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JANEEN SONSIE

PEOPLE DYNAMICS SPECIALIST

Helping leaders create positive People Dynamics so people enjoy doing their best work, together.

Specialising in the unique People Dynamics of the superyacht industry.

GENERAL TEAM PROBLEM

LEADING A TEAM SHOULDN’T FEEL LIKE DIRECTING A SOAP OPERA.

You hired capable people who know their jobs. So why do you end up spending so much time dealing with misunderstandings, personality clashes, complaints and people dramas?

Maybe communication is becoming tense between people and departments. Small irritations turn into aggravations. Morale is slipping and your good people keep leaving. And you just wish everyone could sort themselves out and make your life easier.

Sometimes it’s not quite so obvious. Everyone is present physically, they get the work done adequately and the team appears to function OK. Yet you can feel they’re not really working together well. There’s more frustration bubbling underneath than there should be. People are holding back and you have to push for cooperation. You know this team is capable of much more.

So why does a group of perfectly capable people sometimes struggle to work well together?

SPECIALIST CONTEXT

IN YACHTING, EVERYTHING GETS MAGNIFIED

Superyachts are an unusually demanding environment for people. Crew live and work together in confined spaces, often for long periods, with little separation between work and personal life. Add long hours, fatigue, hierarchy, different cultures, demanding owners and guests, high expectations and limited opportunity to get away from each other, and ordinary people problems quickly become much bigger ones.

And these issues rarely exist in isolation. Fatigue reduces patience and affects communication. Hierarchy makes junior crew reluctant to speak up. When leaders don’t address tension or poor behaviour early, it becomes the cultural norm onboard. Pressure from owners and guests often takes priority over crew recovery. Friction between people spreads through departments and affects the mood and morale of the whole crew.

The consequences reach every part of the yacht: crew wellbeing and morale, teamwork, safety and operational performance. Service standards suffer and so does the guest experience. And when the working environment deteriorates, good crew leave.

How people work together creates the People Dynamics of the crew.

WHAT ARE PEOPLE DYNAMICS?

Think of a team as a machine. Every person is a component of that machine, with their own role to play and their own attributes. For the machine to perform at its best, every component needs to perform its function well and in alignment with the others.

Communication is the oil that keeps the machine running smoothly. Good communication increases the positive energy within the team. People understand and support each other, cooperate, contribute, speak up and work together towards shared success. This minimises friction and keeps the components in alignment.

Poor communication increases negative energy. People misunderstand each other, become frustrated, withdraw, complain and cooperate less. This creates tension and friction and moves the components out of alignment.

The way the whole team communicates and interacts creates the People Dynamics of the team. The state of those People Dynamics shifts as team members, roles, leadership, working conditions and the culture within the team change.

THE ATTRIBUTES OF EACH PERSON

Each person’s life experiences create their individual version of these attributes. Together, these attributes shape who they are and how they perceive their world, present themselves and relate to others.

THE PEOPLE DYNAMICS SPIRAL

The state of the People Dynamics of a team exists somewhere along a continuum, from highly negative through to highly positive. The state is reflected in how people behave and interact and in the effects this has on the team and its performance.

The state is fluid and moves up or down the Spiral as things change within the team and its environment. Positive energy moves the team towards greater engagement, commitment and collective excellence. Negative energy increases friction, discontentment and withdrawal and moves the team towards breakdown.

WHAT STATE ARE YOUR PEOPLE DYNAMICS IN?

Take the short People Dynamics Self-Assessment to get an indication of where your team currently sits on the Spiral.

HOW I HELP

I help leaders understand what is really happening within their teams and identify the patterns and behaviours creating the current state of their People Dynamics. My aim is to move teams and organisations up the Spiral towards the positive outcomes.

I see connections other people miss and ask the questions other people don’t ask. My focus is on transformation, not simply learning new skills. People often return to familiar behaviours after training, so I combine learning with coaching and ongoing support to help them integrate what they have learned into how they communicate, behave and work together every day.

And yes, I do offer leadership and communication training with follow-up coaching, as well as coaching individuals and groups to help them understand themselves and each other better. I can also speak about all of this at your conference and, with my background in acting, you can expect it to be engaging, entertaining and definitely memorable.

INTRODUCING JANEEN SONSIE

People have always fascinated me. I’ve been passionate about personal development and learning about people for more than 30 years, while spending those same years immersed in business. It’s given me an unusual combination: a deep understanding of people alongside strong business acumen.

Along the way I’ve been a computer programmer, sales and marketing manager, corporate trainer, transformational coach, university lecturer and actor. An unusual career path perhaps, but I’ve never been one to follow the mainstream.

I’ve reinvented myself many times and navigated my share of adversity along the way. These experiences have given me resilience and a very real understanding of change and what it takes to keep growing throughout life.

Through all these chapters, connecting with people has been the constant thread. I’ve brought people together, created communities and helped people understand themselves, each other and their relationships better.

All of this has enabled me to create my model of People Dynamics. My life experience and personal development give me the insight, while my business acumen and systems thinking help me turn those insights into simple models that make complex human behaviour easier to understand. People Dynamics is the culmination of a lifetime of watching, learning and understanding how people interact.

UNDERSTAND YOUR PEOPLE DYNAMICS

Take the short self-assessment to see where your team currently sits on the People Dynamics Spiral.

TALK TO ME

Have a team issue, an idea or think I could help someone you know? Let’s have a conversation.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Interested in People Dynamics and my work? Join my mailing list for articles, ideas and occasional updates.