Hard to build, easy to break?
Captains Joe Arch and Christian Stacey (left, centre) discuss leadership with Karl Santrian (right) at Superyacht Investor.
What is very hard to build and very easy to break? It is a good riddle and you can probably think of umpteen scenarios that fit the bill. A superyacht, for example.
But in the context of leadership it is very specific: trust.
“Trust is the single biggest factor that drives high performance,” says Karl Santrian, a former Royal Navy leadership and development expert who now runs BZ Maritime Leadership.
“If you trust the people who lead you, if you trust the people who you work with and you trust the people that work for you, then you are going to be on the route to a high-performing organisation.”
But building and keeping that trust is the challenge, added Santrian, talking on the Captain Conundrum panel at Superyacht Investor London 2024.
Thriving
And to achieve the right culture, especially on board a yacht where space is confined, hours are long, expectations are high and danger is ever present, the leadership must set the tone.
“Leaders set the culture of an organisation,” adds Santrian. “They set the environment, they set the rules and if you get that culture right, you can create a thriving organisation. Get it wrong and you are going to have problems.
“What value as a leader can you add to your people?”
WATCH: Solving the Captain Conundrum
Fostering a high-performing yacht crew begins with the captain and cascades to heads of department, says long-time captain Christian Stacey. “We need extremely good leaders or at least leaders that are willing perhaps to do a little bit of extra training and become very good leaders.”
The perception to outsiders, and even owners or charterers, is that a superyacht operates in an environment of “serenity, enjoyment and the highest quality of experience”, but behind the scenes it can sometimes be “chaotic and disjointed”, according to captain and owner’s representative Simon Jones.
“To achieve that high performance, you want the ability to deliver, the ability to cope with fast-moving change,” says Jones. “There are so many examples I could give where the plan for the day was X but it has now changed to Y. How do we react to that? Can you do it in a way that shows some stability in your team?
“It must be a consistent environment in a high-performance style. It is all about the ethos of the operation. Never strive for the best, always strive for better.”
Mindset
Alongside good leadership, the foundations of a high-performing team are having motivated individuals, but the challenge is recruiting suitable candidates in the first place.
“It’s getting the right people literally onto the boat, that really want to be there, and that have hospitality foremost in their minds,” says Stacey. “It is something that I say even to the engineers. We are not talking about them serving at the table, but they have to have the same mindset as the interior team. We are all there to make sure the owner has a fantastic time.”
Support from a shoreside management company is also essential and is a significant contributor to a high-performing onboard team, says Stacey. “I can safely say that I wouldn’t take on a yacht or an owner that didn’t want some form of management, or support, as I think we’re going to hopefully rebrand it.”
WATCH: Tackling the crew challenge
Hiring someone with a good CV is only half the battle. The bigger picture is making sure they are a good cultural fit for the yacht and its existing crew, says Tim Clarke of Quay Crew, who moderated the panel.
Santrian is an advocate for psychometric tests, such as verbal and numerical reasoning and other situational awareness tests, suggesting it is a way to overcome inherent biases in the recruitment process.
“You can identify the type of attributes and characteristics you want for a certain position and you can then assess people against that,” he says.
“It is the behaviours that you experience in the workplace, not someone’s
personality. Psychometrics is a key piece of information and I think it’s something that has been missed in the industry.”
Aspirational
Stacey is a believer in a looser style of interview. “I will just try and have a chat, if I’m honest, even with the most junior deckhand, and just try and get a feel for their personality. Are they going to be proud of what they are doing? That is a big one for me. Pride in the boat is something that is possibly a bit old fashioned, but if someone is proud of the boat, we are going to be in great hands.
“The attitude towards work and the attitude towards being sociable and getting along with everyone is far more important, I think, than anything else.”
Clarke also suggested verbal references are a good indicator of calibre. “If you ask the right specific questions, that will give you insight into a candidate. Everyone puts their best foot forward in interview, but someone’s personality is their personality. If they are inherently lazy, tricky to deal with, that doesn’t change or improve.”
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Captain Joe Arch acknowledged the recruitment issue but added: “Owners and management companies need to understand that we need to offer something competitive, if not slightly higher, to get those best crew. But the real work starts once we get them on the gangway. Then comes the training, the culture on board and an empowerment programme of sorts.”
Making the workplace aspirational so that people can grow as individuals, by adding qualifications or breaking through glass ceilings, is key and can help reduce turnover, a major issue in the industry, says Jones.
Santrian adds: “Money does not motivate. It is a short-term motivator, but long term, if the leadership is toxic, people will leave anyway. So it is really important that you get the leadership right on board and then invest in your crew.”
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