Occupational hygienist/ "How to develop a servant leadership"

Sept. 12, 2018 Occupational hygienist: Today I found this article by Jared Lindzon in the Globe and Mail:

Job: Occupational hygienist

The role: Occupational hygienists identify, evaluate and control health risks to workers. 

Although similar to more traditional occupational health and safety roles, occupational hygienists assess and manage risks beyond the legally required standards. Such risks can range from chemical, air quality, asbestos, radiation and more.

While the role has historically been most utilized by the heavy manufacturing, chemical and natural resource sectors, it has more recently seen demand in less industrial workplace settings, such as health care facilities and retail settings.

“Indoor air quality in retail and commercial and office spaces, that’s done by occupational hygienists,” says Paul Bozek, a professor and program director for the master’s of public health program at the University of Toronto. “Because of regulation changes in the last few years, more jobs are also arising in construction.”

Mr. Bozek adds that while a majority of hygienists work full time for large employers, he estimates that approximately 30 per cent to 40 per cent work as consultants for smaller organizations, or in government assisting with regulation and enforcement.

Most occupational hygienists split their time between evaluating hazards and training staff on proper safety protocols in the field, and evaluating safety programs and devising employee safety training programs in an office setting.

Salary: According to job listing website Neuvoo, the average salary of occupational hygienists in Canada is approximately $65,000, while the online job board PayScale pegs the average at approximately $70,000.

According to Mr. Bozek, however, salaries can range significantly depending on employer, experience, educational attainment and geography. In major urban centres, for example, supply is often higher than demand.

“My students, who are coming [to the work force] with a master’s degree and have demonstrated solid expertise in hygiene, they should be starting at $60,000, and that’s in the Toronto area,” he says, adding that those with only a bachelor’s degree could expect a starting salary closer to $50,000.

 “If you go outside of Toronto into other markets where it’s harder to find someone – out west, for example – you can earn $70,000 to start.”

Certain industries, such as oil and gas or rare metal mines, also typically offer higher salaries, Mr. Bozek explains. “If you’re in Yellowknife or Fort McMurray, there’s a 10- or $15,000 difference compared to [jobs in] Calgary, for example.”

Education: While there is no official licence or educational requirement for becoming an occupational hygienist, Mr. Bozek says most have at least a bachelor’s degree with a major in science, technology, engineering or math, and have taken some relevant courses during their postsecondary education.

“Most professional hygienists who would be doing it full time would be coming with a master’s degree from either the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill or the University of Montreal if they speak French,” he says.

Job prospects: Jobs for occupational hygienists are readily available across Canada, but remain more plentiful in rural areas, even with growing utilization by the service, retail, financial and health-care sectors.

“My students typically find jobs within three to four months of graduating,” Mr. Bozek says. “They might be more generalist jobs if they want to stay in a big city – doing broader health and safety or environmental health and safety – but it’s easy to get employed if you have the right skills.”

Challenges: Occupational hygienists often find themselves caught between management and labour, and are challenged to balance concerns from both sides.

“You have ethical obligations to protect the workers' health, but depending on the state of the economy and the employer, they might want to do the legal minimum under the Health and Safety Act,” Mr. Bozek says. 

“That can place you in a position where you’re making recommendations to the board of directors or upper management that labour doesn’t like, or vice versa.”

Why they do it: Occupational hygienists are motivated by the opportunity to help improve working conditions and the overall health and safety of workers.

“You’re benefiting the individual through prevention,” Mr. Bozek says. “You don’t save people one at a time; you save them hundreds at a time.”

Misconceptions: Mr. Bozek says occupational hygienists are often confused with more general occupational health and safety roles, even though their role is more specialized.

He explains that hygiene is a specialization that deals with the quantitative risk assessment and control of health risks, as opposed to just the general legislative requirements for health and safety.

“There’s an under recognition of the types of skill that is needed to do the job in certain places, and that can be among employers as well,” he says. “Because there is a much larger safety work force out there that only does safety and not hygiene, they have better brand recognition for some of their jobs, but they can only do the basics.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/career-advice/article-i-want-to-be-an-occupational-hygienist-what-will-my-salary-be/

Sept. 15, 2018 "How to develop a servant leadership": Today I found this article by Harvey Schachter in the Globe and Mail:

Servant leadership is much praised by academics and authors. It is sometimes cited as an antidote to leadership hubris, which we looked at recently: Instead of being full of yourself, have the humility to serve others below you in the hierarchy.

