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In my book ‘The Art of Maritime Manning – My Insights‘, I have shared some of my insights, which encapsulates two decades of learnings and experiences, in a structured manner. I hope to inspire and motivate more seafarers the world over towards positivity to join this wonderful and rewarding industry for a career that promises satisfaction and success in maritime Manning.

In my blog today, I will share the importance of developing quality culture as a medium to built a team that is strong and stable at the core. It is also very important to have Head of Company who can lead from the front, keeping all these qualities in mind:

1. Management principles – The Principles of Management of a company are the essential, underlying factors that form the foundations of successful management. These should be clearly defined for each process so that the entire team across offices may share common knowledge, focus and facts.
2. Customer focus – For a company into maritime manning, an eagle-eye focus should be kept to address all concerns of the ship managers or ship owners.
3. Safe Leadership – A good leader ensures psychologically safe environment within manning partners, owners and seafarers. A safe leader is the source of light that dispels fear and the tendency to engage in cover-ups, finger-pointing and avoidance, resulting in top management’s being unaware and sometimes blindsided.
4. Continuous Engagement and Supply – To achieve this, one must focus on the most critical aspect – manpower that runs the vessels. The hard working seafarers’ needs must therefore be addressed proactively and prudently without any delay.
5. Process approach – For a ship manning company, Joining and Signing off processes are critical operational processes that can make or break the company’s reputation.
6. Continuous Improvement – Once hired, seafarer must be developed, managed and recognized to further prime the pump of innovation throughout their career for improvement of life on board and also while on leave. This can be achieved by holistic designed training programs.
7. Evidence-based decision making – Engaging in continual dialogue with seafarers and managers brings clarity. We must encourage people to communicate openly. We must encourage an openness to share ideas and collaborate. It is vital to openly share ideas on all fronts, including on what is working and what is not working, what we know and what we do not know. When information is controlled and hoarded by top management, the innovation of employees throughout the organization is stifled. Open, transparent communication is a foundation for a collaborative environment for evidence-based decision-making.
8. Relationship management – Maintain harmonious relations with all the three parties involved – Shore Staff, Seafarers, Ship Managers or Ship Owners. When we refer to Seafarers, we cover engaging productively and emotionally with their families.
9. Open communication with transparency – Transparency creates trust and that trust creates an environment in which people are more likely to be honest, share ideas and knowledge and collaborate towards common goals. In Maritime Manning, transparency with your team, your seafarers, ship managers and ship owners, is the only way forward.

In my book ‘The Art of Maritime Manning – My Insights’, I have shared structures and anecdotes that aspiring young people can benefit from by inculcating within them the habits and the tools which I believe to have helped me.