Frontline Fundamentals – ‘The Art of Safety C5 Leadership – David McPeak, CUSP

March 17, 2023

Step one in The Art of Safety is optimizing culture and relationships, which involves being a C5 Safety Leader. C5 Leadership is about strategically using positional authority while growing personal influence. It’s critical to understand everyone has dual roles in safety as a leader and task performer. C5 Safety Leadership is a simple, practical, and effective approach to improve safety leadership skills.

34 min.

Frontline Fundamentals – ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ written by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

January 20, 2023

Listen to David McPeak, CUSP talk about the book ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’, written by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

56 min.

Frontline Fundamentals – ‘No Compromise’ with author Ken Sheridan

November 17, 2022

Author Ken Sheridan explains what an organization needs to do to get safety right – including the how and the why.

61 min.

Special Edition – Frontline Fundamentals – The 8 Habits of a Highly Effective Safety Culture with author Rod Courtney, CUSP

September 23, 2022

Rod Courtney is the author of The Eight Habits of a Highly Effective Safety Culture. Each habit is a standalone principle that promotes safety and the well-being of your workforce. All of them together provide a comprehensive picture of what a successful safety and health management system looks like and a powerful lesson of how to lead safety. During this session, Rod will discuss the habits and answer questions.

• Check out Rod Courtney’s book here – Link to Rod’s book
• Check out David’s book here –  Link to David’s book

59 min.

It’s Your Ship

September 2, 2022

Understanding. That’s a one-word summary of why you should read this book and what you will learn from it. Understanding yourself first and then understanding others. Understanding what others expect from you and your team and understanding situations and the impacts of your decisions. Finally, my favorite line from the book, understanding the more control you give up, the more command you get. It’s your ship!

38 min.

The Success Principles

August 19, 2022

Topics Covered:

• Extreme Ownership
• Normalization of Deviation
• Us Versus Them Mentalities

Have you ever read a book and ended up with so many sticky notes as placeholders, highlights and margin notes it was difficult to read again? This is one of those books for me. I was expecting a bunch of cool SEAL stories, which I got. What I wasn’t expecting and was thrilled to see is how insightful and practical the book is for individuals and organizations. In this presentation we’ll establish what Extreme Ownership means and how we can apply it to our leadership and safety. Following that, we’ll use exerts from the book to discuss specific challenges we face every day and principles that will help us overcome those challenges. As the authors say, “The principles are simple, but not easy. Taking ownership for mistakes and failures is hard. But doing so is key to learning, to developing solutions, and, ultimately, to victory.”

51 min.

Extreme Ownership

August 8, 2022

Have you ever read a book and ended up with so many sticky notes as placeholders, highlights and margin notes it was difficult to read again? This is one of those books for me. I was expecting a bunch of cool SEAL stories, which I got. What I wasn’t expecting and was thrilled to see is how insightful and practical the book is for individuals and organizations. In this presentation we’ll establish what Extreme Ownership means and how we can apply it to our leadership and safety. Following that, we’ll use exerts from the book to discuss specific challenges we face every day and principles that will help us overcome those challenges. As the authors say, “The principles are simple, but not easy. Taking ownership for mistakes and failures is hard. But doing so is key to learning, to developing solutions, and, ultimately, to victory.”

49 min. 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

July 18, 2022

Most people are familiar with the title “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” but they may not be aware of the book’s subtitle: “Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.” That’s why I am highlighting this book first in this series of articles – because, as Covey said, “If I want to change my situation, I have to focus on the one thing I can control – myself.”

This establishes a theme that will continue throughout each of the books I have chosen for this series. Successful and effective people are accountable and responsible to and for themselves and their teams. And perhaps most importantly, they understand how to use the gap between a stimulus or event and their response with a focus on their desired outcome in decision making.

60 min. 

Safety Axioms

July 15, 2022

Too often we focus so much on the nuts and bolts of safety (e.g., grounding procedures, Ohm’s law, work methods for a pole-top rescue) that we lose sight of the big picture. There’s no doubt the nuts and bolts are important, but they lose value if we don’t understand and apply the following safety axioms: Safety must be led, Culture drives behavior, people are not how we wish they were, Replace common sense with common knowledge, Measure what you want, Know the power of why and what, Engage in safety by design and defense in depth, Never need protective equipment including PPE, and Make everything plural.

