We often hear jokes about how “military intelligence” is an oxymoron. And we often hear complaints from managers that their employees just won’t get fully engaged in doing the department’s work.
The experience of Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff gives lie to the jokes and shows how it’s possible for all members of a team to pull together toward one goal.
When Abrashoff became skipper of the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold, it was considered an underperformer. In less than one year, he turned it around to the point where it earned the Navy’s highest effectiveness rating. Its accomplishments included record-breaking scores for target marksmanship. It’s important to note that he did this in the public sector, where he didn’t have the option to hand out raises or bonuses at will.
Abrashoff wrote about his experience in a best-selling book, It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy. There are lessons in it for leaders of municipal departments.
A different view
The book’s main title reflects the basic approach Abrashoff took toward running the Benfold. From the start of his two years as skipper, he made it his practice to look at the ship through the eyes of the crew.
As he took command, he read exit interviews the military had been conducting to find out why people were leaving. “I assumed low pay would be the reason, but in fact it was fifth,” Abrashoff wrote. “The top reason was not being treated with respect or dignity; the second was being prevented from making an impact on the organization; third, not being listened to; fourth, not being rewarded with more responsibility.
“Further research disclosed an unexpected parallel with civilian life. According to a recent survey, low pay is also No. 5 on the list of reasons why private employees jump from one company to another.
“And the top four reasons are virtually the same as in the military. The inescapable conclusion is that, as leaders, we are all doing the same wrong things.”
He decided that the only way to find out what was wrong with the ship and empower the sailors to fix it was to start by seeing things from the crew members’ perspective.
Learning to lead
Through Abrashoff’s leadership, crew members in fact came to see the ship as their own. And once they did, they freely shared ideas on how virtually any task or process onboard could be done better. Here are just a few of Abrashoff’s observations:
Make it fun. The secret to lasting change, he found, “is to implement processes that people will enjoy carrying out. To that end, I focused my leadership efforts on encouraging people not only to find better ways to do their jobs, but also to have fun as they did them.”
Push decision making down the chain. “Whenever the consequences of a decision had the potential to kill or injure someone, waste taxpayers’ money, or damage the ship, I had to be consulted,” Abrashoff wrote. “Short of those contingencies, the crew was authorized to make their own decisions. Even if the decisions were wrong, I would stand by my crew. Hopefully, they would learn from their mistakes. And the more responsibility they were given, the more they learned.”
Look inward. In an interview with Fast Company magazine, Abrashoff told how he resisted the temptation to blame others when things didn’t go as he had planned. “Whenever I didn’t get the results I was looking for on the Benfold, I tried to look inward before flying off the handle,” he said.
“I asked myself the same three questions each time: Did I clearly articulate the goals I was trying to achieve? Did I give people the time and resources they needed to succeed? Did I give them enough training to get the job done properly? Eighty percent of the time, I found that I was part of the problem and that, through my actions alone, I could have altered the outcome significantly.”
Don’t punish the messenger. “My goal was for the crew to know me so well that they knew how I’d respond to certain situations and what set me off,” Abrashoff said in an interview with the Young Feds.org web site. “Trying to hide bad news from me was a surefire way to incur my wrath! I never wanted them to fear bringing the bad news to me right away so that I could be a part of the solution. I had a saying, ‘Bad news does not improve with age.’”
Expect the best from your team. “As I saw it,” Abrashoff wrote, “my job was to create the climate that enabled people to unleash their potential. Given the right environment, there are few limits to what people can achieve.”
You’re at the helm
Do you see yourself in these concepts of leadership? If so, good for you. But if all this strikes you as new, exciting, and maybe a little threatening, then perhaps it would be worth your while to pick up Abrashoff’s book and step aboard the Benfold. Maybe you’ll learn secrets to putting your department dead on course, full speed ahead.
