made him a difficul Commandments, that his em 152 E PART II Contingency Models What are the elements of Abrashoff's leadership style? What factors contribute to his effectiveness? What models can be used to explain his perfor- mance? Source: P. LaBarre, "Grassroots Leadership," Fast Company, April The Caring Navy Commander Under the leadership of Commander Michael feels cut off, Abrashoffset up a special Abrashoff, the USS Benfold, one the U.S. Navy's account through America On-Line to allow his most modern warships, has become a model of sailors to stay performance. Last year, the Benfold was ranked in touch with their families. He disregarded as having the best combat readiness in the Pacific strict navy rules for shore leave and rented tleet; for the past two years, it achieved the highest minivans to allow his sailors to have more gunnery score and lowest rate of key equipment freedom on shore leave in Dubai under the failures. The ship's crew has completed several of supervision of petty senior officers. Another sore spot for its training missions in record time, and 100 percent the crew was the food. The commander rejected naval provisions, switched to of its career sailors have signed on for an additional purchasing lower-cost brand names, and used the tour of duty, as opposed to the 54 percent average savings to send his ship's cooks to culinary school. for the rest of the navy. The Benfold has The Benfold's crew has pumpkins during returned $600,000 of its $2.4 million Halloween and projects music videos on the side maintenance budget and continues to reduce its of the ship, and the chief navigator is known for spending every year. Morale is excellent. and his Elvis impersonations. Com- mander Abrashoff's future promotion is Abrashoff knows every one of his crew guaranteed. by name. He wants to help them "charta Much of the ship's and crew's outstanding course through life.... I consider my job to performance can be attributed to Abrashoff improve my lit- tle 300-person piece of society". 's leadership. His focus is on his crew. He Interestingly, although the Benfold and its com- states :"When you shift your organizing mander do not focus on strict discipline, there is principle from obedience to performance, no lack of respect or cohesion on the ship. The the highest boss is no longer the guy with the crew willingly salutes its commanding officer, and most stripes-it's the sailor who does the there is a strong sense of duty and cooperation. work.... My job was to listen, ... to see One indica- tor of the positive culture is the the ship from the eyes of the crew"One of the commander's first steps after joining the ship results of the ship surveys that indicate that only was to interview every crew member and ask 3 percent of minorities report prejudice and them what they liked about their ship and only 3 percent of the female sailors report any what they wanted to change. He then harassment. identified non-value-added tasks that caused Abrashoffstates:"I have to prepare higher-level the most dissatisfaction and proceeded to people to step into leadership roles. If all you do tackle them. is give orders, then all you'll get are order takers. Several steps were taken to address Removing many of the non-readiness aspects of problems. the job- from chipping paint to cleaning-lets The metal parts of the ship were replaced with us spend more time on learning" Abrashoff's stainless-steel bolts and a specially coated metal caring for his crew, his ability to listen to them, his that required no constant painting; the youngest relative disregard for rules while focusing of sailors, who dreaded the constant chipping and performance and problem solving, and his focus painting, were delighted.An agreement with an on improving the quality of life have created SAT administrator allowed sailors who wanted to enviable results. - go to college to take the SATs in Bahrain. Because the crew spends so much time away from their families and often The Caring No Commander