56 min. 

Common Sense

July 8, 2022

How did you learn the stove was hot? Common sense tells us we have an innate awareness of hazards and yet I’m guessing most of us touched it and learned it was hot. What about brushing your teeth? Ever hurt yourself doing that? When was the last time you locked your keys in your vehicle or slipped on ice? Have you ever run into a stationary object while driving? Common sense would tell us these things should never happen and yet they do.

60 min. 

Hazards Do Not Discriminate

July 1, 2022

Hazards do not discriminate nor should we. If you have seen Game of Thrones, you understand how infighting among groups and teams can become so severe, they lose sight of their real enemy. Don’t let that be true with your team and hazards. Learn and apply the importance of teamwork in hazard identification and control to keep you and your team safe.

55 min. 

Improving Job Briefings

August 31, 2021

Improving your job briefings can lead to greater safety, productivity, quality, system reliance and customer satisfaction. So why is it that many leaders make the mistake of making their job briefings monotonous and uninspiring? Citing an insightful segment from the popular Frontline utility safety leadership training program, David McPeak breaks down how to have thoughtful, confident and impactful job briefings.

24 min. with David McPeak

How Common is Common Sense?

June 25, 2021

How did you learn the stove was hot? Common sense tells us we have an innate awareness of hazards and yet I’m guessing most of us touched it and learned it was hot. What about brushing your teeth? Ever hurt yourself doing that? When was the last time you locked your keys in your vehicle or slipped on ice? Have you ever run into a stationary object while driving? Common sense would tell us these things should never happen and yet they do.

24 min. with David McPeak

Understanding Why Minimum Approach Distance Regulations Changed

April 5, 2021

Altitudes, humidity and transient over voltages, oh my! When OSHA updated its 1910.269 standards back in 2014, it brought about a number of changes to minimum approach distance—or MAD—requirements to take into account the unique environmental changes that can impact air insulation.  In this episode, Pam Tompkins goes over why those changes were made and how they help improve the safety of your workers.  This discussion was developed from our popular online, self-paced video-driven course, OSHA Electric Power Standards with Pam Tompkins & Matt Edmonds. This course was built to provide you with a simple and practical way to learn about OSHA’s Electric Power standards 1910.269 and 1926 Subpart V and provide you with expert insight and interpretations that help you understand the applications of the regulation. For more information on how you can purchase this course, visit https://ip-institute.com/osha-electric-power-standards/

10 min.

Are You Using a Leadership Golden Hammer?

December 8, 2020

To be an effective leader, one leadership style does not fit all. Learn why it’s important to adapt your leadership styles based on the situation, people and context in this podcast with David McPeak.

12 min. 

Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

November 25, 2020

Learn why emotional intelligence is a fundamental key to leadership success and how it helps create better communication amongst your team. David McPeak will give insights into the importance of emotional intelligence and provide you with some tips and guidance.

11 min.

What is Your Circle of Influence

October 2, 2020

What is influence and why is it an essential trait for every leader to have? David McPeak will discuss just that in this episode as well as provide some insights on how you can improve your own influence.

13 min.

You Can’t Lead Without Relationships

October 2, 2020

How do utility safety & ops leaders have healthy relationships with their team in ways that makes the team, its team and the quality of life better? Join David McPeak as he answers this question and also explains why it is impossible to be an effective leader if you don’t have healthy relationships with your team.

12 min.

What Leadership Is and Is Not

October 2, 2020

What is utility safety and operations leadership? How do influence, performance and standards apply? These are the questions David McPeak will answer in this Frontline Utility Safety Leadership session.

11 min.

Leading Change

September 24, 2020

If there is one thing that is especially challenging for people to overcome, it’s leading people to accept and embrace change. Join David McPeak as he discusses how great utility leaders lead change. This conversation was developed from our popular utility safety leadership program, Frontline.

17 min.