Get Your Ship Together: How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership from the Keel Up

by D. Michael Abrashoff

Book Overview

Former U.S. Navy Commander Michael Abrashoff attracted worldwide media attention for his success in turning around a struggling ship, the USS? Benfold ?the subject of his acclaimed bestseller,? It's Your Ship . Since then, he's been a fixture on the business lecture circuit, spreading an empowering message that any organization can be turned around with compassionate but firm leadership. ? Abrashoff never claimed to have all the answers. He also knew...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591840740
• ISBN13: 9781591840749
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Portfolio
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Get Your Ship Together: How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership from the Keel

Fantasic. The principals in this book should be followed by those who intend to lead or who are in leadership roles.

Getting It Together With Capt. Abrashoff

Since leaving the Navy, Mike Abrashoff has set sail on a second career that includes leadership consulting, speaking and writing - helping those in the world of commerce to navigate the tricky currents of competition, change, and corporate complacency. His latest book follows in the wake of his best seller that I reviewed yesterday, and chronicles heroes from business and the military as they demonstrate the practical wisdom of leading through building teams of committed employees. "Get Your Ship Together - How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership from the Keel Up," offers six portraits of leaders who "get everyone to buy into the cause and accept personal responsibility for the organization." I found this book to be both inspiring and full of practical wisdom. The six leaders whose leadership stories Abrashoff shares are different enough in temperament, context and in the specific challenges they face that it becomes clear that the book's leadership principles truly are universal in their application. · First Lieutenant Gabriel "Buddy" Gengler was faced with transforming a platoon of soldiers trained to launch rockets into a band of street-fighting urban guerillas. · Trish Karter of Dancing Deer Bakery in Roxbury, MA had to find a recipe for building a team that shared her vision of delivering a balanced diet of world-class cakes and cookies, healthy profits and community involvement as the icing on the cake! · Roger Valine is CEO of Vision Service Plan in Rancho Cordova, CA. Roger has been able to see his way clear to build an enterprise that has cornered the market on eye-care benefit plans while creating an atmosphere that focuses on giving his employees a healthy lifestyle balance between work and family. · Al Collins rose from the backwater of Warner Robins, GA to sail the seas as Captain of the USS Fitzgerald. During his voyage to his role as a naval officer and inspiring leader, he learned to apply his mother's words of advice spoken as he prepared to leave the Deep South: "You'll never be a great leader until you're a great follower." · Laura Folse leads a team of 700 scientists and engineers at BP - a rare female leader in the male dominated world of oil exploration. Laura has fueled her success at BP with an unshakable determination to use her staff as consultative partners who share accountability for the success of each project. Her approach has tapped a deep reservoir of trust and loyalty among her team members. · Ward Clapham of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has pioneered "smart policing" across Canada. In the course of learning to work alongside community leaders to refine police priorities and procedures, Mountie Ward was forced to mount several challenges against the entrenched bureaucracy of those above him in the RCP chain of command. The overarching impression I have after having read and absorbed the stories of these six very different leaders is that great leadership can happen anywhere - in any setting, i

Get Your Ship Together

Concept actualized! In this follow-up to It's Your Ship, Abrashoff tells of six leaders who embody the ideals of grassroots leadership. This book allowed me to see how the concepts described in the first book could prove invaluable to any setting - be it battleships or bakeries! Abrashoff also weaves in more personal experiences, rounding out what is a must read for any leader in today's business world! Since embracing Abrashoff's leadership techniques in my own business and passing out copies of his books to my employees, I have never seen so much productivity and PRIDE on a daily basis! I have empowered my team and challenged them to be their best. I never could have imagined how incredible their best would be. Abrashoff's ideas have permanently changed my view of leadership and infinitely improved my business!

Guide to creating a culture of action!

This book has single handedly turned my business (45 people so far) from a company of complainers to a culture of ownership. I purchased 14 books had weekly meetings using the chapters of the book as examples and allowed my people to take ownership of their own destiny. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK to any business owner struggling with how to turn a company culture and point it in the right direction!

Abrashoff Has His Ship Together!

Mike Abrashoff has followed up his superb first book, It's Your Ship, with this new study of six leaders from the public and private sectors who have used grassroots leadership styles to achieve great things. Each of the profiles includes numerous stories of effective leadership and empowerment. The chapters about Captain Al Collins (US Navy), and about Ward Clapham of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are particularly inspirational. Throughout the narrative Abrashoff adds his own excellent insights as well as a number of new stories from his tour as Commander of the USS Benfold.