Is your CEO still on the company’s bridge

By Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, ABC

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Before January 13 and the tragic accident that sank one of Italy's biggest cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, the name Francesco Schettino, was perhaps not very well-known. Schettino aka 'Captain Coward' was that ship's skipper and is today, ignominiously famous for abandoning said vessel, after he reportedly said he "fell into a life boat" when the ship listed as he was trying to help in rescue efforts. It is reported that the spineless captain had abandoned ship, leaving hundreds of people still onboard, while he reached the safety of dry land on the nearby island of Giglio in a lifeboat.

Seventeen lost their lives and at least 17 are still missing after the skipper recklessly changed course and crashed the 114,000-ton liner onto rocks just so that he could carry out a 'sail by' salute and impress crew and friends.

Each day that you and I arrive at work we are stepping aboard the "SS & Company Ltd". Our CEOs and the members of our executive management are the captains of our industry. They steer the ships and come year-end we either manage to stay afloat, dock at the 'Success Pier' or sink in the dark, inky waters just by the rocks of financial failure.

Much of our seafaring triumph is reliant on these men and women who guide our corporate vessels. Some are strong leaders, who send us the employees, the coal-shovelling crew operating below deck, positive and encouraging signals while others communicate the doom and gloom that are often times responsible for dragging us down and for sinking the ship.

Then there are the 'Captains Cowards' in our midst -- you know, the CEOs who would happily jump ship frantically clutching their perks and golden parachute paraphernalia, leaving the rest of us in the midst of the crisis, to save ourselves, not unlike a tragic scene from the Concordia's real-life 'Titanic' tale. How is your CEO guiding your 'company-ship' in these perilous economic times? Is he communicating success? Or is he like the fifty-two year old Captain Schettino, who is now under house arrest while investigators contemplate charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship following last month's the disaster.

There are certainly significant leadership lessons to be learnt from the Concordia story. While only eyewitness accounts (and the coming court room drama) can attest to the kind of leadership the captain provided to his crew and passengers, it is more than fair to say that by his action, that is, leaping out of the ship while it sank, the Captain was, to put it mildly, sending a wrong signal. Look around your office now, is your CEO or others executives still onboard or are they secretly packing their bags at the first sign of trouble? Are the leadership signals you are receiving from the 'oval office' encouraging enough so that all hands remain on deck in times of change and crisis? Make no mistake, it is the verbal and others signals, that we get from our bosses that give us hope. Employees are encouraged by leadership who by words or deeds explain and give confidence to company performance.

Another quick lesson to be learnt from the Concordia is the importance of effective leadership communications across the board particularly during a crisis. According to reports, many passengers aboard the Concordia have complained that the crew didn't give them good directions on evacuating and waited so long to lower the lifeboats that many couldn't be released because the ship was listing so heavily. For example, Ananias, an L.A. schoolteacher, said they were forced to shimmy along a rope down the exposed side of the ship to a waiting rescue boat below.

"An organization can only succeed when employees at every level clearly understand where the business is going, and they support, and do what is required, to achieve business goals." "Effective communication should pulse in all directions through an organisation like a heartbeat. To achieve this level of permeation, responsibility for the communication process must rest with management at all levels across the organisation," says an article 'Effective Communication: Skills that make leaders stand out from the crowd' written by Jo-Anne Facey, posted in CEOFORUMGROUP.

Says she, "Rightly, communication skills, both in terms of personal ability and strategic capability, are being given increasing importance in leadership competency models. Leaders who stand out from the crowd are those with exemplary communication skills." Facey points out that "Dynamic organisations acknowledge the significant value that effective communication can deliver, especially in the climate of persistent change. Communication is no longer considered to be the 'soft stuff' but is seen to deliver tangible results. Improvement in customer satisfaction, service delivery and product quality, increased employee satisfaction and retention of key talent are just some of the areas in which effective communication will impact the bottom line."

Concordia's tragedy has caused us to pause and ponder the 'what-ifs'. What if the Captain had been a better, stronger leader; what if there were more effective communication channels on board? The story could have ended so differently, but it is what it is. Unfortunately there is no happy ending to the hapless Captain Schettino's saga: prosecutors are considering handing him 2,697 years in jail.

Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, (MBA, ABC) is a Business Communications Consultant with ROCommunications Jamaica, specialising in business communications and financial publications. She can be contacted at: yvonne@rocommunications.com. Visit her website at www.rocommunications.com and post your comments.

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Is your CEO still on the company’s bridge