Leadership development across sea and shore

Maritime is asking more of its leaders than ever. Decarbonisation, new technologies, hybrid roles and increased shore-based control are reshaping what leadership looks like in practice – at sea, ashore, and in the transition between the two.

This live panel discussion brought together senior practitioners from ship management, maritime education and organisational change to examine how leadership development must evolve. 

The leadership conversation maritime keeps avoiding

The maritime industry tends to promote its strongest technical operators into leadership roles, and to leave much of the rest to experience. As the pace of change accelerates, that approach is becoming a quiet but serious risk.

In this article, Olav Vorup Jensen and Dr Joanna-Eugenia Bakouni look at why the gap exists, what maritime can learn from other industries, and what a different starting point might look like.

Lead the investigation and the culture that follows

Maritime safety is not won in the moment of an incident. It is won when a team has to make sense of what happened and decide how it will operate next. Our maritime risk management and incident investigation course gives superintendents, HSEQ professionals, and senior officers the leadership skills to identify hazards, apply barrier management, and run root-cause investigations through a human factors lens.

Future leaders build future workforces

The wind industry needs 250,000 people by 2030, and the leaders who will build that workforce are being shaped now. Last year, Specialist Wind Services partnered with Maersk Training to build its workforce from the ground up: candidates sourced from rail and engineering for transferable skills, OEM-aligned standards from day one, retention prioritised over volume.

Every wind leader started here

Every wind site supervisor, hub rescue team lead and senior technician started on a GWO course. The operators who develop them deliberately, rather than waiting for them to grow into the role, will define the next decade of the industry. Our GWO training portfolio gives wind operators the technical foundation underneath every leadership pathway.

Crisis leadership is a muscle that needs to be trained

In this article, Principal Advisor for Crisis Management Knut Egil Sæther sets out what it takes to prepare top management for the moments that matter: the first 60 minutes where verification beats perfection, and the reputational decisions made under pressure that took decades to build and a single day to lose. Anchored in the Proactive Method and the three-tier model of strategic, tactical, and operational response.

Don't wait for the crisis to find your leaders

Most crisis management training starts after the first incident. The organisations that hold up under pressure design it the other way around. Our crisis management training and consultancy service builds the leadership, decision-making and communication capability your strategic, tactical and operational teams need before the alarm sounds. Customised programmes covering emergency assessments, stress training, next-of-kin and media communication, stakeholder management, and OPITO-approved leadership courses.