For over 30 years, DAVID SARKUS, MS, CSP has moved and motivated thousands of workers to become safer, healthier, and more productive. As a safety professional, he has won several honors, including a Best Practices Award for TRW Inc. David is a frequent contributor and featured author for publications such as Professional Safety and Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (ISHN). He’s also served as Technical Editor for ISHN. David has written more than 50 articles and authored five books. He is the co-host of a Coastal best selling video, Safety Coach, which features one of college football’s all-time great coaches, Bobby Bowden.
David Sarkus provides the kind of value and impact that you need from a motivational safety speaker. He delivers personalized talks that will align with your next safety event or employee safety day, as a keynote safety speaker, leadership safety speaker, or even for safety talks related to safety change, safety teamwork, and yes, even servant leadership. David Sarkus can meet your needs in a more specialized way too – as a construction safety speaker, health and safety speaker, and workplace accident speaker. As one of the top safety speakers and Top 50 Safety Professionals, as recognized by Industrial Safety & Hygiene News, he has the skills, passion, and purpose to take your organization to a higher level of safety achievement.
Mental toughness is a very hot topic that needs to be embraced in order to reach higher levels of individual and group performance. It’s about getting knocked down and getting back up with greater resolve, focus, and energy. But it takes a certain mental fortitude or resilience not to cave into self-defeating thoughts that tell oneself not to “quit” or “take another path or shortcut.” It’s about not giving in to the possibilities of failure or quitting. Successful athletes, workers, managers, and executives need to have a well-developed mental edge, tenacity, and competitive drive that catapults them to higher levels of personal achievement and greater success in safety. Can it be learned or developed? You bet! Mental toughness can be strengthened, refined, and embraced as an individual and collective resource and your organization needs to know how.
“I have had the great fortune to have met and worked with David ‘Coach’ Sarkus. David’s message has helped me truly understand how to exert ‘influential leadership’ and effectively teach and help operational leaders to become ‘Safety Coaches.’ His approach and material content has changed the way I manage safety in a way that has created durable and lasting change. If you want to dramatically improve the safety performance of your organization, you should strongly consider working with David Sarkus, The Safety Coach®. Don’t accept the impostors!”
“Just a quick note of thanks for the tremendous job you did at our four Leadership Conferences. Our participant evaluations told the story – our participants graded us out above the 97th percentile in achieving conference goals… David we will be calling on you in the future, as a key element in our leadership development program.”
“David is a passionate and talented speaker who can bring out the best in the leadership team. His real world examples and straight forward delivery kept our whole group engaged for the whole session. I would highly recommend David to any organization.”
“I had followed David Sarkus for many years before he came to speak for my company, Alta Forest Products. His story often inspired me to press further with safety and leadership. In 2015 Dave spoke at the Washington Governor’s Conference—the first time that I saw his speak at a live venue. His message was powerful and hit home to the group of safety committee members that I had brought with me. I finally had the opportunity to have Dave speak for Alta Forest Products, and he delivered his story in his usual manner—with power, emotion, excitement, and influence. He will have you laughing one minute and crying the next. Most of all, he will have you taking a hard look at how you view safety and leadership. He will push you to change your paradigm about safety. He will push you to make your culture for safety one that others will talk about – positively of course. Finally, he will make you think about how you lead others toward creating a lasting impression for safety. I cannot recommend Dave Sarkus enough.”
“As a Kruger board member, but primarily as an interested party, I wanted to complement you on an excellent presentation. You really related with the audience and they listened to what you said. Not bad for a kid from ‘Bituminous Coal Country’. Great job!!!”
“David spent a few hours with our leadership team to talk about the importance of safety and ways that we could get our employees more engaged in our safety program. His passion and expertise really had an impact on our group and a year later we have cut our TRIR in half and have a number of facilities that have gone more than a year without a recordable incident. David’s presentation was the catalyst and a great kickoff for our renewed emphasis on safety.”
“If you are looking for a keynote speaker for a safety function, David Sarkus would be an excellent choice. Mr. Sarkus is an outstanding speaker that has a keen ability to capture and maintain an audience’s attention. He demonstrates an undeniable passion for worker safety. Mr. Sarkus interjects humor with a powerful message of caring and coaching. He hit a homerun at our event. David Sarkus is The Safety Coach®!”
“One of the best motivational speeches I’ve heard in a long, long time. In my 30 some years with this organization it was TREMENDOUS!”
“Please relay our extensive gratitude to David Sarkus for his excellent presentation. We, at Arizona Public Service Co., take safety very seriously. David’s message was powerful, poignant and personal. It was refreshing to experience a speaker that holds employee safety in as high of regard as we at APS do. David sends his message through personal stories, historical events, and most important of all, humor. Commanding a room full of lineman and electricians is no feat for the faint of heart. To have them talking about how great David was afterwards is another level, entirely. Captivating and informative are words that describe the experience. We at APS are thankful for the opportunity to have David and look forward to having him back in the future…”
