“Foresee storms and turbulence. It’s part of the beautiful journey.”
Leadership, as a subject, is always interesting to discuss. No matter how the subject is shared, people always have their opinions. As said, opinions are like noses. Some claim that people in authorities lose their memories and develop living signs of amnesia when they get into leadership positions.
The argument has always been: Where do the right thinking senses of leaders go to when they are needed for strategic thinking? For me, leadership (lead-a-ship) is to learn the skills to lead a ship. Whether you go ahead of the ship or you seek to steer the ship, you need this skill. In organisations, the leader groups a team to achieve a common goal. This should be noted.
Maxwell (2015), Welch (2005), Armstrong (2004) and Ahenkorah (2018) will always remind readers. If leaders, for example, keep their team on a ship on a journey on the high seas, they have absolute responsibility to interpret the direction of the compass to their followers.
There are always instances, and it is also normal for the crew to nap when ships sail, but not the leader. Call him a shipmaster, a captain, a sea captain, a ship’s captain or even a master and he’ll show you his worth. A ship’s captain cannot sleep on duty. If he does, then what makes him the captain, and where lies his duty?
A shipmaster is supposed to be a licensed, highly qualified, legally and professionally approved high-level mariner who commands and holds ultimate responsibility of the ship’s business. It’s noteworthy that the ship travels on oceans and deep waters which is why they are supposed to be large watercrafts requiring special skill to steer. They may come as oil tankers, bulk carriers, or as container ships. The ship leader must be relational with high levels of expert and referent powers.
The leader requires the skill to keep the crew happy, and the crew would in turn make the passengers happy and that would obviously make voyages exciting. Good lead-a-ship CEOs apply the theory of affectivity (Hughes et al 2015) in the offices to raise happy teams.
Shipmasters start their journeys with team briefs, as well as inviting diverse opinions in a bid to grow team confidence. CEOs who learn from the ship Captain’s approach to leadership development, listen to every member of the team; they are responsive to team requests, as well as leading by example. Captains foresee perfect storms and beautiful turbulences in the spur of moments; thus, they are always prepared for all kinds of eventualities.
Lead-a-ship style of leadership requires boldness to step in, step out and step up. Lead-a-ship styled leaders exhibit more self-control, self-regulation, listening and critically fitting with sound judgment in dealing with issues. Leaders may struggle to lead teams and subsequently deal with issues, but if they learn to lead-a-ship, they’ll surely be making great strides to understanding leadership from a lead-a-ship perspective.
