Deborah Akinbowale, MBA, CSP

I attribute my success to my work ethic. I've realized that I have an impeccable work ethic that just comes from within, and I think it comes from being the firstborn. I've shown up as the first in different areas of my life - I'm the first grandchild of both of my parents, I'm the oldest sibling. I think that comes with the weight of helping open the doors or create some sort of vision for others to follow suit or be inspired by, and that's generally my driving principle. Watching my mom be a single parent fuels me, and I'm a single parent myself, so my daughter is one of those driving factors for me because I want her life to be even better than my experience. That's what motivates me and where my work ethic comes from.

The best career advice I've received is about taking the time to reflect on your personal goals and really own them. I've learned that visibility is just as important as the work that you do, so you have to be intentional about creating those stories and opportunities for visibility. In my earliest career, it was very easy for people to observe great work and pure talent and highlight that, but as you progress in your career, you generally have to be intentional about those moments of creating opportunities for visibility because the awards stop coming in that used to come so naturally. I wish somebody had said it as bluntly as that to me earlier. It's something I kind of gathered along the way, but I know that understanding this was the difference of transitioning from specialist to manager capabilities. Safety is generally a role that's not center stage, and I'm truly okay with being behind the curtains to be a support partner, but I do know that it's important to have moments of visibility.

I would first commend any woman interested in safety for the level of courage and bravery for willing to step up to the task, because it's a male-dominated field and that's something you're going to notice from the very beginning. My advice is to prepare yourself with being able to balance where you can be assertive and still be very amicable, but challenge the status quo so that you feel like you're able to find your voice in those conversations. It's not about being the loudest one in the room - it's that when you speak, it brings value to every conversation. You need to be impactful. Walk into that boardroom knowing your name is on that chair and you deserve to be there.

The biggest challenge in safety right now is that it's never stagnant. There are some core things that don't change, like compliance and regulatory-driven requirements, but staying fresh to what matters in the current climate is always something you have to have a pulse on. For example, going from the era of COVID where that was the priority to what the world looks like today - COVID is completely eliminated as a core focus, but some people's careers were birthed because of COVID, so now they don't know what to do. You have to know how to stay current to the topics that are going on and which ones are evergreen. There's a big focus on psychological safety right now, which plays into emotional intelligence and creating safe spaces so people can show up and do their best work. There's also the season of AI and what that looks like - it's intruding on every work field, and that's definitely a new area you want to have a close pulse on because you don't want to get bypassed from what is current and what is feasible. Safety is such a technical area, but you still need to be effective in how you engage and communicate because that's how you influence behavior. The rest of the stuff just feels like paperwork, so if you're not successful at being influential, you're going to struggle. Staying current with the trends is the biggest obstacle, though there are a lot of resources available, so it's really a key component in today's climate.

The values that are most important to me are the ability to show up authentically, lead with integrity, and walk the talk - leading by example to its fullest extent. I naturally have perfectionist tendencies, which I'm conscious of, but I'm also a realist knowing that there's no such thing as perfect. So I generally lead with a very high bar. When I really think about what is truly important, it's about taking care of oneself, but this is an area where I struggle - this is my opportunity. I can manage it for everybody else, but I know for myself that's always my biggest obstacle. I need to make sure that I take moments to recharge and reset for myself so I can continuously show up for everyone in the way that I'm doing.