Listen Up!

Product Author Bios

Mike Abrashoff learned about leadership as captain of the USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer that he and his crew transformed from a dysfunctional disgrace into the best damn ship in the U.S. Navy. He told that story in a bestselling book, It’s Your Ship. Now he’s distilling the lessons of that experience, plus what he’s learned as a consultant and speaker, into a series of brief, practical guides to effective leadership. This is one of them, and it’s about the power of listening.

Leading without listening is like walking in the dark. You need to know what your crew, customers, and suppliers think, so listen hard--and pounce on every good idea you hear. That said, it’s not as easy as you think.

A leader who hasn’t learned to listen is working under a huge handicap. It may be possible to lead without listening, Douglas MacArthur-style, but that approach is twice as hard, half as fast, and prone to disaster. Even as I rose through the ranks of the Navy, I found that listening didn’t always come naturally to me. Often, I merely pretended to hear people. How many times had I barely glanced up from my work when a sailor or officer came up to the bridge or into my cabin? I wasn’t paying attention; I was marking time until I could give orders. When I took command of Benfold, I was determined to do things differently--and I had to move fast. In two months, we would deploy to the Middle East, and we weren’t ready....