*By Denise Joaquim Marques, a business consultant specialized in Sales and Marketing, focusing on high performance strategies, commercial leadership and market differentiation  

You know that the team can do more and your team knows that you know. Still, the month closes below expectations. When this is repeated, it becomes standard. And standard, in management, usually points to a poorly calibrated decision. 

There is a silent point where the goal ceases to guide and starts to block. It does not appear in a meeting, does not arrive as direct feedback, does not become an agenda. But it is there. It is when the professional, before a goal that he considers unattainable, internally recalibrates what he believes to be possible and starts working within this limit. A lower limit than the real potential, lower than the historical and often lower than what he himself has already delivered. 

It is not a lack of commitment: it is an adjustment of expectation. When the goal seems too far away, the effort loses meaning. The energy changes, the pace slows down, the ambition shrinks. Although the team remains active, they play believing in great results.  

At the other extreme, easy goals also charge a price. The results are achieved, but do not build evolution. The team complies, maintains the routine and follows without tension. Only when the scenario changes and requires more, lack repertoire. Lack speed and preparation to respond. The comfort zone, in this case, becomes delay. 

It is in this interval that leadership really makes a difference. Setting goals is not only designing number IO is context reading, it is understanding the moment of the market, the history of the team, the resources available and how much that goal mobilizes without locking. 

It takes the team off the automatic and does not break the belief that it is possible to arrive, even if it requires more than has been done so far, without ignoring reality. Certainly, there will be tension, but enough to generate action and not to paralyze. 

This will also require a change in the way you follow. It is not enough to look at the number at the end of the month. You need to observe what is being built along the way, what attitude, behavior, consistency, quality of execution. When the focus is only on the result, you lose the chance to adjust what actually produces this performance. 

High-performance teams are born of goals that make sense, not extreme goals that are understood, assumed, and pursued, that call for evolution, and yet are recognized as possible. 

The balance point in setting a goal is not in a fixed place, between the difficult and the easy. Forget it! He is in the ability to read along the way, is in realizing whenthe challenge turned block and when the facility turned accommodation. And especially be attentive to the purpose, the meaning, the hunger for achievement that connects the team to the achievement of the proposed goal, and make adjustments, before the team literally pull the plug. 

By Marina Mosol and Mariana Hinkel, founders of NoAr Agency

In recent months, executives from companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta have begun to publicly comment on topics such as artificial intelligence, regulation and market changes even before official announcements.In many cases, these are the lines that guide how the market interprets the next movements of these companies.

Data released by LinkedIn in early 2026 shows that executive-driven publications have grown more than 30% in global engagement over the past year, in many cases surpassing the reach of institutional profiles. In practice, this changes where reputation begins to be formed and requires a new level of PR organization.

In routine, this effect appears more clearly in three points:

1. Repeating with direction builds recognition

Executives don't have to talk about everything, but they do need to be consistent in what they choose to address.

When the same theme appears recurrently, even in different contexts, it begins to establish itself as part of the identity of that leadership. In PR, this approaches the thematic anchoring: the link between a name and the issues it sustains over time.

This recognition usually comes from some simple patterns:

• the executive returns to the same theme in interviews, events and networks
• it delves into the subject from different angles rather than just repeating opinion
• connect this theme with real business decisions

A clear example appears in the consumer technology sector. Apple has for years been reinforcing discussions about privacy and data protection. This type of repetition makes the brand be remembered for the theme it supports, something that appears consistently in campaigns, positions and company decisions.

Over time, the name will load the theme together.

2. Not every speech goes through time, some stop at the moment

Much of what is said in everyday life disappears quickly. But some lines continue to appear, being cited or used as a basis for other analysis. What changes is not the subject is the form.

In PR, this appears in sustaining capacity: when a speech can remain relevant even outside the context in which it arose.

This is more evident when we look at different sectors. An executive who merely says that “the market is changing” tends to disappear in the flow of information. Already the one who explains what forces are behind this change, how it impacts the business and what decisions are being made creates content that continues to be resumed.

A point of reflection helps to understand this better: do the speeches of your leaders today help the public understand what is happening or just record that something is happening?

When there is an explanation, the content continues to circulate.

3. More voices do not mean more clarity, no alignment, the opposite happens

As different executives gain space, the perception of the brand is formed by the set of these lines.

In PR, this work appears in narrative alignment, ensuring that even with different voices, there is a clear direction being built.

In practice, this calls for some care:

• define what themes each leadership should occupy
• avoid overlap or contradiction between speeches
• maintain a recognizable line of reasoning over time

Today, reputation is formed in what is said about it, including by those who represent it. And the more these statements accumulate, the more they influence the way the company is understood in the market.

