Everything suddenly stops. Order books flutter ominously like empty sails in the wind, and then storms rise in series. One after the other, worse and more surprising than the other. Growth has already disappeared at the port of departure. Profitability is also being tested.

The sky is tearing apart more, the waves are rising even higher, and the horizon is disappearing.

A financial crisis hits the shipping companies. Immediately afterwards, the entire crew begins to suffer from an exceptional case of scurvy, for which vaccines are being developed at a rapid pace. Just as the ship's crew is at their wits' end, war breaks out.

You stand on the deck of the ship – as the captain, on whom all eyes are focused.

This is a story about what happens when a leader is caught in a storm and nothing they've learned is enough.

Believe

A captain once said:

“When I walked out of the employee engagement meeting, I got in the car and cried. Leadership is that moment when you go home and try to smile at your kids, even though you know that someone else’s kid’s dad lost his job today. It’s a contradiction that no one teaches. The next day I kept working and I made it through – not because I was strong, but because the people left behind deserved the actions that will create the future.” believe".

He knew he had to save the ship with his people and get the remaining crew home safely, so every decision and action weighed heavily on his heart. Leadership doesn't always look like winning. Sometimes it looks like silently crying in the parking lot—and getting up the next morning anyway, because believesthat we will get through this too and that the staff is waiting.

Hope

When the sea is rough, the map is outdated, and the navigator is out of order, a compass helps keep the direction. Leadership is not about knowing everything. It is the wisdom to know what you don't know and the wisdom to see past the storm, guiding people to the harbor of hope.

Strategy may become outdated, but vision and values give hope and strength to continue together.The route plan will be refined according to the situation and changing environment.

For the CEO, this means the ability to:

Think with a strategic time horizon, i.e. what does this mean for us immediately today and over the longer term of 3-5 years
The ability to see the situation as realistically as it is, but still continue to work towards the right and desirable direction.
Leads empathetically, showing one's own vulnerability and inviting others to join in

Love

When the waves crash and there is chaos on deck, sometimes only one voice remains – your own. The voice that asks: “Did I do the right thing and can I handle it?”

Another captain once said:

“When everyone else had gone home, I stayed in the office. I checked my email, which was no longer responding, and my phone, which was no longer ringing. The words from Samuli Putro’s song “silence is so perfectly quiet” came to mind and I wondered if I could stand this and if I did the right thing?”

This is not a weakness. It's the result of love. It's when you care too much to be indifferent.

And that's exactly why it makes you a leader that people follow and help – not because you're strong, but because you're genuine and you care. You may be lonely, but you're not alone.

From CEO to CEO in the eye of the storm – Remember to believe, hope and love

Our clients' CEOs have navigated and are currently navigating an exceptionally difficult operating environment and a cosmic triangle of loneliness amidst the pitfalls of business life. However, they have survived and will continue to survive because they have remembered: