Keynote: Steering Your Ship through Rough Waters: Lessons on Leadership from Captain Phillips

Richard Phillips, Captain of the Maersk Alabama, real life inspiration for the Tom Hanks’ movie Captain Phillips, and Author at the 2014 HCI Human Capital Summit & Expo began his speech stating, “I’ve always been a little different." Captain Phillips went on to tell the charming story of how his brother and a suave merchant mariner led him to choose a life at sea.

Captain Phillips shared his vision of leadership with three mantras he has learned from his experience. First, you are much stronger than you even know.  Second, the only time when all is lost is when you choose to give up, and third a focused and motivated tam can overcome any obstacle.

“We Are All Stronger Than We Know”

On his first day aboard the Maersk Alabama, Captain Phillips explained that he ran through his mental checklist of always planning for the worst believing that when you are “fat, dumb, and happy” is generally when trouble finds you.  Piracy in the Indian Ocean had been escalating at the time and, as Phillips noticed a gap in security on the ship, he scheduled a drill to prepare his team, creating new strategies and innovations and effectively communicating them to his crew.

As everyone who has seen the film can guess, his ship soon falls under the attack of pirates. Just as great leaders can see threats on their horizon, Captain Phillips could see his threat coming, allowing him time to prepare and execute a strategy.  Confronted with a challenge he had never faced before, he joked that his training didn’t include how to repel machine gun and small arms fire.  Phillips preached, “We are all stronger than we know,” and that you too will find the strength within to face your challenges.

“Sometimes You Have to Question Your Training to Do What Is Best.”

With his plan in place and his crew safely hidden on the adrift Maersk Alabama, Phillips was left to face the threat of the pirates.  During the course of his plan, the crew was able to capture the leader of the pirates creating a stalemate.   Captain Phillips felt his first responsibility was to protect his crew and the ship.  He needed to find a way to get the pirates off the ship.

“Never Trust a Pirate.”

Captain Phillips devises a plan to get the pirates off of his ship and on to a lifeboat along with a prisoner exchange of himself for the pirate leader to take place on the lifeboat. Like many leaders, Captain Phillips found that he needed adjust his plan as the pirates betrayed the exchange agreement. “Leaders,” Captain Phillip said, “Need to adjust their plan depending on circumstances, when to try to escape, when to acquiesce, when to take a stand and when to accommodate.”  Referencing another core leadership principle, Phillips knew he would, “Survive by staying calm.”  He refused to give up, or give up hope.  “I prayed for the strength and patience to never give up,” disclosed Phillips.  He shared a heartfelt anecdote of a rushed goodbye at the airport with his wife as he began his deployment, and how he didn’t want that fleeting farewell to be his wife’s final memory of him.  As Captain Phillips described how the team of United States Navy Seals came to his rescue he cautioned the crowd, “We are all riding on constantly shifting seas, sometimes literally sometimes metaphorically in business,” and reminded the crowd,  “A team of dedicated professionals makes all the difference.”  Captain Phillips finished his harrowing tale of leadership with a reading of the inspirational poem See It Through by “The People’s Poet” Edgar Albert Guest.

See It Through        

When you’re up against a trouble,

    Meet it squarely, face to face;

Lift your chin and set your shoulders,

    Plant your feet and take a brace.

When it’s vain to try to dodge it,

    Do the best that you can do;

You may fail, but you may conquer,

    See it through!

Black may be the clouds about you

    And your future may seem grim,

But don’t let your nerve desert you;

    Keep yourself in fighting trim.

If the worst is bound to happen,

    Spite of all that you can do,

Running from it will not save you,

    See it through!

Even hope may seem but futile,

    When with troubles you’re beset,

But remember you are facing

    Just what other men have met.

You may fail, but fall still fighting;

    Don’t give up, whate’er you do;

Eyes front, head high to the finish.

    See it through!