The maritime industry is charting a new course toward safety and retention, and it’s steering straight into the heart of leadership culture. Earlier this month, leaders from across the sector gathered in London for the Kind Leadership Workshop, a collaborative effort by the Maritime Professional Council (MPC), The Nautical Institute, and CHIRP. Their mission? To turn the growing recognition of Kind Leadership into a practical, industry-wide transformation.
The workshop built on the 2023 Kind Leadership Report, which found that a staggering 88% of maritime professionals see a place for Kind Leadership in the industry. But what exactly does that mean? According to the workshop participants, it’s not about rigid models or checklists. Instead, it’s a set of behaviours rooted in empathy, trust, accountability, and steady leadership.
The result of the workshop is a clear, actionable “Implementation Passage Plan.” This plan outlines how Kind Leadership can be woven into the fabric of daily operations. It focuses on developing training modules that are easy to implement for leaders, managers, and crews. The goal? To measure results accurately and encourage visible leadership commitment to these activities.
Mentoring, toolbox talks, soft-skills sessions, and micro-learning for cadets are all core elements of the plan. Measurement will focus on behavioural indicators, welfare and engagement levels, operational safety, performance, and retention. The message is clear: a learning culture outperforms a blame culture, and Kind Leadership provides a practical route to safer, more resilient, and more attractive working environments.
Captain John Lloyd FNI, CEO of The Nautical Institute, captured the essence of the workshop’s discussions: “The workshop’s discussions clearly demonstrated that while regulation is important, it is people who make ships safer. That requires leadership driven from the top and a culture that supports and inspires everyone, at sea and ashore, to work together with clarity, trust, and shared purpose. As we improve that alignment, we create safer operations, better working environments, and a maritime sector where people truly want to belong.”
The next steps are equally ambitious. Over the coming months, MPC and its partners will work with organisations willing to adopt and pilot the suggested framework. They’ll capture measurable results, develop case studies, support mentoring initiatives, and share guidance, tools, and learning resources across the sector.
Collaboration, transparency, and documented progress are at the heart of this initiative. Kind Leadership isn’t a distraction from operational excellence; it’s increasingly recognised as its foundation. As Captain John Lloyd emphasized, it’s the people who make ships safer, and that starts with leadership driven from the top.
The maritime industry is at a crossroads. It can continue down the path of regulation and compliance, or it can embrace a new way of leading—one that prioritises empathy, trust, and accountability. The Kind Leadership Workshop has set a practical course, and the industry is ready to follow. The question now is, who will lead the way?