Paradoxical Safety Leadership: Leading Safety in the Grey Zone

Safety leaders rarely operate in a world of simple choices.

Production versus safety.

Efficiency versus thoroughness.

Flexibility versus stability.

Leaders are constantly navigating competing goals, limited resources, changing priorities, and different perspectives, and under Australia's 2026 psychosocial safety reforms, how leaders handle that pressure is no longer just a “soft skill.” It's increasingly treated as a measurable part of the safety system itself.

Prevailing ideas about “great leadership” emphasise a heroic, decisive approach. But the psychological discomfort of competing priorities means leaders often relieve that tension as quickly as possible, and what looks like decisive leadership in the moment can actually be a “quick fix” that papers over the real issue, which just resurfaces later.

Join pracademics Kym Bancroft and Dr Tristan Casey of New View Safety as they unpack Paradoxical Safety Leadership, an evidence-informed approach, drawn from Dr Casey's own published research, that moves beyond behavioural “styles” into the underappreciated domain of carefully considered decision-making under pressure.

You'll walk away with:

• A clearer understanding of the tensions and competing goals that shape decisions every day

• Greater awareness of how pressure drives black-and-white thinking, tunnel vision, and ineffective ‘quick fixes’

• A ‘smart fix’ approach for integrating competing goals, finding creative solutions, and making conscious trade-offs

• A different way of thinking about safety leadership — shifting from ‘behaving like a safety leader’ to effectively leading safety through complexity

Presenters:

Kym Bancroft, Director, New View Safety (former Deputy Director-General & Regulator, WorkSafe Queensland) and Dr Tristan Casey, Co-founder & Principal Associate, New View Safety (Organisational Psychologist).

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