The most junior person on a cruise ship bridge often drives the ship.

I was hosting a Clubhouse conversation about mindful leadership with my friend Emily Campbell. The topic: balancing autonomy and accountability.

Lina Beckman joined—a first officer who'd served on multiple cruise lines, including Disney. Her stories about cruise ship leadership blew my mind.

The Captain's Job

Cruise ship captains create an environment where the crew can deliver peak performance. Read more about what a cruise ship captain does here.

Give Real Responsibility With Support

The most junior bridge member often pilots the ship. This is how they learn. They have close support from more senior bridge members so they don't steer off course. The entire bridge is set up so that crew members can learn how to handle the responsibilities of captaining a ship.

Coach Through Questions

Challenging is a common and necessary behavior on the bridge. Challenges encourage learning. They assume someone will self-correct instead of needing direct correction. Instead of "don't do that?" or "that's wrong!" they might ask "why did you that?" or "do you know what will happen if we continue on this course?" Correction can be given with respect.

It was incredible to hear her first-hand experience of being part of a cruise leadership team. It was obvious from Lina's stories that she is a leader whose goal is to create other leaders. Her experience confirmed many parts of the conversation we'd been having about autonomy and accountability.

What could you change in your work environment to give more autonomy to those on your team? How do you think they would respond?