Effective leaders are important to all industries.  Good leaders can have various qualities that make each leader unique. The best safety leaders are those that model safe work behaviors and actively encourage employees to be engaged and active in the company safety culture. There are two types of leaders: transactional, meaning the interests of the team are aligned with the organization and transformational which encourages workers to move toward a unified goal.  Both types of leaders can be effective in accomplishing the safety objectives and improving the safety culture in the organization. Read more about how the two types of leaders can affect change in an organization. According the article, studies have shown that incentive programs that reward achieving goals for recordable accidents and incidents can discourage reports of injuries.  This may be true in a passive and reactive type incentive program, but there are incentive programs available that reward employees for being proactive and finding and reporting accidents and concerns that could be prevented.  This type of proactive program helps transform the incentive program from transactional to transformative. If you have any questions about how you can implement a proactive safety rewards program at your company, contact intRAtrain by Russell Associates at 507.665.6266.