Safety Leadership and The Sense of Chronic Unease

In high-hazard industries-where a single mistake can cost lives, reputations, or entire enterprises-safety leadership is not optional. It's a mindset. In Safety Leadership and the Sense of Chronic Unease, Nelson Oliveros distills over three decades of global experience into a compelling guide for executives, safety professionals, and operational leaders who want to go beyond compliance and cultivate resilience. Drawing on personal stories, major industrial case studies, and the latest research in human factors and organizational behavior, this book presents a powerful argument: real safety begins with leadership that refuses to become complacent. Chronic unease-the persistent, structured vigilance even when everything seems normal-is explored not as fear, but as wisdom in action. The book introduces practical frameworks for assessing and improving safety culture maturity, building psychological safety, integrating risk management with leadership systems, and embedding a proactive safety mindset throughout the organization. From the boardroom to the rig floor, readers learn how to close feedback loops, empower frontliners, and transform weak signals into decisive interventions. Rich with examples from oil & gas, shipbuilding, petrochemicals, and nuclear operations, the book shows how catastrophic failures often begin with minor oversights-and how leaders who model chronic unease can change that trajectory. It also includes a supplemental chapter on mindfulness and resilience, co-authored with Dr. Taehee Kim, linking neuroscience with emotional regulation in safety-critical environments. Part leadership guide, part cultural roadmap, and part ethical call to action, Safety Leadership and the Sense of Chronic Unease invites leaders to adopt a new lens-not one that waits for incidents, but one that questions success itself. The absence of accidents doesn't mean the presence of safety.