Be the Calm or Be the Storm: Leadership Lessons from a Woman at the Helm by Captain Sandy Yawn & Samantha Marshall

Author:Captain Sandy Yawn & Samantha Marshall [Captain Sandy Yawn & Samantha Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Hay House Business
Published: 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

DELICATE DANCE

The smartest CEOs understand the value of external relationships. Over my 20-plus years as a yacht captain in Europe I invested a lot of time and effort in treating the dockworkers and staff well, hosting them at parties on the boat at the end of a charter if we had leftover alcohol, and taking the local agents out to dinner at the best restaurants. I did this wherever we regularly docked. Whatever I could do to generate good will, I did, even at the risk of ruining my waistline with lots of delicious pasta and pizza in Naples. I often broke bread with marina owners who had their fingers on the pulse throughout the Amalfi Coast region. If I wanted anything done that is superyacht related, these were my go-to men. They gave me dockage before anyone else. It’s also a delicate dance of helping each other: I bring them business, and, in exchange, they help me solve my problems.

One dock owner I’ve grown particularly fond of is Massimo. He is such a character! He has a team of support staff, all women, who work inside a converted container on the dock. I always felt so sorry for them because, with the hot southern Italian sun beating down on its metal roof all day, the place was sweltering, and the few strategically placed fans did little more than move the heat around like a hair dryer.

“Massimo, your trailer is too hot,” I told him. “It’s like, 100 degrees. The girls are dying in there!”

One day I offered to buy them a portable air conditioner—the kind with the big hose you stick through the window to extract the hot air.

“Sandy, I will catcha cold,” he pleaded. “Please, we donna want the AC!”

“Well that’s because you’re outside, walking the dock,” I told him.

“You Americans and your AC. The fans are good enough.”

I guess the lesson there was that there are some problems people don’t want you to solve for them! Mind your own side of the street or dock.

I crossed another line with a Mediterranean dock owner I’d built a relationship with when I went to a rival marina, which got mysteriously canceled at the last minute. Then I got a call.

“Ola Sandy! I see your dockage is canceled,” he told me.

“How did you know?” I asked, then realized the stupidity of my question as soon it was out of my mouth. Mystery solved.

“All right boss,” I told him. “But here’s the deal. You guys constantly overcharge us, and I can’t keep doing that to my clients. You’ve got to be fair!”

Silence. I knew the marina owner who shall remain nameless was pissed at me, so I tried to make a deal that would benefit us both.

“I tell you what. Why don’t you rebook my dockage, but I’ll buy all my fuel from you?”

Later on, I went to his marina to fill up and, as we started to fill our tank, one of his men took the fuel house out of our boat and put it in another boat, then returned the hose to our boat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.