Book Report - It's Our Ship

Book Report - It's Our Ship

Author Introduction

The author of this book Captain D. Michael Abrashoff graduated from U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Later, he became the military assistant of Dr. William J. Perry who was a former secretary of defense. After serving the navy, he became the founder and CEO of Grassroots Leadership, Inc., in Boston. As a Captain of the ship, Abrashoff offered valuable services of his leadership skills (Abrashoff, 2008). He realized that to encourage the members of the ship, he has to enhance his own leadership skills. He did so and within months, he was able to develop a top performer crew who was eager to take initiative and responsibility for all the actions. After completing his tenure as the Captain, he decided to write books on leadership. This book is one of them.

Book Introduction

"It's Our Ship: The No-nonsense Guide to Leadership” is written by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. In this book, Captain Abrashoff further builds up on the previously discussed management techniques and ideas from his first book "It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy". This book focuses on the qualities of leadership required for a successful business (Abrashoff, 2008). Captain Abrashoff implements his own knowledge and experience to explain what kind of leadership is required by a management to run a business in an efficient and effective manner. Throughout the book, Captain Abrashoff discussed in detail his own leadership theories for the purpose of recruitment and observing their adjustment in the new hired work place.

Central Leadership Concepts

Captain Abrashoff discussed various theories regarding a company's leadership or may be ship in his case. He also gave many relevant ideas about leadership from real business throughout the book which became testimonials to his ideas. Although, the leadership qualities may seem simple and repetitive but their application in real life business makes them an important element (Marquis & Huston, 2009). The book uses Navy as a metaphor for describing various concepts. The book not only includes Navy stories, but also includes stories of other real companies that Captain Abrashoff learned about.

Ahoy - Welcome aboard our ship

This is one of the techniques that were used by Captain Abrashoff while he was serving as a Captain at the USS Benfold for the welcoming of new sailors. According to him, a good leader should be able to shun frosty welcomes of new recruits. This is because the concerned childish behavior makes new recruits nervous and tensed and makes them unable to focus solely on their job. An open mind and eagerness is the best possible option that should be created for them.

He is responsible to guarantee that everyone starts his career in the right direction and must be guided in the best possible manner so that he is able to make forward progress. For this leadership quality, he gave the example of a company “World Tour” which he developed where he provided recruits with passports with to-do list for ...