Tag: corporate life

In our special column this month, we are pleased to host an interview with Mr. Alisdair Pettigrew who is the Managing Director  and Founder of BLUE communications consultancy. Having a diverse and interesting background, he explains how he joined shipping industry and advises us to always invest in knowledge.

Having a safe working environment, not only concerning physical hazards, but also psychological hazards is important so that you support the employees. The psychological hazards category is the new kid on the block. Up to now, organizations were aware of the physical hazards. How easy is it to adapt to this new category of wellness and not stick to the traditional one?

UK figures from 2018 show that millions are lost each year due to work-related stress, anxiety, and depression. Creating psychological safety is the A, Z for a healthy working environment, where employees feel included and encouraged to contribute their best ideas, maintaining the overall efficiency of an organization.

Following the rise of the digitalization era during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is observed that the whole concept of the so-called “influencers” is rapidly increasing. However, some might wonder how could we influence others and make actual friends? Although published 85 years ago, in his book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, author Dale Carnegie discusses key ways to win friends, that never get outdated.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone’s else position. In other words, it is all about better understanding a person’s feelings and emotions. Yet, it plays a major role in maintaining healthy relationships and adopting social and leadership skills.

People are different. One person may see the situation one way, and the other person might perceive the same situation a very different way. Social intelligence is, among others, the ability to see things from the other person’s viewpoint, paving us the way to successful social environments.

During the years it is observed that the nature of work in every job field, is somehow changing, due to the emerging technologies such as the artificial intelligence, digitalization, automation, cyber security etc. As a result, the skills that employers and companies value and depend on are also transforming, creating a "skills gap". To make it clear, skills gap is the difference among the techniques required for a job and the skills that an employee actually performs. Therefore, because of the skills gap issue, a potential employee may not be able to completely operate the tasks of the job. However, when it comes to the shipping industry, technological advances have also contributed to skills gap issues within the sector, as crews are required to have skills beyond their mandatory maritime qualifications. The present and future challenges faced by the maritime industry will create significant pressure on the present model of manning the maritime industry, both on ships and ashore. Namely, with smart ships dynamically enter into service, there is an increasing demand for a new generation of competent, highly skilled maritime professionals. There are strong indications that new technologies and the resulting social interactions will significantly affect the required core ...

When it comes to work skills, they can be separated into two types: the hard skills and the soft skills. Although they might be different from one another, both of them are necessary for every successful career. However, how can someone develop a soft skill that will help them thrive in their workplace?

When employers talk about problem-solving skills, they mean the ability to handle difficult or unexpected situations. Complex problem solving is indeed included at the top three of the most wanted skills for 2025, according to World Economic Forum. And while this is a critical skill to have at work, especially in leadership positions, chances are that most of us never had some special training in it.

The future of business is expected to be more flexible to remote working, redefining best practices for leaders who are already performing a challenging task. Strong leadership is critically important for any organization in any time, but what are the key priorities leaders will have to shed their focus on during times of crisis and beyond?