to listen and engage in a conversation with you.  We began the conversation on a respectful note, and we want to end the conversation on that same note.

fctc-online-bannerWe’ll, that’s the “Have a S.E.A.T.” coaching model.  In our next issue we’ll look at a way to integrate this model into your own conversational style.  That’s it for this edition of Recordable INSIGHTS. We’ll see you next time.

~ES

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About the Author

Eric Svendsen
Eric Svendsen, Ph.D., is Principal and lead change agent for safetyBUILT-IN, a safety-leadership learning and development organization. He has over 20 years experience in creating and executing outcomes-based leadership development and culture change initiatives aligned to organizational goals, and he personally led the safety-culture initiatives of a number of client organizations that resulted in “best ever safety performance” years for those companies.