In This Guide You’ll Learn
- How poor leadership erodes crew confidence gradually, often without the crew member realising it
- Why the psychological effects of a toxic environment only become visible once you leave it
- What over-communication and over-performance really signal in a crew member
- Why asking for feedback is one of the strongest things a leader can do, and how rarely it actually happens
- How to approach a difficult leadership conversation without playing the victim
- What genuine crew empowerment looks like, from someone who has led both well and been led poorly
Poor leadership on a superyacht isn’t always obvious.
Sometimes there is no single incident you can point to. Instead, it happens gradually. You become more careful about what you say. You check decisions you would previously have made without thinking twice. You start explaining yourself more than you need to. Eventually, that becomes your normal way of working.
Keagan Blanckensee knows what that feels like.
A bosun with more than ten years in yachting, including four years on vessels over 100 metres, Keagan joined me on The Wellbeing Project to talk about a period in his career where criticism and intimidation began to affect the way he saw himself professionally.
Interestingly, he didn’t fully recognise how much his confidence had changed until he left.
When the Environment Starts Changing How You Work
Keagan came to superyachting from elite international sport. He competed at national level, operated in high-pressure environments, worked with high-performing teams, and understood what it meant to give maximum effort under scrutiny. None of that prepared him for what he experienced in a previous role.
He spent two and a half years working under a leadership style he describes as driven by intimidation. Feedback arrived not as a regular conversation, but as an accumulation of unspoken grievances delivered all at once, with no acknowledgement of what was going well. The criticism was constant and the recognition was absent.
“90% of the time the answer was: I actually did my best in that situation. And I just… I had a very difficult relationship with my Chief Officers and Captains.”
— Keagan Blanckensee, Bosun
There is a big difference between working in an environment with high standards and working in one where you are constantly waiting to find out what you have done wrong.
Good leadership can challenge people. It can be direct. It can hold people accountable.
But when criticism becomes the primary form of communication, people often stop focusing on doing their job well and start focusing on avoiding the next negative reaction.
He Didn’t Realise His Confidence Had Changed Until He Left
Two months after leaving that vessel, Keagan joined a new boat.
His new Captain and Chief Officer eventually pulled him aside and told him something he wasn’t expecting: he was doing far more than they needed him to do.
He could relax.
That conversation made him realise how much his previous environment had followed him onto the new boat.
“I really realised my confidence in my role was a bit broken. I was overcompensating, over-communicating. Scared to make decisions.”
— Keagan Blanckensee
This part of our conversation really stood out to me because I see versions of it quite often in my work with crew.
Someone joins a new vessel and appears unusually anxious about getting things wrong. They explain every decision. They seek approval for things that comfortably sit within their level of responsibility. They might ask repeatedly whether everything is okay.
It is easy for a leader to interpret that as inexperience or a lack of initiative.
Sometimes it is.
However, at times you are looking at a very capable crew member who has spent a long time working in an environment where making an independent decision felt risky.
That context changes how you lead them.
They may need clearer reassurance around the decisions they can make. They may need consistent feedback rather than silence followed by criticism. And, over time, they may need opportunities to rebuild trust in their own judgement. ISWAN’s YachtCrewHelp data has repeatedly highlighted interpersonal conflict and employment concerns among the issues raised by yacht crew seeking support.
33% of cases reported to ISWAN’s YachtCrewHelp involve interpersonal conflict or employment concerns (ISWAN, 2024)
Changing boats can remove someone from a difficult environment. It doesn’t necessarily mean they immediately stop working in the way that environment taught them to.
For Captains and HODs, this is where knowing your people becomes important. Behaviour that looks like a confidence problem may have a history behind it.
The Advanced Leadership Course explores this in much more depth, including how previous workplace experiences can influence the way crew communicate, respond to feedback and make decisions when they join your team.
One of the Best Chief Officers He Worked For Did Something Unusual
During our conversation, Keagan told me about a Chief Officer who sat down and asked him for feedback on his leadership.
Keagan was surprised.
In a hierarchical structure like yachting, mixed with ego-centric leadership, feedback from the bottom up is very rare.
“I grew a lot of respect for that person in that moment. He’s actually probably one of the strongest Chief Officers I’ve worked for. And here he is asking for feedback to see if he can improve.”
— Keagan Blanckensee
Leaders who ask for feedback tend to be good leaders precisely because they have the self-awareness and psychological security to hear uncomfortable feedback. Leaders who do not ask tend to stagnate, and the teams around them shrink to match.
Keagan keeps a self-accountability list from his work through The Crew Coach Advanced Leadership Course, a reference point he returns to so that the daily pressure of the job does not crowd out the reflective practice of leading well. When we work under pressure, it is easy to fall back into habit.
How Do You Raise a Leadership Problem When You’re Still Onboard?
IThis is where the conversation gets harder.
If you believe your Captain, Chief Officer or HOD is contributing to the problem, how do you raise it when they also hold more authority than you do?
Keagan’s advice was to think carefully about how you frame the conversation.
