Best practice leadership online courses in the virtual classroom

After a leadership course comprising a range of leadership subjects our clients experience that junior officers and ratings have seen a change on board when the senior officers have returned to their vessels after finishing the course. The atmosphere is said to have improved. They express that the senior officers’ ability to communicate with the other crew members has been boosted.

Read a good story about leadership training here

In the course of 8 modules important subjects such as Leadership styles, Team building, Communication and Cultural awareness give the participants tools to effectively lead and influence the crew members in a conducive and trusting atmosphere.

More about the subjects:

Let us say you are the Chief Engineer on board a vessel. Would you approach an experienced 2nd Engineer—who is in line for promotion—similar to how you deal with your 4th Engineer, who is first time in rank? Probably not.

‘Leadership style’ may be defined as a set of behaviours which a leader uses with others. Your leadership style varies with on-board situations and circumstances and can be broadly classified into ‘Directive’ or ‘Supportive’ leadership style.

Using an incorrect leadership style may cause a loss of team spirit wherein the team members are demotivated to perform ultimately resulting in a poor team result.

The goal of this module is to help you understand the importance of ‘reading’ situations, thereby enabling you to apply the correct leadership style.

Being a good communicator is an important quality of a good leader. But what does a good communicator do? How does he or she communicate?

Good communicators genuinely listen when talking to others. They compliment their people for a task well done, be it big or small. They can motivate people to change their actions or behaviours and improve their performance. They set clear expectations and directions. Moreover, they always come up with the right solutions and make sound judgement.

This module is divided into 5 sub-modules and they will give you insights into best practices in communication. Also, you will be introduced to different communication tools and models.

Are there times when you want to express yourself more openly and clearly, but you choose to clam up in order to avoid any confrontation? Or are there instances where you feel your only option is to repress others just to get what you want?

Limiting yourself to either of these two options is not always a good strategy. In the long run, it will most likely cause trouble or damage your reputation and relationships with others.

There is a third and better option—to be assertive. It is means being able to respectfully, sincerely and constructively express oneself, without undermining own or others’ rights.

In this module, you will understand why it is more helpful to communicate assertively during conflicts or stressful events. You will learn about the differences among being assertive, aggressive and passive when communicating. Moreover, you will gain insights into the general guidelines and techniques for communicating assertively.

Conflict is inevitable in any environment. But it is not always a bad thing. How you handle conflict determines if it will be beneficial or harmful. If you look at conflict through a lens of opportunity, it can help you improve your well-being, performance, and relationship with your colleagues.

A properly handled conflict can be constructive. Firstly, it helps you to release your emotion and stress. It can also teach you how to achieve your goals without undermining others. On a group level, it can strengthen teamwork, as members develop strong mutual respect.

This module helps you to look at conflict in a positive way, to identify the different types of conflict, and to handle it the right way.

Being a leader is not about controlling workers or giving them complete freedom. As a leader you are, first and foremost, responsible for developing and nurturing an environment that will make the team members “click and tick”.

This module deals with creating strong and self-empowered teams that hold themselves mutually accountable towards a shared goal. It provides you with effective and easy to apply tools to involve the team members, enabling them to believe and trust in their abilities while working on a shared goal.

When working with different cultures, it is important that you understand the cultural norms and expectations of others. If you don’t, you can make mistakes. And these mistakes can be harmless, or, they can be very serious.

In this module, you will learn the importance of cultural awareness. You will learn about cultural differences. Also, you will gain insights into working and communicating across cultures.

Studies of accidents in maritime operations point to situational awareness as contributing cause in as much as two-thirds of incidents attributed to human error. The maritime industry is particularly delicate in the sense that changes in the environment and work situation often happen while a job is ongoing.

Situational awareness is a term that refers to the way you interpret and act on impressions or information from your senses. The ability to react at an early stage of a developing situation is important to ensure the level of risk and safety in that situation.

More of a mindset than a hard skill, situational awareness is not something that can be practised only by highly trained people. It can be developed and exercised by anyone with the will and discipline to do so.

This module will not only help you understand the concept of situational awareness, but also provide you with insights into how to develop and maintain it.

Stress and fatigue are major concerns on board ships because they have an impact on the crew’s physical and mental capabilities, which in turn, may pose safety and health risks.

By definition, stress is the body’s state of being alert that forces us to meet the challenges of everyday life. Meanwhile, fatigue is the state of feeling tired, weary or sleepy.

High level of stress has a serious impact on the safety awareness and capability of crewmembers to perform their tasks. Hence, stress increases the risk of human errors. The same is true when fatigue is not detected and managed.

This module enables you to recognise the importance of managing stress and fatigue on board ships. This helps you identify the common causes of fatigue and the types of stress. Moreover, this gives you knowledge of the various guidelines and strategies to address stress and fatigue on board ships.

The well-known method of going somewhere to join a course is not always an option, especially in times of crisis.

But what does an online course mean, and does it work for everyone?
It doesn’t require much technology or knowledge before getting started.
Online courses is a way to virtually meet up and develop skills transformed into a new learning situation.
It’s like being in a classroom even though you are not. This is how it works: