Captain Ted Sputh

The Captain’s Voice (on Leadership)

“Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men---the other 999 follow women”! Groucho Marx

All Captains that are good leaders have one general commonality; accepting the challenge of getting the most out of their crews.   A crew member’s potential competence can be undermined with either misguided expectations from other crew members or through poor leadership.  Both of these variables can damage a crew member and the symbiotic relationships on board a yacht. Great leaders create a personal mix for their crew that makes the potential output for the benefit of the vessel 100% effective. Napoleon Bonaparte said that “a great leader is a dealer in hope”.

Exceptional leaders have always been rare and memorable.  Luckily, leadership qualities can be cultivated and learned as well as born.  However, whether born or learned, great leaders come to the daunting realization that leadership is always earned and not just designated.    

Real leadership is about understanding yourself first and then utilizing that understanding to create a “can do” crew.  Many obstacles that limit crew potential can start with a Captain’s own fears, unproductive habits, and inflated egos.  A clear understanding of the limitations created by human flaws along with the owning of the positive and negative aspects of one’s own personality can vastly improve how crew members respond to their Captain. 

It would seem that the days of ordering people to respond the way one man or woman wishes are becoming a bit archaic.  Leadership models should be geared to the era in which they exist. Yacht crews are now cosmopolitan, worldly, educated and knowledgeable.  Short term benefits may be realized with ordering and yelling but long term results are unlikely to be found without an understanding, knowledgeable and trust-worthy Captain. 

Exit interviews conducted by the United States Navy site the top reason for leaving the service was being treated with disrespect ultimately causing the sailor to lose personal dignity. The second reason for leaving was the inability to make an impact on the organization where they worked.  The third reason was not being listened to; and fourth, not being rewarded with more responsibility.  The number five reason for leaving the military was remuneration or pay.

Interestingly, the number five reason for leaving a position in the private sector is pay.  Reasons one through four for quitting a job in the civilian work force are much the same as the military. 

With these interviews in mind, it’s obvious that great leaders and Captains must show respect in thought, word and deed.  Learning to see the yacht and the world through the eyes of a crew member and implementing that knowledge can be invaluable in understanding an employee’s point of view. 

Instead of constantly scrutinizing the Crew and laboring under the assumption that they will screw up; assume that they will do their personal best.  If they do make a mistake, help them find a solution by creating an atmosphere where they will come to the Captain through trust.  Remember that within every situation that is less than perfect, there is some right so when criticizing the wrong also praise the part of the job that was well done.

A great Captain always does the right thing by his or her crew.  If it feels right, smells right and tastes right, it will almost always be the right thing. Doing the “right thing” doesn’t sound profound or sophisticated but it works!

Remember

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he or she wants to do it…..Dwight Eisenhower

(many of my management ideas were born in the book It’s Your Ship by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff…a very good read!)                          

This month’s Captain “to do” with your Crew

Perform the duty of the monthly cleaning of the air handling units so that you know that your crew knows where the air handlers are located.  It also makes it easier for the Captain to empathize with the complications of access and maintenance of air handlers.  

Fair winds and calm seas,

Ted Sputh

USCG 1600t Oceans with Sail

MCA 3000t Oceans with Sail CoC

On a freezing cold night on a mega yacht docked in the quaint city of Grand Haven on Lake Michigan, a Captain was found dead in the beautifully appointed main salon of an invitingly warm vessel.   He was lying next to an exquisite eel skin taupe sofa which, curiously enough, had multiple stains spoiling the striking appearance of the entire room.  The lifeless Captain had deep cut wounds all over his chest, neck and face and his right eye had been gouged out.  Next to the dead man there was a bottle of red water with small bits of floating flesh and hair and an empty red wine glass was sitting in close proximity to his mutilated body.   The unfortunate Captain’s death was ruled a homicide but no weapons were ever found and no one was charged with his murder.  What happened on the spectacular mega yacht on that frigid night?

NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION…

Ecclesiastes said, “All the waters run to the sea and yet the sea is not full, and from the place where they began, thither they will return again.” 

Traveling on the Atlantic Ocean after this summer’s Great Lakes’ adventure, I continued to think not only about the beauty of our Great Lakes but also about the importance of their existence as it applies to our survival.   

Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario are the largest repository of fresh water in the world.  They account for 20 percent of the world’s supply of fresh surface water.  A Great Lakes’ Basin Compact has been negotiated by the lake’s bordering states to prevent depletion and /or long term damage to the natural environment of this necessary and beautiful resource.  This Compact has been a 10 year battle in the United States Congress.  Even after this long mêlée, there is still a loop hole in the Pact…bottled water. 

A provision of the Great Lakes Basin Compact allows water to be diverted from the basin IF it is in containers holding less than 5.7 gallons.   In August of 2008, over 700,000 gallons of water per day were pumped and individually bottled by an Ice Mountain facility in Michigan.  Consequently, aquifers that feed the lakes, such as creeks, have lower water levels which in turn are depleting the free flow of fresh water to the Great Lakes.

In 1998, the Ontario government gave a permit to a company to ship up to 158 million gallons of water from the Great Lakes per year to Asia; which brings the question of whether the Great Lakes are seen as a treasured natural resource or a site for commercial production. This permit was later withdrawn.     

The Beverage Marketing Corporation claims that Americans drank 8.8 billion gallons of bottled water in 2007, up 7 percent from 2006. I can’t even imagine how many 8 ounce bottles of water this figure might encompass! 

I personally have never had a problem with paying for a bottle of water.  I really enjoy that smooth “natural artesian water, FIJI”.  However, recently I met a mega yacht Owner that has an absolute aversion to buying bottled water for the Crew.  He will pay for soft drinks and juices of any kind and also provides compensation for a reasonable amount of Crew recreational beer and wine. But, much to the Crew’s consternation, he does NOT want to see any Crew bottled water on the shopping lists.  There is a very sophisticated water filtration system on his vessel and “by golly the Crew will drink the water from the tap…they cool their drinks with the vessel’s ice, so why can’t they drink the water”!

The city of Ann Arbor, Michigan started selling reusable water bottles in 2007 and passed a resolution barring city vendors from selling commercial bottled water at city events.  Their thought was that the entire bottled water industry, in general, is one of the most wasteful things that we, as American’s, propagate coupled with the vast amount of petroleum that is consumed to make all the billions of plastic bottles.  There is also the question of the wisdom of purchasing a bottle of water that many tests have shown is of no higher quality than tap water and often the quality is worse! 

Bottled water is BIG business.  In less than ten years, bottled water consumption has doubled, with prices about 100 times that of tap water.  For the extreme drinking water aficionado, there is Bling H2o at $40.00 to $60.00 per 750 ml bottle.  If you are looking for an excuse to buy expensive water and helping a good cause, Charity Water is being sold for $480.00 per case of 24 bottles with proceeds funding freshwater well projects in Third World countries.  Deep sea water from Hawaii is the most expensive bottled water in the world.  It sells for $33.50 for a 2 ounce bottle and is extracted from a water depth of 915 feet!  (I can only imagine how those poor deep water ocean creatures feel about this!)                        

There isn’t anything like spending time on the water that gives you time to think about water.   I now see great merit, in what I once thought was the very unreasonable rule of “no Crew bottled water unless they buy it themselves”.  We who love water should be involved in the conservation of a treasured resource.  I will always enjoy that cool smooth bottle of FIJI, but, the next time I’m thirsty, I think I’ll  just turn on the faucet connected to that triple filtration system and have a tall drink of water from the tap AND, in honor of our Great Lakes, I’m going to ask my illustrious Crew to do the same.

Fair Winds and Calm Seas,

Captain Ted

The answer to the Captain’s horrific death is obvious…he spilled red wine on the exquisite eel skin sofa; thus the spots and the empty wine glass.  The Owner walked in and found the sleeping Captain and the stains on his beautiful sofa.  The Owner walked outside to “cool off” his seething temper.  He saw a long sharp icicle and in a moment of blind rage he grabbed the icicle from its sub-zero perch, walked inside, rolled the sleeping Captain off of his prize sofa and stabbed the inconsiderate sloppy man several times.  One fateful blow hit the Captain’s carotid artery causing an instant blood spurting death.  The Owner placed the melting weapon in the empty water bottle.   When the icicle melted, the water turned red with the Captain’s precious blood leaving no weapon. The Owner cleaned himself, threw his bloody weighted clothes overboard, dressed and called 911.