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Synopsis
The book is about leadership, but it is also about taking a tough situation and turning it completely around. The book is a metaphor for how managers who have brains, good listening skills, strategic competencies and flexibility -- and willing underlings -- can take a non-producing organization make it successful. The key points in this book:
Good managers lead by example
Listening is more than just having open ears; a good manager has to have an open mind and truly hear what is being conveyed to him by anyone no matter how lowly the position within the organization
Managers need to communicate their purpose and their vision to their teams
A climate of trust must be created for any positive changes to occur
Without taking calculated risks, not much will change for the better
Strong managers know how to build up their employees and how to generate a feeling of unity within the organization
Take Aways
One of the most impressive things that managers should take away from this book is what Abrashoff did in handling a racially charged conflict. When Abrashoff, as commander of a Navy ship, was obliged to punish two black sailors and one white sailor following a fight with racial overtones, he handled the situation with authority but with...
The participants in the fisticuffs were busted, but the commander to help them become better people and more effective servicemen also mentored them. The two lessons his crew learned from Abrashoff's mix of punishment and mentoring: a) take people's "background and circumstances" into consideration prior to doling out judgment; and b) help "wrongdoers" to become "better citizens rather than discarding them…" (pp. 178-79).
It is easy for a manager to fire an employee when he or she makes a stupid mistake or gets into a serious conflict. But if anything can be learned from Abrashoff's example, giving a person a second chance and actually going out of your way to mentor the person sends a powerful message. When someone got into trouble, he brought them in and personally counseled them. Moreover, managers should read this book and learn; to wit, Abrashoff made it a point to interview every sailor on his ship, 15 minutes at a time, until he had met and gotten to know everyone on board. "Show me a manager who ignores the power of praise," Abrashoff wrote (p. 141), "and I'll show you a lousy manager." In fact on his ship the commander was authorized to give 15 medals a year for excellence in carrying out duties. "I wanted to err on the side of excess, so in my first year I passed out 115" (p. 146). I recommend this book very highly.
Human Resources Book Review Phillips, Jack J. (1999) Accountability in Human Resources Management. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann In his text, Accountability in Human Resources Management, the human resources management analyst and guru Jack J. Phillips attempts to offer a new paradigm for human resource management to further both the future of American business organizations as well as the field of human resource management itself within organizations. Phillips states that human resource departments can
Leadership Style Book Review: Summary of Book "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken," reads the quotation on the title page of 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Leader: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants, by management guru John C. Maxwell. The word 'leadership' on its own often brings to mind rather stultifying and outdated modalities of leading by command, much like a general, or cliches
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Change Management Websites Website 1: http://www.change-management.com / - A website sponsored by learning organization ProSci, this site is dedicated to best practices in change management including seminar series offered globally. The site also offers the Change Management Portfolio Toolkit. Also included on this site are links to the company's Global Conference held May 1 -- 4, 2011 in Orlando. Florida. Website 2: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/change_management/change_management.htm - This website concentrates on the more academic aspects
Project Management: Case Study in Managing a Complex Shipyard Project in Singapore Background of Complex Shipyard Construction Project Company background Project Overview and Objective Work Process of Building Construction Issue Analysis in Shipyard Construction Project Management Literature Review of Project Management Issues in Scope Management Methodology of Scope Management Lessons Learned from Scope Management Issues in Cost Management Methodology of Cost Management Lessons Learned from Cost Management Issues in Human Resources Methodology of HR Management Lessons Learned from Human Resource Management Case Study in Managing a
AMR Research (2005) believes that companies must begin developing and redeploying current order management architectures with the focus on delivering more flexibility rather than a strategy that delivers far less. The move toward customer-driven fulfillment processes requires the ability to build and adapt channel-specific, product-specific, and customer-specific order flows quickly without an army of developers creating custom code. However, the days of big bang, rip-and-replace implementations are over, and any