Leadership and Communication Skills

Active listening is when you give your full attention to the speaker, understand the complete meaning of their message and respond to it. Through active listening, a listener shows interest, respect and consideration to the speaker.

All crew members, regardless of rank, make small and big decisions to solve various challenges in their work and personal lives. While some decisions can be made easily, most can be handled better if a logical and structured approach is utilised.

When you give corrective feedback to people, you aim at motivating them to change their actions or behaviours and improve their performance. To reach that goal, feedback must be expressed in a constructive manner.

Normal, healthy workplaces experience their share of conflict. When handled properly, a conflict can be beneficial to you and your colleagues. You free yourself from negative emotions & stress and develop stronger relationships with your colleagues. As you improve your well being, you also improve your job performance.

In an environment with a speak-up culture, everyone is free and safe to express themselves and feel appreciated for doing so. When you encourage your crew to speak up — and therefore promote a speak-up culture — you empower them, keep them involved and feel confident that their input is valued.

Effective leadership varies not only depending on the task, job or function that needs to be accomplished, but also on the profile of the person or group that is being influenced. Good and effective leaders are those who are flexible and adaptive when it comes to their approaches.

Just culture is a work culture in which crew members do not fear to report errors, own as well as of others because they know that it is important not only for the organisation to learn from these honest mistakes but also for the seafarers’ safety on board. It is also a culture where deliberate misconduct may result in disciplinary action.