In offshore operations, cargo handling is among the activities with the greatest potential for risk. Data from the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers indicate that incidents related to lifting operations remain among the main causes of serious accidents in the oil and gas industry, often associated with human failures, inadequate communication and incorrect reading of operating conditions.  

Analysis of international organizations indicates that a relevant portion of these events occur even in technically structured environments, which shifts the focus of the discussion to the quality of team preparation. 

In Brazil, although there is no specific consolidated statistic for cargo accidents in port environments, the different available cut-outs point to the same risk vector. Data from the Public Ministry of Labor, in partnership with the International Labor Organization, indicate that the transport, storage and mail sector registered more than 40 thousand work accidents in 2023, with a strong incidence in activities related to cargo movement.  

Recent reports by the National Agency for Waterway Transport, published between 2022 and 2023, also point out failures in lifting, mooring and handling operations as recurrent occurrences in safety audits in organized ports. Studies by the Jorge Duprat Figueiredo Foundation for Safety and Occupational Medicine, such as the 2021 technical survey on accidents in logistics operations, reinforce that events involving cargo drop, crushing and failures in lifting equipment are among the most frequent mechanisms of serious accidents.  

Because of this, operators and service providers have made a deeper review of their training models. The training is no longer a one-off event, focused on certification or compliance with standards, and has been treated as a continuous process, directly connected to the reality of the operation.  

In offshore environments, where variables such as wind, unit movement, visibility and interaction between teams change rapidly, the ability to interpret context and make decisions under pressure has become as relevant as the technical mastery of equipment. 

Impact of behaviour and communication 

Cognitive errors, such as overconfidence, confirmation bias and situational communication failures are present in a relevant portion of hoisting accidents. Because of this, training began to incorporate elements of behavior and perception, in addition to bringing different functions of the organization to the context.  

A misinterpreted command, a delay in response or a misreading of signaling can trigger a chain of events with relevant impact. Therefore, specialist companies have incorporated the simulation of interactions that occur in the day-to-day operations, reflecting the complexity of the offshore environment.  

Another important axis is the use of operational data to feed back training. More structured companies have integrated records of near accidents, operational deviations and critical events to training programs. Instead of working with generic examples, the exercises begin to reflect real situations experienced by the operation itself. This approach approximates training practice and reduces the distance between what is taught and what actually happens in the field. 

In addition, the systematic analysis of these data allows identifying patterns that would hardly be perceived in isolation. Frequency of failures in certain types of operation, recurrence of errors in specific interfaces between teams or inconsistencies in procedures become inputs for continuous review of training content. Learning is no longer reactive and becomes structured. 

This movement has a direct impact on the chain of command within the operation. When the team is trained based on real events, the perception of risk is calibrated more precisely. Operators who have already simulated the consequences of a communication failure during a hoisting in rough seas react differently in the same situation in the real environment. The memory built in the training starts to act as a decision reference, reducing the response time at times when stopping the operation is the safest choice. 

Simulation and practical training: where the method meets the real environment 

The offshore hoisting training is not limited to the behavioral dimension. It needs to include, with equal depth, the technical knowledge about the equipment that makes up the lifting system, the rules governing its specification and the criteria that determine when a component should be removed from operation. 

Steel cables, slings, shackles, straps and hoisting accessories work within precise technical parameters. The safe workload of each component is defined from the specific application, and ignoring this sizing, either by ignorance or by operating pressure, is a direct path to failures that visual inspection cannot predict. Standards such as ABNT NBR ISO 4309, which establishes criteria for the disposal of steel cables in lifting equipment, and the NBR 13541 and NBR 15637 families and their references, applicable to slings and lifting belts, provide the technical reference that needs to be in this repertoire of any professional activity. 

Periodic inspection of lifting elements is, in this context, an extension of training. Professionals trained to identify signs of abrasive wear, flexural fatigue, localized corrosion and structural deformations are able to act before the problem becomes an event. Incidents with loads on offshore platforms generate downtime, equipment damage, maintenance costs and, in severe cases, removals and irreversible consequences for teams. 

By Fernando Fuertes, Eng.o and New Business Developer at Acro Cabos.

Finally, the path that the most mature organizations in the sector have been following is to integrate behavior, operational data, practical simulation and technical knowledge of the equipment in a cohesive and continuous program. When this set works in an articulated way, training is no longer a requirement to be fulfilled and becomes the basis on which the operation is sustained, even when the sea does not collaborate.