Captain, oh Captain

A Captain of a boat with no crew is just adrift on the open water with no direction and will be lost at sea. To move a vessel, you need propulsion and rudder to steer your ship. At the head of the ship, you have the Captain who sets the course of travel, the time, and speed to accomplish the mission. The size or type of ship we have doesn’t matter, we can be a cargo ship or warship, everyone has a mission to accomplish.

The Captain sits atop the vessel to see the landscape of the water, navigate challenges, and direct the ship’s crews to work cohesively to move the ship in the right direction. The Captain also ensures the system is running effectively and efficiently and the personnel have the resources to do their job. The Captain is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on the ship and to the ship.

The Captain takes on a lot of responsibilities, but who is really powering the ship?

Deep below, in the hull of the ship, is the mechanical and engine room. These are the critical components of the ship to power the movement and ensure all systems are operational. Here is where you will find Engine Room Crew. These individuals are responsible for power the ship’s engine to allow the ship to travel. Without these crews, the ship is a floating mass on the path to no where. While the Captain and the Deck are the brains, the Engine room is the brawn.

In addition, we also have the Helmsmen, who is responsible for steering the ship by the use of the rudder. They are responsible for taking the orders from the Captain make adjustments to ensure the ships stays on track. The Captain and Helmsmen are a critical team to ensure the path of travel is accomplished. These two individuals on the ship need to work cohesively and have excellent trust, communication, and relationship to steer and direct the ship to its final destination.

A Engine Room Crew without the Deck, the ship will move but the direction is uncertain. In contrast, a Deck with no Engine Room Crew will go no where and is a floating mass on the open water. There maybe direction but without someone tending to the engines, the ship will no go. Finally, if the Captain and the Helmsmen lack communication, relationships, and trust; the direction of the ship will be dysfunctional.

I use this analogy of the relationship between the Captain, Helmsmen, and the Engine Room Crew to assimilate to the fire service hierarchy. The Fire Chief is the Captain, Helmsmen is the officers, and Engine Crew is the line staff Firefighters.

Organizational success depends on each level to contribute to the mission and work cohesively. If these three parts of the organization are dysfunctional, then organizational success will become difficult and meet a lot of resistance. To go back to our analogy, the ship will sink.

The Captain and Helmsmen need to have a shared vision of success and understand how the the ship is going to get to its final destination. The Captain needs to make his vision and objective clear to the entire ship. Set the expectations, establish shared values and espoused those values throughout the ship. They must share the vision so the all the ship’s components are working cohesively for the shared mission, goal, and objectives. If each component has their own vision or idea of what success looks like, the ship will not move in the same direction and therefore causing friction among the crew. The Captain can tell the Helmsmen that they need to alter course to avoid an iceberg but if the Helmsmen does not trust or there is a barrier to communication, the Helmsmen may not alter course quick enough. Or, the Engine Room could be in such a hurry to accomplish the mission that they are running at max power, which does not give the ship time to turn. Both of these situations cause the ship to strike the iceberg and sink.

Each component of the ship is critical to its success. All components need to collaboratively work together to address problems and ensure the ship is on the right path. The Captain cannot know everything about the Engine operations and vice versa, the Engine Crew doesn’t know the workings of the Deck. Tts critical these groups have constructive dialogue to solve issues and trust that each other are performing their duties to the greatest ability. Collaboration is critical. The Captain cannot order without context and needs to be able to work together. If you’re going to talk at people, the conversation will not be productive.

This is where trust, relationships, and communication all factor in. As explained in other blogs, leadership is simple but yet difficult. It’s about trust and relationships. When commanding your ship, build a team based on trust and relationships. Look for solutions outside your inner circle because believe it or not, the people on the front line understand the system and have good solutions. Don’t talk at people, have constructive conversations and its okay if they get heated, as long as the resolution is accomplished. Set the vision of ship and share that vision with everyone when having relationship building conversations. Leadership is a human thing so it takes human interaction. Once the ship understands the vision, expectations, and has shared values; the ship will reach its final destination successfully.