Unlocking your potential: Yotspot teams up with Luxury Hospitality
Anchoring off
As the end of 2021 approaches, and the yachting industry takes a breath after an exhilarating and hectic show season, now is the perfect time to stop and reflect.
With many industry professionals finding their jobs radically transformed by the pressures and travel restrictions of the pandemic, employees across the board are asking the vital question: what is it that makes me truly happy, and how do I find this in my work?
Here at Yotspot, we think we’ve got the answer. As the industry’s number one jobs board for both crew and shore-based roles, Yotspot currently has 81,587 yachting professionals on our books, with over 2,500 active vacancies and more than 6,000 training courses listed on our site. However, if you are looking to make a career change that will help you achieve both personal fulfilment and come closer to reaching your long-term goals, you need to look beyond the information listed online and consider your personal development. In other words, finding the perfect job is not about what you do in the role, but about discovering what makes you tick.
Diving below the surface
And how, exactly, can we do this? This is where Yotspot’s latest partnership with the Rotterdam-based professional training and coaching company, Luxury Hospitality (LH) comes in. The experts at LH are launching a brand new, in-depth talent assessment exclusively for Yotspot users to help them look inwards, discover more about themselves, and therefore assist them in finding their perfect careers.
All about Luxury Hospitality
LH was founded by yachting veteran Peter Vogel, who has almost 30 years of service experience on board some of the industry’s most iconic boats under his belt, including the 126-metre Octopus, the 105-metre Lady Moura and the 92-metre Tatoosh.
After five years as a runner with cruise line Seabourn, Vogel worked his way up to assistant maître d’, before being headhunted to be second steward on Lady Moura. Despite clocking up all of this valuable hands-on experience, Vogel realised the skills which he had accumulated meant little if he wasn’t happy doing the role.
Finding happiness – and yourself
It was Vogel’s time aboard Octopus which acted as a springboard for his later career. As he explains, it was when he started working for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on the build team for the 126-metre yacht that he was able to ‘utilise his talents and shine’. Vogel found it transformative to be valued for who he was, not what he did.
Peter says: “For years I felt unhappy in service until I was given the freedom to provide authentic service. The late Mr Allen allowed us to be who we truly were. He let us shine in our strengths and be vulnerable in our weaknesses, without judgement. From this state of acceptance, we began to build a team that supported each other.”
Mr Allen’s approach to leadership and his ‘belief in developing people’ was so inspiring that Peter credits him as being the driver for him founding LH as a hospitality development platform to provide a better service to the yachting industry through its personal development and leadership programmes.
Team development through self-knowledge
LH’s programmes are unique in the industry for their strong focus on the individual. Although employment experts might fear that this emphasis on the individual could detract from team performance, Vogel believes the opposite: greater self-awareness actually helps to bolster these dynamics.
“Insight is such a powerful tool. Once a person begins to understand their own behaviour better they tend to develop more compassion for both themselves and other people.”
He adds: “Ultimately, greater self-awareness and compassion for your colleagues helps to build trust, which is probably the most important foundation in creating high-performing teams.”
Dream team: Joining forces
Indeed, it is this shared belief in the importance of development through self-awareness that makes Yotspot the perfect platform to showcase LH’s game-changing new talent assessment, which will simultaneously help guide career choices, as well as helping to preserve and strengthen industry mental health.
As Peter explains: “We want to collaborate with Yotspot because they’re an innovative company that’s successfully demonstrating how technology can support and benefit the industry – we love and want to support it!”
He continues, “Ultimately, Yotspot understands this incredible community is made up of individuals who can thrive if they’re given the right support and help. When people discover what they love to do, it can have a positive impact on their wellbeing and prevent future problems with mental health.”
Peter adds: “There are many people out there in the industry who are stuck, without realising why. Until they’ve unleashed their true potential, they will remain stuck and are probably limiting their earning potential in the process. We want as many people as possible to realise they have wonderful talents inside them that are just waiting to be utilised.”
So, as the new dawn of 2022 awaits on the horizon – where will you be sailing next?
More information will be released soon regarding the talent assessment from LH, so watch this space! To discover more about the courses on offer with Luxury Hospitality, visit their website.