Above my desk hangs a picture of a woman born in 1869—Alice Hamilton. She is the mother of industrial hygiene and the ultimate safety professional. I recommend that every safety manager read her autobiography, “Exploring the Dangerous Trades,” in which Hamilton details her safety investigations of armament factories in New Jersey, mercury mines in the southwest and lead smelters in Wisconsin. The first poisonings of some good people.

汉密尔顿（Hamilton）在她的书中讲述了与一位亲密朋友的对话，该书中的一句话挂在汉密尔顿（Hamilton）的照片旁边。Although the friend never roused one to a fighting pitch, Hamilton says she taught her a much-needed lesson: that harmony and peaceful relations with one’s adversary were not in themselves of value unless they went with a steady push for what one was trying to achieve.

“So often, I have succeeded in breaking down the hostility of an employer and in establishing a friendly relation with him,” Hamilton wrote about herself. “I have been tempted to let it go at that, to depart without unpleasantness. Then I have remembered [what my friend taught me] and have forced myself to say the unpleasant things that had to be said.”

这是基于诚实的领导力，这是保护建筑工人免受伤害的重要成分。谈论所需内容的能力，我们选择说话或不说话的单词以及我们如何以及何时说这些话，将我们定义为领导者。

In today’s highly politicized and complex project environments, you will run into risk-averse people who choose the safe ground and waffle and waver rather than speaking what needs to be said. I call this the danger of indecision. Unless kept in check such operational indifference will damage good people and the organization.

Reluctant Leaders

考虑一位经理，他试图通过宣布“让我们组建一个委员会来评估这一点”做出决定。他或她可能是不愿做出最终决定的勉强的领导人，因为他或她认为最好延迟而不是决定。

The cost to an organization for the extra work required by a tentative department head is easy to calculate. Start by counting the number of committees in your company, determine how many are “evaluating” something and you have your answer. When is the last time a committee was dissolved because its work was completed?

Certainly, committee input is critical. Opinions from those doing the work are the foundation for any decision. You must understand what it is needed from those you lead, and you must learn to listen to lead.

By the same token, a reluctant leader in your ranks will crush independence and assure that next great idea will never be allowed. A good leader makes decisions based partly on what their trusted team recommends but also while heeding some inner voice based on their own experience, many mistakes and some successes.

我了解到，如果您是领导者或主管，您的工作人员会根据听众的心情，信任，对您和环境的尊重程度来审查和解释您的每个单词。我们都认识到这种原始工具（语言），因为我们使用它来确定谁信任和不信任。

因此，请注意您的言语，因为单词可以用来掩盖真实的意图和含义。例如，当一个名义领导人说：“我的思考过程”时，请当心。真正的领导人说：“我想。”

Or when someone says, “Well, that’s how it’s done here.” That translates into, “Your idea is not welcome.”

听“β测试”，这是另一个迹象表明该人决心占据无所作为的中间立场。

然后是“将其提升到一个新的水平”。那是刻画一组无尽的增量成就，表明没有成就的机会。

So consider what you say – always.

I have learned to make my point and actually bite my tongue to stop from rambling. I did it today, and it works for me. Leaders say what’s needed, when needed and then listen. That is hard.