Building Credible Safety Leadership: Culture, Metrics, and Influence with Nicole Thunich

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