It’s been a hectic start to the year. Stonefort has been designing and delivering maritime leadership training at scale. We’ve been working with clients and their maritime leaders – from both ship & shore, in the UK as well as further afield – to help them grapple with the multiple demands of being a modern leader in the maritime environment.

Nowhere to hide (for us!)

A room full of 70, international ‘top 4’ officers really tests your training materials and methods. There’s nowhere to hide. It’s all very well throwing out bold statements like, ‘Psychological safety is foundational’ and, ‘In the maritime world of the future, you’ll need more than one style of leadership.’ No-one (literally, no-one!) is going to take your word for it unless you can make them feel how much it matters. So we back it up with practical scenarios (1:1 conversations in a variety of situations), simulated voyages and real-life examples. It makes a difference that everyone from Stonefort is from a maritime background (we can argue and debate from a position of credibility) but we’re under no illusion: these are tough conversations with professionals delivering a tough job!

Increasing demands

The themes that emerge when we ask people what are today’s leadership challenges?

Time. There’s no time! More inspections, fewer crew.

Cultural barriers. The difficulty of connecting & leading across nationalities.

Generational expectations. The expectations from today’s emerging leaders are very different from those of leaders who entered the maritime sector 20 years ago.

The paradox?

The maritime leaders of the next 20 years need new skills. But many of them are not yet convinced. At sea, a command-and-control approach to being a leader has worked well for centuries. It won’t work for centuries more.

The paradox is this: we’re asking people to lead differently, to meet those emerging generational expectations. Undoubtedly, this is the right thing to do. But it feels like a loss of control. Like a risk. If it’s not about simply telling people what to do, how can today’s leaders be sure their teams / crew will do what they ask if they lead differently?

The ROI of resolving the paradox

Working with leaders to resolve that paradox. To show, practically, that different ways of leading work better. That’s what modern maritime leadership training needs to do. That’s what we do in Stonefort; even when – in the room and with nowhere to hide – it can be a tough, tough conversation! The results? Improved retention, greater talent attraction and (most importantly) safer, more efficient operations.

If you have any further questions, please contact us for more information.