It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy

by D. Michael Abrashoff

If I could do that job over again, I would take a more 360-degree view of the world. My biggest mistake was to focus down the chain of command, trying to improve my ship and my crew, instead of seeing myself as one captain in a battle group. I didn’t do enough to collaborate

technology is nothing but a facilitator. The people operating the equipment are who give us the fighting edge, and we seem to have lost our way when it comes to helping them grow.

A Gallup study found that when people leave their companies, 65 percent of them are actually leaving their managers.

getting the most out of our crew, which depends on three variables: the leader’s needs, the organization’s atmosphere, and the crew’s potential competence.

real leadership is about understanding yourself first, then using that to create a superb organization. Leaders must free their subordinates to fulfill their talents to the utmost.

the art of leadership lies in simple things—commonsense

I worked hard at convincing my crew that I did want the rules to be questioned and challenged,

One of the ways I demonstrated my commitment was to question and challenge rules to my bosses.

management committee always wants to see the metrics before they allow you to launch new ideas. Since, by definition, new ideas don’t have metrics, the result is that great ideas tend to be stillborn in major companies today.

I was taking over a very tough crew who hated their captain.

Never before had employees felt so free to tell their bosses what they thought of them.

very few people with brains, skills, and initiative appear. The timeless challenge in the real world is to help less-talented people transcend their limitations.

exit surveys,

top reason was not being treated with respect or dignity; second was being prevented from making an impact on the organization; third, not being listened to; and fourth, not being rewarded with more responsibility.

have a responsibility to try to understand the experiences of those growing up without support, security, or positive role models.

opportunity to see how the organization runs at a senior level. It was good training, which businesses could give their up-and-coming young people by making them executive assistants to the top officers.

my line in the sand. Whenever the consequences of a decision had the potential to kill or injure someone, waste tax-payers’ money, or damage the ship, I had to be consulted.

think like my boss.

I mentored myself.

Whenever an officer proposed a plan, I asked, “Why do we have to do it that way? Is there a better way?” So they always searched for better ways before coming to me.

give an order without clearly articulating the goal, providing the time and resources to get it done, and ensuring that my crew had the proper training to do it right.

As a manager, the one signal you need to steadily send to your people is how important they are to you.

I had nothing to gain and everything to lose by e-mailing the admiral, which in itself is a key to my success in challenging senior people. I made it clear that my only agenda was helping the Navy improve, with all due credit to my superiors, not to myself.

I decided to minimize interaction with my crew on days when the dark side was evident, so that at least I would do no harm.

If what I’m about to do appeared on the front page of the Washington Post tomorrow, would I be proud or embarrassed?

if you lose your argument, it’s also important that you carry out that order as if you supported it 100 percent.

Whenever I got a good suggestion, I hit the button and

told the whole ship about it.

launching a good idea was about f...

On list B were all our non-value-added chores—the dreary, repetitive stuff, such as chipping and painting. I tackled list B with gusto.

The sailors never touched a paintbrush again. With more time to learn their jobs,

decided Benfold was going to be the best damn ship in that Navy. I repeated it to my sailors all the time, and eventually they believed it

We had another saying on the ship: “The sun always shines on Benfold.” People began to believe that, too.

MAKE YOUR CREW THINK “WE CAN DO ANYTHING.”

Like any other workforce, mine appreciated hearing from top management.

fears thrive in silence.

Knowledge is power, yes, but what leaders need is collective power, and that requires collective knowledge. I found that the more people knew what the goals were, the better buy-in I got—and the better results we achieved together.

direct relationship between how much the crew knew about a plan and how well they carried it out.

FREEDOM CREATES DISCIPLINE.

After Action Review, or AAR. After every major decision, event, or maneuver, those involved gathered around my chair on the bridge wing and critiqued it. Even if things had gone well, we still analyzed them. Sometimes things go right by accident,

ground rules for these sessions were that you checked your ego at the door, and that there was no retribution for any comments.

We have to get the mission accomplished with limited resources. The only way to do this is with a ruthlessly efficient organization. And if I was causing unnecessary work, then I wanted to know about it. If the crew had a problem with what I was doing, I wanted them to tell me so I could fix it or explain why I had to do things that way, thus expanding my crew’s knowledge of limitations or requirements imposed on me. When people saw me opening myself to criticism, they opened themselves up. That’s how we made dramatic improvements. People could get inside one another’s minds.

I am absolutely convinced that with good leadership, freedom does not weaken discipline—it strengthens it. Free people have a powerful incentive not to screw up.

Trust is a human marvel—it not only sustains the social contract, it’s the growth hormone that turns green sailors into seasoned shipmates

trust is a kind of jujitsu:

Trust is like a bank account—you have got to keep making deposits if you want it to grow.

If you wait for the bureaucracy to act, people will forget why they’re being recognized in the first place.

Mid-level managers should be the ones to survey the gray areas and provide direction.

My officers would cut to the head of the line to get their food, and then go up to the next deck to eat by themselves. The officers weren’t bad people; they just didn’t know any different. It’s always been that way. When I saw this, I decided to go to the end of the line. The officers were looking

So Dale Carnegie . He didn't have to say anything . He didn't have to embarrass anyone .

The plan was for him to stay for lunch, and at 1130 he headed for the officers’ wardroom. “Commodore,” I said, “that’s not where we’re having lunch.”

This is where I've stopped short in my career