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Michael Abrashoff
About Michael Abrashoff :
At the age of 36, the Navy selected Abrashoff to become Commander of USS Benfold - at the time, the most junior commanding officer in the Pacific Fleet. The immediate challenges that faced him on this underperforming Naval war ship were staggering: exceptionally low morale, high turnover and unacceptably low performance evaluations. Few thought that this ship could improve. In many ways, the USS Benfold was actually an extreme example of the same problems facing many organizations today.
The solution was to establish a system of management techniques that Abrashoff calls The Leadership Roadmap. At the core of his leadership approach on Benfold was a process of replacing command and control with commitment and cohesion, and by engaging the hearts, minds, and loyalties of workers - with conviction and humility. "The most important thing that a captain can do is to see the ship through the eyes of the crew." According to Abrashoff, The Leadership Roadmap is a practice that empowers every individual to share the responsibility of achieving excellence. "It's your ship," he was known to say. His former sailors to this day still remind him of it.
By every measure, these principles were able to achieve breakthrough results. Personnel turnover decreased to an unprecedented 1 percent. The rate of military promotions tripled, and the crew slashed operating expenses by 25 percent. Regarded as the finest ship in the Pacific Fleet, Benfold won the prestigious Spokane Trophy for having the highest degree of combat readiness. Most important – this transformation took place with the same crew. What had changed was the ship’s culture and Abrashoff’s leadership style.
Abrashoff recounted the leadership lessons from the turnaround of USS Benfold in It's Your Ship, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, with over 800,000 copies sold to date. This extraordinary interest in Abrashoff’s leadership journey and Benfold’s organizational lessons led to two follow-up books – Get Your Ship Together and It’s Our Ship. Those books took readers deeper into ways these principles have been put into action by business leaders in their own organizations.
Prior to commanding USS Benfold, Abrashoff served as the Military Assistant to Secretary of Defense William J. Perry. He also helped draft the air defense plan for naval forces in the Persian Gulf in 1990, coinciding with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait; and served as the Executive Officer of the Cruiser Shiloh, where he deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of United Nations sanctions against Iraq.
Mike Abrashoff is the founder of GLS Worldwide, a consulting firm which works with and supports leaders as they address leadership, talent and business challenges within their organization. The firm challenges leaders at all levels to re-imagine their leadership thinking and create new ways to elevate individual, team and organizational performance.
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Speech Titles :
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The Innovation Road Map: Transforming Your Organization and Achieving Sustainable Growth
In tough economic times, it is critical that all organizations utilize every asset at their disposal to survive and thrive in the global marketplace. While corporations have done a phenomenal job of wringing inefficiencies out of their processes and procedures, everyone knows that you can't cut your way to greatness. There remains an under appreciation and investment in their top asset, people. While economic headwinds have many companies fighting for survival, it is during times like these that great companies are borne by having a relentless focus on innovation and executing new ideas that capture the imagination of the marketplace. A best-selling author of one of the most acclaimed business books of all-time and himself a successful entrepreneur, Mike Abrashoff has traveled the globe speaking to and consulting with some of the world’s most innovative companies. Leveraging his own leadership experiences and having seen up-close-and-personal what separates organizations poised for growth from companies that can’t move beyond the status-quo, Abrashoff equips organizations with the strategies, tactics and tools necessary to unleash innovation, lead meaningful change and improve operational performance. Abrashoff will walk leaders through the 5 step process necessary to create innovation-focused, adaptable, high-performance teams, giving them the takeaways and know-how that is essential to getting organizations on the path to future success.
It’s Your Ship
Organizations - whether a corporation, salesforce or association of any size - perform at their best when people feel safe and confident about their ability to navigate troubled times. In Navy terms, combat readiness is a matter of life and death - every crewmember’s contribution matters. Mike Abrashoff tells the inspiring story of how the USS Benfold was transformed into the best ship in the Navy by empowering the crew to take ownership and improve every aspect of the way things were done. As Abrashoff shares the methods he used to create successful change within the confines of strict military regulations, audiences come away with dozens of practical and actionable ideas to make a difference in their own team. This first-hand account of the journey to organizational excellence is as invaluable as it will be memorable.
It's Our Ship
For organization’s who want a deeper understanding of grassroots leadership and want to take those principles to the next level, Mike Abrashoff addresses the challenges most on the minds of leaders in these challenging times. Collaboration, commitment, cohesion, accountability, engagement, rapid and continual innovation, engaging employees and dealing with generational differences in that workforce – these crucial issues are the ones that that successful leaders need to master. It's Our Ship is about creating a high performance culture where everyone takes ownership and responsibility using real lessons from the business world and focus on innovation, accountability and engagement.
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Books by Michael Abrashoff :
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Get Your Ship Together: How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership from the Keel
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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 that there were plenty of other creative leaders in the navy, army, air force, marine corps, and even the coast guard who could teach businesspeople how to motivate, inspire, and get great results under pressure. So he asked around, found some fascinating people in every branch of the U.S. military and the business world, and interviewed them about leadership and teambuilding. The result is Get Your Ship Together—a book that will be just as valuable as It’s Your Ship.
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It's Our Ship: The No-Nonsense Guide to Leadership
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The story of Captain Abrashoff and his command of USS Benfold has become legendary inside and outside the Navy. By governing his ship with his unique management techniques, Abrashoff turned the Benfold into a model of naval efficiency, with amazing cost savings, the highest gunnery score in the Pacific Fleet, and a highly motivated and top performing crew.
In IT'S YOUR SHIP, he first demonstrated how to bring his successful management techniques from the ship to the boardroom. Now, in his newest book IT'S OUR SHIP, in the same rugged, can-do voice, Abrashoff will focus on the leadership, motivational, and management insights and tips that he has learned from his last six years of addressing business and corporate audiences.
Abrashoff's timely advice will be eminently prescriptive, and will feature anecdotes and insights from leaders of businesses large and small and from public and non-profit sectors.
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It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
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When Captain Abrashoff took over as commander of USS Benfold, a ship armed with every cutting-edge system available, it was like a business that had all the latest technology but only some of the productivity. Knowing that responsibility for improving performance rested with him, he realized he had to improve his own leadership skills before he could improve his ship. Within months he created a crew of confident and inspired problem-solvers eager to take the initiative and take responsibility for their actions. The slogan on board became "It's your ship," and Benfold was soon recognized far and wide as a model of naval efficiency.
How did Abrashoff do it? Abrashoff shares his secrets of successful management including:
* See the ship through the eyes of the crew: By soliciting a sailor's suggestions, Abrashoff drastically reduced tedious chores that provided little additional value.
* Communicate, communicate, communicate: The more Abrashoff communicated the plan, the better the crew's performance. His crew would eventually call him "Megaphone Mike," since they heard from him so often.
* Create discipline by focusing on purpose: Discipline skyrocketed when Abrashoff's crew believed that what they were doing was important.
* Listen aggressively: After learning that many sailors wanted to use the GI Bill, Abrashoff brought a test official aboard the ship-and held the SATs forty miles off the Iraqi coast.
From achieving amazing cost savings to winning the highest gunnery score in the Pacific Fleet, Captain Abrashoff's extraordinary campaign sent shock waves through the U.S. Navy. It can help you change the course of your ship, no matter where your business battles are fought.
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