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Leadership and Culture
ExxonMobil
October 4, 2016
M. D. Weesner
Operations Advisor
ExxonMobil Pipeline Company
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Excerpts from Safety Credo
ExxonMobil’s Commitment to Safety Articulated
by Safety Credo
 Incidents and accidents are preventable
 Each of us must take personal responsibility for our
own safety and the safety of others both on and off
the job
 Business objectives cannot be pursued at the
expense of safety of the environment
 A job is well done only if it is done safely
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Our Journey
1980’s
Programs – Slogans, Posters, Goodies
1990’s
Operations Integrity Management System
2000’s
Behavior Based Safety Systems (LPS)
2010’s
Leadership, Culture, Communications
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Leadership Affects Culture
Leadership
Behavior
Culture
Performance
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Impact of Culture on Incidents
Number of Incidents
Facilities and Equipment
Systems
People
Weak
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Safety Culture
Strong
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Key Focus Areas to Improve Safety
• Improving Leadership Behaviors
• Understanding Worker Behavior
• Hazard recognition and managing risk
• Communications and field interactions
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Influencing Leadership Behavior
Increase/improve safe work behavior …
• It starts at the top
• Worker experience within organization shapes their
perception which impacts culture which impacts
performance
• Leadership must …
– Set expectations and vision
– Find real root causes and not symptoms
– Give and take real feedback
– Verify the way things are
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Influencing Leadership Behavior
Believe only way!
You cannot motivate someone
S
piritual
to reach a commitment
Engaged
level that is higher
E
motional
than yours
Understand
Boss
Intellectual
Political
Job
Self
You can sustain commitment
only when those involved
are in the top two levels … E&S
Compliance
Commitment
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Understand Worker Behavior
To obtain the behavior you want you also have to
understand why people behave the way they do
• Knowledge, Skill, and Desire
• Activators, behaviors, and consequences
• Reward matrix
– Sooner versus later
– Certain versus uncertain
– Positive versus negative
– Sooner, certain, positive exerts a much stronger
influence than later, uncertain, and negative!
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Hazard Recognition and Managing Risk
Personal Risk Tolerance involves three steps
• Identify the hazard
• Perceiving the risk
• Action to mitigate or not mitigate
Company High Risk Activities
• Managing risk also involves identifying the higher risk
work activities
– Examples include – Working at Heights, Opening Equipment,
Energy Isolation, High Voltage Electrical Work, Heavy Lifting,
Confined Space Entry, and Tank Cleaning
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Leadership Communication
• Build effective, positive interpersonal relationships
with workers
• Be visible in the field observing worker behavior and
testing their understanding and engagement
• Set clear expectations and vision for your workforce
and hold people accountable for performance
• Provide positive reinforcement for desired behaviors
– course correct undesired behaviors
• Actively Listen
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What Does Good Look Like?
Role of First Line Supervisor/Job Lead
• Directly engage workers in field to ensure job specific
work/safety procedures are understood and followed
• Safety meetings AND direct field interaction with workers –
address at-risk behaviors and hazardous conditions
• Assess performance – recognize good and correct bad
Role of Above Field Manager
• Verify that your worker’s are engaged, that they understand
your requirements, and the supervisor is doing his/her job
• Be visible and show commitment
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• To answer the question, “How do I know”?
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CARE Model Behaviors
Characteristics that Build Trust
• Credible – say what you do and do what you say!
• Action Oriented – pro-active in dealing with issues,
and focus on most important issues
• Resolve – set clear expectations, paint a compelling
picture of desired results, and follow up
• Engagement – listen, consult, involve, and
communicate
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Closing Thoughts
• It’s a journey …
• It’s about Leadership …
• It’s about engaging and aligning the entire
organization …
• It’s about asking, “How do we know”?
• It’s about being honest in assessing where you are
and where you want to be …
• It’s about creating a culture where bad news is good
news …
• It’s not about the numbers …
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