As we welcome a new year our search and placement team will be very busy with new crew candidate registrations or updating existing crew candidates’ profiles. Our new and returning crew candidates may be seeking to change roles and move up the ladder to positions with increased responsibility. Taking on a new role can be an exciting prospect but also quite daunting! It is therefore vital for those who wish to step up in their on board department to check on what skills and competencies are needed to succeed as an accomplished leader.

What Makes a Great Leader?

There is an impressive amount of information available on what it takes to be a good leader; the necessary technical skills for the role and corresponding certification. However, professional skills and adequate industry training are just part of the prerequisites to become an exemplary leader. Understanding the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) can assist you in your leadership journey and I invite you to review the concept in this article as EI is everywhere we look and without it we would be devoid of a key part of the human experience.

The term was first coined by Drs Peter Salovey and John D. Meyer who explained EI as “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”.

Understanding Emotional Intelligence

American psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman’s 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence” brought the concept to the fore. For Goleman, “Emotional intelligence refers to a different way of being smart. EI is a key to high performance, particularly for outstanding leadership. It’s not your IQ, but rather it’s how you manage yourself and your relationships with others”.

Goleman’s theory is comprised of five core components and by understanding these components and putting them into practice, yacht crew can become compassionate and inspirational leaders.

Five Core Components of Emotional Intelligence

Empathy: A particularly important aspect of emotional intelligence is identifying with others’ emotions, understanding what they are going through. When you are approachable and listen to others by putting yourself in their shoes you create a safe and harmonious environment as a leader.

Effective communication or social skills: This refers to interacting well with other people and applying an understanding of the emotions of ourselves and others to communicate and interact. These social skills include active listening, verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

Self-awareness: This component refers to being able to understand and to have a sense of how one’s actions, moods and the emotions of others take effect. It involves being able to correctly identify emotions, recognising that how we feel and what we do are related, as well as recognising your own personal strengths and limitations. You know when to step back and question your emotional state and thoughts before acting.

Self-regulation: This involves the appropriate expression of emotion and includes being flexible, coping with change and managing conflict with a cool head. In order to lead, you need to cultivate the ability to turn negative thoughts and feelings into positive ones and channel negative emotions in a productive rather than a destructive manner.

Motivation: In the EI framework this refers to intrinsic motivation where it is the individual’s drive to meet personal needs and goals rather than being motivated by external rewards (financial or recognition).

It won’t take long to master these skills as long as you’re willing to step outside your comfort zone, learn and address any insecurities that hold you back.