Building Credible Safety Leadership: Culture, Metrics, and Influence with Nicole Thunich
Prefer To Watch?
Nicole Thunich has led safety across multiple sectors for 30+ years. She shares a practical playbook for turning safety from a cost center into a productivity driver. We cover how to diagnose culture at the working face, convert executive promises into field behavior, and prove ROI with clear baselines and follow-through. Nicole is blunt about what works, what is noise, and how new leaders earn trust fast.
What you will learn:
- How to run a culture perception survey and turn it into a roadmap
- Why safety must be a core value, not a slogan, and how to close the gap from boardroom to frontline
- A simple leader visibility program that moved the needle in two years
- How to win early with low effort, high return fixes and build credibility
- Leading indicators that matter, and why lagging metrics alone keep you stuck
- Where tech helps today, from telematics coaching to machine vision and AI, and where human connection still decides outcomes
- How to “pick battles to win the war,” use influence without authority, and build allies across HR, Ops, Finance, and Legal
- Career advice for new safety leaders: networking that actually works, mentors beyond the safety function, and how to fail forward
Explore More From Here
Other Podcasts
Chris Vienneau of Clark Builders explains how crews are trained to spot the hazards that could kill them, sharing lessons...
Jason Ross of Bird Construction shares how a panic attack on a winter highway in northern Manitoba led him to...
Garrett Hill shares why crews take in the safety message once they know the person delivering it, and what ten...
Jacqueline Handy explains how she fell into safety from a marketing role, sharing lessons from New York City transit and...