Inside Mikel Bowman’s Journey: Mining Safety Director to Leadership Development Expert
February 13, 2024
The opening keynote of Demolition San Antonio, NDA’s Annual Convention and Expo, is Mikel Bowman, a consultant who focuses on leadership development and organizational culture. On Friday, March 8, from 9-10:30 a.m. CT, Bowman will offer his presentation, titled “Lead from the Middle.” Learn more about Bowman and all the education offerings at this year’s convention here.
We caught up with Bowman to learn about his journey to where he is today as well as his thoughts on the culture of safety.
Tell me about your journey from a senior safety director in the mining industry to your current role as a leadership development consultant.
My journey from senior safety director to what I do now is a crazy ride. When I became a safety director for the first time for a drilling company, I started influencing on LinkedIn. I remember the first time I got 50 views on a post, I told my wife: “Oh, my gosh. I got a post!” And then I just kept doing that. Then, I became part of a startup mining company, and we were growing crazy fast. I did this random post about safety on a mine site that I was on just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and my boss called me. He said, “Hey, man, someone just called me and asked who this Mikel Bowman guy is. I was like, “What do you mean?” He said they saw my post on LinkedIn, and it’s got 5,000 views. It just blew up. From that, I just kept posting about business.
As I grew with that company and started to become their general manager, and then I became the guy who was mentoring new execs and mentoring safety directors as they were coming in and helping move forward and fight for our blue-collar people. I started mentoring CEOs and presidents of companies. One day, my wife said, “You know, this is happening so often, I think you can make a business of this.” And that’s exactly what happened. We started Bowman Legacies. We’re a business consultancy that helps organizations with that human element of their business, whether it’s leadership or helping to deal with different characters. On the other side of it, we help coach CEOs who are looking to enhance themselves. How can I move forward? How can I lead on a higher level?
What’s your safety background?
As a driller, you become keenly aware of safety in the mining industry, because you’re exposed to every element of the mine site. A lot of the time in mining, you’re secluded to one area or one task, but as a driller, you deal with everyone, and you get exposed to a lot of different things. I’ve been on sites that had fatalities. We eventually needed a safety director, and I had my head wrapped around the human element. I knew I could inspire and bring people to where they needed to be. But I needed help on the safety side. I gave the pitch to our president that I thought I could do the job.
What does “lead from the middle” mean, and can you elaborate on the key principles or strategies to help individuals lead effectively, regardless of their position in the organizational hierarchy?
I’ve got this book from 1933 about managing people. It says the same stuff we talk about today. All the problems they had are the problems we have today. Nothing is new under the sun. What I’ve discovered is that we often feel hopeless, or helpless, in changing the culture of an organization. But what I’ve discovered myself is it takes one person. If you can wrap your brain around the fact that even though you’re not the president of an organization, your level of influence and your ability to inspire other people to do things with integrity, do things safely, and do things right, by your example, is unbelievable. Yes, there’ll be some naysayers. Yes, there are some people who are always wanting to do it wrong. But for those who want to do it right, it compounds, and that kind of energy is attractive. It’s like a magnet. People get drawn to it. They’ll start to draw to you and by your example, you can turn the darkest situations around, just by you leading from the middle.
Is there a need for these leadership qualities among blue-collar workers in particular?
Absolutely. When I was a kid, it was “Do as I say, not as I do,” and I actually had a boss who said, “I didn’t hire you for your opinion.” Those things need to change in the blue-collar world. Leading from the middle and doing it in this way where you’re trying to draw everybody in and you’re asking even entry-level employees how they would approach a situation causes many things to happen. When you’re drawing that team together, and you’re allowing innovation to be born within your organization, that’s when it’s working. People really want to be asked their opinion, people really want to be a part of the answer and part of that winning element. “I’ve been here for 30 years,” is not a thing anymore, and I want that to be a thing. You work for 50 or more years of your life, away from the ones you love, away from the things you love and enjoy doing. Why not lead on a higher level? Why not give workers a place where they can come to work and trust that you are there for them? And that they don’t have to hit a home run every week? Or their heads on the chopping block? That mentality has to die.