Some people take to it naturally; instinctively, servant leadership feels right. Others ignore or dismiss it as wrong-headed.

For many middle managers, it seems an impossibility. Their role places them in a perennial squeeze between serving those under them and abiding by the directives of those above them. They may want to be a servant leader, but that would mean being viewed negatively by a demanding boss. Yet this basic quandary is often ignored in the paeans to servant leadership.

The idea traces back to ancient religions and philosophies. It was repopularized in a 1970 essay by Robert Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader, which ignited a movement.

 “The servant-leader is servant first,” he wrote. “… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.”

It received another boost a few months ago in a book, Servant Leadership in Action, edited by Ken Blanchard, famous for The One Minute Manager, and Renee Broadwell, an editor with his consulting organization, who brought together a variety of experts to contribute articles. 

In the opening chapter, Mr. Blanchard says people struggle with the notion because they don’t feel you can lead and serve at the same time. He says you can if you understand that there are two parts to servant leadership:

• A visionary/direction, or strategic role – the leadership aspect of servant leadership.
• An implementation or operational role – the servant aspect of servant leadership.

Once direction is set, attention should be focused on the servant role but he notes trouble often occurs because everybody is obsessed with satisfying the person above them in the hierarchy.

 Instead, he argues the traditional hierarchy needs to be turned upside down with customer-contact people and ultimately customers at the top and the high-level bosses on the bottom.

 It’s a stirring notion but impractical for many middle managers in traditional organizations. Indeed, taking a customer- and staff-first approach helped get me fired once.

I find managers can be divided into two types. Some, instinctively, fight for the ideas of those below them in the organization – advancing good ideas, trying to protect their team from the stupidities that can descend from the powers-that-be and fighting for customer needs. 

Others unquestioningly enforce the ideas of their boss and the executives even higher in the organization (who, it should be stressed, in some cases can be highly customer-focused).

Obviously at times you can try to find compromises or blend the pressures from above and below into a workable framework. That is the essence of middle management. But in a crunch, you can be forced to take a side and you learn your personal bottom line: You are either top-down or bottom-up.

If you are in a position of power, Mr. Blanchard’s ideas can have special currency. We know there is value to serving customers, making them the top priority. 

We also know some successful organizations have a seemingly opposite philosophy of trying to put their staff first, since a satisfied, energized and empowered staff should lead to more (and more satisfied) customers.

Consultant Nathan Magnuson, on his website, suggests servant leaders must settle four issues. First, who do you serve? In that, he includes the community and investors in the possibilities. Next, how well do you understand their core needs? Not all customers (or investors for that matter) will have the same needs. “For your servant leadership strategy to truly work, you will need to differentiate the core needs within your group and conduct a thoughtful needs analysis,” he writes.

You will want some metrics to measure your effectiveness in pursuing those needs. And then you must get others on your side. He stresses you can’t accomplish a servant-leadership strategy on your own, even if you’re the CEO. 

“At the end of the day, servant leadership isn’t just talk. It’s action. It’s easy to say we believe in servant leadership. But until we have a strategy, we’ll never actually serve the people we need to lead,” he says.

So this soft, simple notion has a depth and hardness to it that is important to grapple with if we want to escape hubris and have better organizations.

Cannonballs

• Perhaps the most astonishing feature of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to use the notwithstanding clause to bypass a judicial ruling on his electoral changes to Toronto was how fast it was made. That fits the image he portrayed in the election campaign of a tough, quick decision-maker (like George W. Bush and Jean Chretien). Don’t be seduced into that style: It’s outmoded, patriarchal-based, but powerful in our minds. Give yourself time for consequential decisions. Consult. Consider carefully.
• A key sign of servant leaders is that they turn conversations toward others, says leadership coach Dan Rockwell, adding that one of the first signs of humility is open ears and a closed mouth.
• “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already," – John Buchan, Scottish novelist and 15th Governor-General of Canada

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-how-to-develop-a-servant-leadership-strategy/