Business-Ship to Ship Book Review

It's Your Ship:

Management Techniques from the

Best Damn Ship in the Navy

Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff

Warner Books, 2002

Author's Page

Captain D. Michael Abrashoff is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, and was a military assistant to the former secretary of defense, Dr. William J. Perry. He served as Commander of 310 men and women aboard the USS Benfold in the Pacific Fleet. Abrashoff left the Navy in 2001 and became the founder and CEO of Grassroots Leadership, Inc., in Boston.

www.grassrootsleadership.com

Other Books

Get Your Ship Together, 2005

Ship Happens, Coming 2006

It's Your Ship Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Ch.1 Take Command 11

Ch.2 Lead by Example 32

Ch.3 Listen Aggressively 43

Ch.4 Communicate Purpose and Meaning 54

Ch.5 Create A Climate of Trust 63

Ch.6 Look for Results, Not Salutes 82

Ch.7 Take Calculated Risks 104

Ch.8 Go Beyond Standard Procedure 118

Ch.9 Build Up Your People 140

Ch.10 Generate Unity 168

Ch.11 Improve Your People's Quality of Life 186

Ch. 12 Life After Benfold 199

Epilogue Beyond Benfold 208

Acknowledgements 211

Book Review Table of Contents

Title Page 1

Author's Page 2

It's Your Ship Table of Contents 3

Book Review Table of Contents 4

Executive Summary 5

Introduction 6

Take Command 6

Lead By Example 7

Listen Aggressively 8

Communicate Purpose and Meaning 9

Create a Climate of Trust 10

Look For Results, Not Salutes 10

Take Calculated Risks 11

Go Beyond Standard Procedure 12

Build Up Your People 13

Generate Unity 15

Improve Your People's Quality of Life 15

Conclusion 17

Evaluation 18

Executive Summary

It's Your Ship, by Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff is good read on understanding the basics of what he calls grassroots leadership he developed while a Commander in the Navy. He takes the reader through the journey of having a cutting-edge ship handed over him, while finding his own leadership lacking his expectations. While defying conventional Navy leadership tactics, Abrashoff created "a crew of confident and inspired problem-solvers eager to take the initiative and responsibility for their actions." He ultimately succeeded in turning the USS Benfold into the "best damn ship in the Navy" in a matter of months. Within two years his ship became legendary inside and outside the Navy.

Abrashoff shares the valuable management skills he developed and effectively illustrates examples of how one can translate the same success in today's businesses. Highlighting key concepts such as: see the ship through the eyes of the crew, communicate purpose and meaning, lead by example, and build up your people. The vivid examples he uses from his naval history make the reading interesting while educational. It's Your Ship is a great book for any manager wanting to learn more on effective ways to better manage his employees.

Introduction

Abrashoff begins the book by informing the reader of how his story begins; when he is given command of the USS Benfold. The Benfold was the Navy's most advanced guided missile destroyer the Navy had in 1997 and its command was to be one of the Navy's top innovators. Unfortunately, Abrashoff points out some flaws with the Navy's personnel management that I found to be shocking. First, was that "nearly 35 percent of the people who joined the military annually, wouldn't complete their enlistment contracts." (p.2) Such turnover can be understood by many business managers in the service industry, but unlike the quick and cheap training process for them, the cost for the military (taxpayers) is astounding. Abrashoff estimates that it cost roughly "$35,000 to recruit a trainee and tens of thousands more in additional training costs to get new personnel to the basic level of proficiency." (p.2) Curbing this trend on his own ship and eventually helping to achieve a decrease overall in the military is one of Abrashoff's greatest contributions.

Take Command

This chapter follows his first observations as Commander and the immediate actions he sought to implement. He notes that the crew seemed relieved by the departing Commander and realized that he must come up with a new leadership model to reach his crew. As he noted in the introduction that high percentage of turnover among crew bothered him and he notes some trends in society that contribute to this problem. The long