Rather than walking in with a list of everything the other person is doing wrong, explain what is happening, the impact it is having and what you believe needs to change.
Where possible, connect the issue to something you both care about: communication within the department, safety, performance, crew retention or how effectively the team is operating.
For example:
“I’ve noticed I’m checking decisions with you that I would normally make within my role because I’m worried about getting them wrong. I don’t think that’s helping either of us. Could we clarify which decisions you’re comfortable with me making independently?”
That is very different from pretending the behaviour isn’t affecting you.
You are still naming the problem. You are simply giving the conversation somewhere productive to go.
Of course, this also assumes the other person is willing and able to have that conversation.
Sometimes they aren’t.
If you have raised concerns appropriately and nothing changes, or the environment is significantly affecting your wellbeing, it is reasonable to consider your options. There are also situations involving bullying, harassment, discrimination or safety concerns where the appropriate next step may be a formal reporting route rather than trying to resolve everything one-to-one.
The counselling services at The Crew Coach support crew navigating these situations, including working out what is happening, what options are available to them and what they want to do next.
What Crew Empowerment Actually Looks Like
Towards the end of the conversation, I asked Keagan what he believes leaders need to do if they genuinely want their crew to feel empowered.
His answer wasn’t particularly complicated.
Respect people. Listen to them. Let them know that what they bring to the team has value.
Keagan has led a team of nine through two full seasons, with almost all of them staying.
What he describes isn’t an elaborate engagement strategy.
It is keeping people informed. Asking what they think. Listening when someone brings experience from another vessel. Giving people enough responsibility to contribute rather than expecting them simply to follow instructions.
“When someone feels like they’re adding value, it’s really empowering.”
— Keagan Blanckensee
That doesn’t mean every suggestion gets implemented or that hierarchy disappears.
A Captain still has to captain. A Chief Officer still has to make decisions. An HOD still has to hold standards.
Empowerment is not the absence of authority.
It is creating a team where people can use their experience, speak when they see something you might have missed and gradually take on more responsibility as their capability grows.
Our psychological safety research explores why this matters. People are far more likely to contribute information, admit mistakes and raise concerns when they believe doing so is safe.
Watch the Full Interview
Keagan Blanckensee joined Karine on The Wellbeing Project for a full conversation on the lasting impact of poor leadership on crew confidence, and what genuine empowerment looks like in practice.
▶ Watch: Toxic Leadership On Deck: How Bad Leadership Breaks Crew Confidence — YouTube with Karine once episode is live]
FAQs
How does poor leadership on a superyacht affect crew mental health?
Poor leadership affects crew mental health through gradual erosion rather than a single incident. Constant criticism without recognition, intimidation-based cultures, and the absence of honest feedback can produce hypervigilance, loss of confidence, and difficulty trusting one’s own judgement. Crew members often do not recognise the extent of the impact until they move to a healthier environment.
What are the signs that a crew member has been psychologically affected by a toxic work environment?
Key signs include over-communication beyond what the role requires, excessive checking-in or seeking reassurance, difficulty making decisions that are clearly within their remit, and visibly high anxiety in low-stakes situations. These are not personality traits but rather adaptive responses to an environment where mistakes were punished and performance was never acknowledged as good enough. Leaders who recognise these signs and respond with clear feedback and consistent support can help crew recalibrate over time.
Should I leave a boat if my Captain or Chief Officer’s leadership is affecting my wellbeing?
Leaving is not always the first step. Before making that decision, try creating the conditions for a direct conversation with the leader in question, framing the issue around the boat’s functioning rather than your personal experience of their behaviour. If that conversation does not produce change, and if the environment is significantly affecting your mental health, leaving is a legitimate and rational choice. If you are unsure how to assess the situation or how to have that conversation, speaking with a counsellor who understands the yachting context can help you approach it clearly rather than reactively.
What does genuine crew empowerment look like on a superyacht?
Crew empowerment is built on three things, according to Keagan Blanckensee: respect, active listening, and making people feel that their experience and perspective add value to the programme. Practically, this means taking five or ten minutes with individual crew members to check in, asking for feedback on how tasks are being managed, and staying open when crew offer ideas from previous vessels. It does not require elaborate programmes. It requires consistency and a genuine interest in the people you lead.
Why do the best leaders ask for feedback from junior crew?
Leaders who ask for feedback tend to perform at a higher level because that behaviour reflects both self-awareness and psychological security. It signals that they prioritise genuine performance over the appearance of authority. Keagan noted that the Chief Officer who asked him for feedback was also one of the strongest he had worked with, because that openness matched how he led in every other area. Leaders who do not seek feedback tend to develop blind spots, and their teams feel it.
If this episode resonated and you are navigating a difficult leadership environment, whether you are the crew member on the receiving end or the leader trying to do better, The Crew Coach Advanced Leadership Course is built specifically for the superyacht context. It covers psychological safety, feedback culture, accountability, and how to lead in high-pressure environments without it costing your crew.
