Stewardship of Management

· It is in turbulent times when personal integrity and commitment to vows of loyalty are tested.

·  It is through turbulent times that relationships are cemented or destroyed, whether in life, in marriage or in organizational experience.

· Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)

 There are always restless seas in one’s life. Everyone will encounter stormy seas. Some are more frightening than others. In troubled times, in one’s professional and personal life, security is being affected by evil outside forces of heathen competition or decisions of government. Under any turbulent circumstances the one in command must stand resolute in the face of adversity and in the presence of those who report and take charge. This is no time to abandon ship.

The cold hard facts of command: If you are correct someone else will get the credit. If you are wrong, there is no doubt where the blame will land. But any process worth going through will almost always get tougher before it gets easier. One engaged in any worthwhile process must have the will to overcome and persevere.

Command is one thing, but responsibility, the duty to those who depend on you, is the greater burden. It is a burden that only a captain can bare, a burden that must be felt not just dealt with. A burden one must take personally.

In any organization, there is never a question as to whether we should take risks. In order to grow and develop or in order to maintain our present position we must make decisions and take action to make some change that makes something happen. We cannot avoid risks. Avoiding risks is like not making a decision to handle some situation, the lack of a decision is a decision we have no control over. The same is true with risk taking. There are small risks, there are great risks and there are life or death risks.

As managers of managers who have responsibility for the health and stability of an organization and the people employed in it we have to know how to take reasonable risks. How the executive handles the risk affects one’s career professional and personal growth.

On high stakes situations, you cannot let the situation get you. You cannot lose your composure. You call on your experience and the experiences of your crew to identify as many possible contingencies as possible. You prepare your crew to handle those contingencies. There is never a guarantee situations will occur as you expect, but if your people are “in the game” they will step up and apply the knowledge and training they have and perform at the level necessary regardless of the actual event.

In any organization, there is never a question as to whether we should take risks. In order to grow and develop or in order to maintain our present position we must make decisions and take action to make some change that makes something happen. We cannot avoid risks. Avoiding risks is like not making a decision to handle some situation, the lack of a decision is a decision we have no control over. The same is true with risk taking. There are small risks, there are great risks and there are life or death risks.

Mariners have organizations that constantly survey conditions that will affect maritime travel and send Notice to Mariners regularly. Air travel has their own organization that sends constant Notice to Airmen reports. There are many organizations that monitor the conditions of each commercial industry. Executives would do well to subscribe to these reporting agencies and include their information in their strategic and tactical planning.

No matter how many safety programs you conduct, somebody is going to do something stupid. Sometimes damage to equipment or an injury occurs even when good people are doing the right thing. There needs to be a well-designed and well-rehearsed action plan for handling those incidents. Specific people should be assigned to specific tasks, for which they have technical ability, and have no operational tethers to prevent them from responding at a minute’s notice. Whether a personal injury or unfortunate incident, horrendous or routine, there must be a plan and that plan must be executed without delay. An after-action report should be made and based on that report, future action is to be determined.

Even during peacetime underway cruising there is a potential for bad things to hit you from the blind side. One must always be vigilant and keep a weather eye out for situations that may appear to be mundane at first but if not watched can go dreadfully wrong.

We spend more than a third of our lives in the workplace. It should be enjoyable most of the time, if not we are in the wrong job. When a person is in a job for which they are well suited, they can be trained to reach levels of performance that will bring great satisfaction. There are elements of every job that is not enjoyable, but the one who is enjoying a feeling of contribution will step up and do what needs to be done. What is even more remarkable is their ability to see what needs to be done, why, when and how to do it.

Sometimes bad things happen in clusters. At such times, you must have your own experts on board who have been trained, and tested to know how to handle those contingencies, and you must be able to rely on them to do it. Each department head and resident employee experts will mean the difference between defeating the adversaries (Whatever that may be) and being sunk or so critically injured reparations drain time and assists needed to hold your position in the marketplace. When there are too many crucial enemies attacking, you may need more expertise than is available on staff. That means the team needs to be supplemented by contract personnel. Executive management would be well advised to contract with professional consultants, financial experts and the like.

Faith is trust, and that trust must be earned by consistent performance to that standard, whatever that standard may be.

Just as a military unit in a combat situation, an organization facing turbulent times faces an enemy. That enemy or enemies are a reality and an intangible, difficult to identify sometimes, unpredictable and potentially hazardous to the organization’s existence and the continued employment of those in the organization. The enemy is any force that opposes the efforts of the organization to reach its long, and short-term objectives. The organization exists for specific purpose and an enemy is any deliberate and consistent force that threatens the effective continuation of that purpose.