The efforts to transform the maritime industry environmentally and digitise operations are showing positive results, but the consequences of deploying such changes affect everyone, especially seafarers, who handle new devices on a day-to-day basis.

The culture of an organisation is defined by the beliefs and capabilities of the leader.

In a time of accelerated change, organisations often look to leaders for guidance, as “in most companies, digital acceleration comes as a top-down ambition” (Camille Egloff, BCG). High quality leadership and excellent change management, therefore, is crucial for the success of the environmental and digital transformations in the maritime industry.

“Leaders must manage the change or it will manage them”, Reed Deshler wrote for the AlignOrg blog.

Weak leadership provides no guidance. It confuses people, demotivates them and creates poor working environments.

To find out what makes a good maritime leader, Maritime Informa Connect asked Captain Pradeep Chawla, Managing Director of QHSE and Training for Anglo-Eastern Univan Group, and Captain Kuba Szymanski, Secretary General at InterManager, both of whom have a wealth of experience at sea and on shore.

Can you define what leadership is and why it’s important for an organisation to have strong leaders?

Chawla: “Leadership for me is the ability to motivate people to give their best for the benefit of the organisation. I think the expression ‘strong leaders’ gives an indication of ‘authoritative‘ style of leadership. In the modern world, especially dealing with millennials, a good leader needs to encourage participative management. Engagement and collaboration are the qualities most needed today. A leader is like the captain of a ship. The culture of an organisation is defined by the beliefs and capabilities of the leader. Good leaders inspire every employee to succeed. Good leaders create happy work environments, which creates positive energy and creativity in an organisation.”

Szymanski: “This is a topic I would like to see more companies asking themselves. I would like to see a workshop between shore and sea staff who could sit together and brainstorm this issue. Presently, we, as seafarers, are pretty confused. On the one hand, we hear that our management, our owners, are looking for strong leaders but in the day-to-day relationship and communication we can sense that actually we are expected to be managers. Shipping is increasingly going into the compliance industry where good followers are expected and not leaders. There are areas where leaders can really show their true colours. Everything is now very prescriptive and there is a lot of monitoring functions installed to make sure that regulations and procedures are followed. Therefore, I am not sure at what level the shipping industry really wants to have leaders. Historically, it was on board of the vessels as we wanted the ship Masters to be leaders. But today, I think we are looking more at the CEO level where we would like to see serious leaders, those individuals who would inspire and look after their subordinates – their ‘troops’.”

Numerous books have been written but there is no magic formula to create good leaders. It is a combination of qualities.

What are the consequences of weak leadership and what issues can strong leadership solve?

Chawla: “Without a good leader, organisations tend to drift towards lower standards of operations, slowly leading to lower profits and loss of reputation. Conflicts exist within every organisation. Good leaders are rational and are capable of listening to alternative view points and bringing about consensus based on respecting the different views. Weak leadership allows discontent to fester. Employees are de-motivated and the good ones will seek other opportunities or work at minimum efficiency levels.”

Szymanski: “Weak leadership provides no guidance. It confuses people, demotivates them and creates poor working environments. Strong leaders motivate people, evoke the very best in every individual, and create excellent working environments where every individual feels appreciated, respected and needed.”

Are there leadership and management styles that work better than others? What are they, and why do they work so well?

Chawla: “Psychologists have studied good and bad leaders throughout history and have found various styles of leadership. Numerous books have been written but there is no magic formula to create good leaders. It is a combination of qualities. What works and what doesn’t also depends on the time period and the circumstances existing in the organisation or society at that time. Hitler managed to convince millions about his viewpoint. Nelson Mandela had to suffer in jail for many years before his leadership style got accepted and won the freedom. In the era that we are now in, authoritative and harsh styles generally do not work in organisations, however there are present day leaders whose leadership style is abhorred by other nations.”

We believe that we need leaders, but we are not prepared to let them lead.

Szymanski: “I am definitely from the old school, where ships were allowed a certain amount of freedom and ship Masters were expected to be leaders. That was possible when ashore management was conducted by leaders too. Today, with the advent of people managing ships, who have not been in leadership positions themselves, we can see more and more micro management. My assessment of the situation is that we are in the transitional phase. We are leaving macro management in the past and getting into micro management. However, I believe that firstly we have not realised that yet and secondly, we still have false expectations of our sea staff. We believe that we need leaders, but we are not prepared to let them lead. As soon as we see independence we pull the reigns and bring those leaders back to comply with very strict rules, regulations and procedures. This situation creates a lot of friction and results in misunderstandings, frustrations and frequent errors. People like to be trusted. We work best when we are set common goals and allowed certain amount of freedom. We take pride in solving problems. We are not very good ‘monitors’. We get bored quickly when we take to the position of ‘human robots’. This is when errors, frustration, and boredom quickly sets in.”

What is the most important skill in a maritime leader and why?

Chawla: “Seafaring is like a religion. Seafarers from different countries share a common vision of leadership. I think the most important skill for a maritime leader today is to be able to convince his staff that he or she is a fair, just, caring and honest person who considers the employees as a family.”

Szymanski: “I would say it used to be quick problem solving. Also, because of the nature of our work, we were very good in multi-cultural groups. Seafarers were excellent when it came to reliability and resilience. The sea is still very demanding and unforgiving. It is commendable that we are trying to help and assist seafarers with technology, regulations and procedures but I believe we are relying on technology and procedures too much. We started ignoring people and their practical, first-hand experiences and we are starting to pay the price for it.”

What is the most important quality in a maritime leader and why?

Chawla: “Information age has put knowledge in the hands of every individual. In my opinion, the most important qualities needed are genuine empathy, honesty and transparent behaviour.”

Szymanski: “The ability not to give up, and a can-do attitude. It would be shame to see it go.”

Organisations need to genuinely empower their employees

How do you think the industry could reinforce leadership and management training?

Chawla: “The industry can reinforce leadership through mentoring and leading by example. Organisations need to genuinely empower their employees, not through slogans, but by genuinely engaging with their employees, listening to them and taking actions to solve the issues. The next generation will improve their own leadership skills when they see true leadership.”

Szymanski: “By learning from our mistakes and abandoning the blame culture, and by supporting individuals and allowing them to flourish. We should promote independence and macro management and initiatives that help seafarers’ development, which improve their lives at sea.”

Don’t miss out in 2018! Meet 150+ maritime professionals and discuss these issues and your ideas at CrewConnect Europe in May.