“As yachts get bigger and overall running costs rise, more regulations come into effect, and quality personal time becomes a valuable commodity, I think owners will have to look to the bottom line and see the benefits of prioritizing interpersonal skills.”
Truer words couldn’t have been spoken. Simon Harvey, program director of N2 people skills, knows from personal experience as a former megayacht crewmember and captain that personality conflicts can and do arise, but that there are also ways to ensure peace reigns aboard. Through N2 people skills, Harvey and his team work one-on-one with captains and crew to help them improve their cognitive and communication skills, both for their own benefit as well as that of the yacht owner.
In this Megayacht News Leadership Series interview, Harvey explains why prioritizing people skills is as important as ensuring crewmembers have proper safety training. As he points out, “personal time need not be wasted by unneeded turnover and unnecessary human error.”
Q: Your career includes time spent as a captain. What drew you to the job, and what was the experience like?
A: I was lucky in that I grew up in England sailing and being around the sea. For me it was probably a matter of when to start, rather than should I start. My journey from deckhand to captain was an amazing experience, and without doubt the four great captains I had (my father being the first) had much to do with my success. The captains, three owners, and fellow crewmembers that I worked and lived with were my mentors, teachers, and family.
The experience, from a summer of driving a Riva around Cannes and St. Tropez to becoming captain of a 120-foot yacht six years later (starting with a transatlantic crossing), was truly extraordinary. The variety of events and relationships that had to be faced, the eclectic lifestyle, and leadership situations with 13 individuals living and working closely together were inspiring, challenging, sometimes frustrating, and life changing.
The takeaway from working aboard yachts was the amazing opportunity for growth in self-confidence, self-awareness, and leadership. I cannot think of another profession where such scope in (non-technical) people skills is demanded and such diversity in circumstances (personal and professional) have to be dealt with.
Q: What inspired you to create N2 people skills? Was it personal experience, or general observation?
A: It was both. I saw in hindsight that there were times aboard where luck was the only thing stopping someone from getting hurt, or owners from seeing a whole lot more crew personality and emotion than they might like. I found that interactions of the human factor had huge leverage on performance and safety. Much was being used in the business world to improve leadership efficiency and teamwork. The US Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard had adopted crew-resource management (CRM), focusing on non-technical people skills. Even the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) commissioned a report “Driving Safety Culture, Identification of Leadership Qualities for Effective Safety Management,” with a conclusion being, “There are perceived gaps between the desirable leadership qualities, and what is currently being delivered.”
As a licensed Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Mbti) facilitator, I saw firsthand how perception, personal preferences, and mindset weighed on mental models. Aboard a superyacht, where you live and work together in close quarters, perception, preference, and mindset are big drivers of behavior and environment. After interviewing captains, crew, management companies, and owners, it became evident that the gaps discovered in the MCA report were also within the superyacht industry. People skills were not being factored into training or development, even though yachts were becoming more complex and crews size was growing. We felt leadership and team development was not only logical risk management but also important to overall owner experience, and so Neurons 2 people skills (N2) was born.
Q: One of the biggest challenges people face in the professional world is learning to work as a team. It’s arguably exacerbated aboard a yacht, and seems to be the root of some onboard conflicts. Do you agree?
A: Yes, great teams cannot be formed overnight, and filling positions with team players does not guarantee teamwork. Yacht crews can be put together last minute and arrive aboard with little understanding of teamwork or leadership. If goals, roles, and procedure models are not agreed or understood, then interpersonal factors are going to become a big issue. Simply relying on short-term performance indicators does not create innovative leadership or teamwork. According to Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation, people are driven to do tasks by either performance or learning goals.
Relationship and interpersonal issues exacerbate communication problems. Being different is part of being human; we make judgments on people when we do not understand a person’s type, temperament, style, or mindset. One person’s laidback style is another person’s lack of motivation, someone’s thinking out loud is another’s annoying distraction, and so on. Differences in styles and mindset can lead to a great deal of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and resentment. Left unchecked, productivity and moral plummets.
While conflict is inevitable when people live and work within tight quarters, it can damage teamwork, undermine trust, and greatly impede a crew’s ability to provide safe and quality service when it is poorly managed. Conflict itself is not the problem; it is silence that can be deadly.
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