@ the Helm: What the Best Captains Know
I went to sea at 18. It was a gap year before the phrase had been coined.
I worked on the construction of a tall ship on the Isle of Wight (which I would later sail on) and I crewed on a motor sailing yacht in the Aegean.
Everything I have learned as a leader has flowed from that youthful decision to steer out of the main channel. The sea has been teaching mariners for thousands of years.
Many of these leadership lessons apply to those of us ashore as well.
For instance, Bridge Resource Management (BRM) is a set of principles that guide the crew on the bridge of a vessel to use all available skills, knowledge, experience and resources for safe and efficient operation.
BRM principles such as situational awareness, decision-making agility and clear communication apply to high performing teams in any industry.
One of the core BRM concepts, whether in a small sailboat heading into stronger winds or in a supertanker coming into port, is to ask the simple question:
What can I do to slow things down?
By slowing things down I can:
Give myself and my team more time to process
Reduce the variables at play
Shift from reactive to proactive
Increase communication as needed
In my sailboat slowing down might mean spilling wind and reducing sail. In my supertanker slowing down might mean pulling back on the throttle several miles out at sea and calling in additional resources such as the pilot and tugs that will assist in docking. What you do depends on the situation, but the thought process is the same.
Let’s apply this slowing-things-down concept to life on land. How often do you find yourself harried, juggling too many things at once? How often is your team in a place of overwhelm, not knowing what to focus on?
These are all moments to take a purposeful pause. By stepping back, even momentarily, you give yourself and your people the space to breathe, the ability to re-negotiate timelines, the perspective to shift attention from what’s urgent to what’s important.
Are you ready to equip yourself and your team with the toolkit for getting better through this? “@ the Helm” is our new online course. It’s a compilation of leadership and management tools enabling you to calm the overwhelm and move your people from reactive to proactive, fragmented to focused, stressed to resilient.
Concerned about time? This six-hour online course includes 12 modules. Each module can be completed in a 30-minute session at your own pacing. Learn more here.
