On 2nd March 2020, Capt. Gennaro Arma was the last person to disembark the ‘Diamond Princess’ – a ship infamous as a floating corona virus infected prison for passengers quarantined at a port in Japan. As his ship and its residents went through tough times, Capt. Arma is known to have exhibited steadfast calm, communicate effectively and even joke around with passengers; keeping them in high spirits. The sight of Capt. Arma striding purposefully along the dockside in full uniform with hat under arm, signified something, got me thinking.
Photo Credit: Diamond Princess First Officer - Vincenzo Guardascione
In maritime, the captain holds final responsibility for the ship and everyone on it and in an emergency, he forgoes his own rapid departure from the ship and concentrates instead on saving other people. In the airline industry the captain is the final authority and responsibility for the operations & safety of the flight. Remember the Tom Hanks movie, Sully? A true story like Titanic.
In sports, athletes take the captain’s role very seriously. It is expected that captains will maintain control in the most pressurised situations and be the model of excellence for their teammates.
In a business environment, leadership skills are given great importance and rightly so. A leader is one who effectively plays the role of a captain, player and coach - and knows when and how to effortlessly shift roles. In a crisis, a captain it is! The COVID crisis is already creating a buzz in Zoom Room meetings. CEOs today are expected to take responsible decisions to keep companies afloat and we will in the coming weeks witness effects of such decisions.
An example; in US nearly 20 million Americans filed for unemployment in the last 4 weeks. “On Main Street today, people are getting wiped out. And right now, rich CEOs are not, boards that had horrible governance are not, hedge funds are not. People are."
—Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital
Don’t get me wrong, as an entrepreneur I understand that the path between an economic crisis and layoffs is a short one. It is almost reflex to turn to job cuts to bring some order to the P & L sheet. So how is it that leaders own up to the responsibility of saving every job and maintaining the morale of people?
Job cuts or salary cuts/profile cuts – A sharing the pain approach, a literal we are in this together metaphor. The demand will be back, sales will be back, with a change in nature may be, but it will be. Some salary cuts and jobs with less demands converted to four-day jobs; may reduce overall costs. A captain owns responsibility.
Open the floor to employees for ideas – resilience and creativity of humans during a crisis is rarely related to designation or ranks. Of course, done with a broader structure given the variables of the business. A captain is inclusive.
Handhold employees through these ‘we do not know where we are really are’ times. Finding new ways to connect now that our channels have changed to let them know that they aren’t just statistics. A captain is compassionate.
Maritime laws don’t govern captains in business. It is 100 % a moral responsibility. Even in maritime now, a captain's legal responsibilities set out in the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), passed in 1974, does not specify that the captain should stay with his ship but states that the captain, or master, has the ultimate authority aboard his ship.
Become industry captains and a compassionate one at that till this crisis is over.
And once a captain, always one. It was heartening to see the 99-year-old British army veteran; Captain Tom Moore walk 100 laps of his 25m-long garden before he reaches his 100th birthday amid the COVID crisis. He aimed to use this challenge to raise just £1,000 for NHS Charities, and guess how much he raised in just two weeks? £ 25 million!!
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