O' Captain,
My Captain
October 12, 2001
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Throughout our lives, both personally and professionally,
we look for a captain; someone to guide us through the storms and bring
us safely to home port again. We want this captain to be ever vigilant,
ever watchful and skillful beyond measure; someone to protect us and automatically
know when the ship is off-course and in danger. Sometimes, though, serving
under such a captain, either on-board or in your high-tech career can
lead you to underestimate your own skills.
Crossing the Unknown Sea
In David Whyte's book Crossing
the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, he points out one
issue involved with the concept of "captaincy", when the small
tour boat he is working on nearly runs aground.
"The great irony was that in [the captain's] all-knowing alertness,
we had allowed [him] to lull us subtly into a lack of responsibility
at the very core. We were alert as crew members, but [he] had so filled
his role as captain to capacity that we ourselves had become incapacitated
in one crucial area. We had given up our own inner sense of captaincy.
Somewhere inside us we had come to the decision that ultimate responsibility
lay elsewhere."
You are the captain
While you can, and should, follow a good captain, you should also remember
that you are a captain in your own right. You have as much responsibility
for the success of your job and your career as anyone else. You cannot
ignore a problem, hoping that the captain, or your peers will notice and
protect you from it. It is through the practice of your own responsibility
that everyone around you remains safe.
As you can see, this concept of captaincy has applications
far beyond the high seas. Every company, every department, every independent
contractor has one or more "ships" they must guide and protect.
It is up to you to see the problem and address it without direct orders
from your captain. When you act as your own captain, those around you
will follow suit. They will become even better at what they do.
Of course, the same scenario can occur when there is no captain, or worse,
an ineffectual one. Too many times the crew is content to let the ship
founder on the rocks even though they will go down with it as surely as
the captain. Shouldn't you at least make a grab for the tiller and steer
the ship until you and your crewmates can abandon ship? There are times
when you need to become a captain to both yourself and others in order
to survive. Even if your project is sinking, you need to maintain your
stability so you can make a safe transfer to the next step in your career.
Everyone a captain
Don't hesitate to cultivate captaincy in those around you, either. Instead
of taking the entire weight of command, build a team that can carry responsibility
on its own shoulders. This allows you to concentrate on the issues that
truly require your attention instead of wallowing in the morass of micro-management.
Together, as captain and crew, you can achieve goals that none of you
could do separately.
You cannot fear your peers. You must embrace their skills, their talents
and their abilities. It is through these people that you will achieve
your success. You have to have the ability to call on them, and they on
you, when problems grow beyond the ability of one person to solve them.
Letting someone else face the problem alone is the height of professional
cowardice. Worse yet, if they fail, your work will still be effected,
and possibly, damaged, due to your willful inattention. There are no winners
or losers in your professional life. Too often, when one person loses,
everyone does.
No one, regardless of their position in a company, should willfully abandon
their attention and let anyone, even the best captain, carry the entire
burden of responsibility alone. You must exert your own innate abilities
without being told what to do each step of the way. Your professional
life will depend on your ability to be your own captain first. Only then
can you effectively captain others.
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