Running costs are not going down. On yachts over 50 meters, crew salaries can become one of the top line items of a budget. When you add up the costs of turnover, by including separation costs, replacement costs and training costs etc, the €$£ figure can quickly add to 3x salary.
On top of this if you charter your yacht, turnover can significantly affect bookings.
But financial costs are not the only downside to turnover. Disruption to owner and guests can go far beyond any financial figure.
As new crew come aboard with different mental models of leadership, practices, and ideas of what an owner may, or may not want, continuity is disturbed, both in personal care, and in personal privacy.
Trust aboard must be developed, between owner and crew, and within crew. And just like time, trust can be lost, and not be bought back. So for crew to develop trust, master conflict and achieve commitment and accountability, turnover must be kept to a minimum, or you will continue to see great individuals create average teams. Teams that can slowly lose commitment, and so to crew.
So what is the answer to negate turnover of crew.
Simply put, development of your talent aboard.
Anyone that has anything to do with a winning team, knows that time, effort, trust and dialogue is required to build a great team. Teams must constantly learn, practice and understand goals, roles, and procedures. Leadership must be committed to the team as a whole, not just focused on their own posts. And instead of leaders dictating a vision, individuals (crew), translate their personal visions into one shared vision.
Team development, offers owners and captains, an alternative to the disruption of turnover. Teams that develop together create an autonomy of strength in leadership, they build a shared a vision; and teams that do this will:
- Build trust
- Master conflict
- Achieve commitment
- Embrace accountability
- Be able to focus on results
(As noted in Patrick Lencioni’s best selling book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”)
When a superyacht owner commits to the development of their crew, they are engaging crew at the very deepest level, the emotional level. Developing this positive link is emotionally contagious, and positively charged. The message is about care, and transforms boredom to engagement, self-interest to team commitment.
Because emotion is a huge driver to performance, it amplifies the force of the message, and superyacht owners can expect to receive far greater dividends from their crew.
As crew develop, conflict becomes a learning process, not a disruptive one. Commitment of purpose now gives you assurance of continuity, in both personal care and personal privacy. And with a new discipline of learning, a new strength and purpose, crew can grow far beyond the sum of their own parts.
Getting the best €$£ from your human capital aboard, is not just about recruitment of the most talented leaders and crew. It is about the development of the talented leaders and crew, you recruit.
Don’t let turnover get you stuck, or put you in a downwards spiraling experience, develop your talent now, and reignite your passion of superyacht ownership.
