Recently I’m trying to soak up lots of material about Leadership. After stumbling upon It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navyagain and again and now have it gotten recommended by a colleague as well, I finally decided to read it. I actually picked up the Audible audio book since there wasn’t a Kindle version available and I needed it immediately and take it on a trip.

Bad news first:

• The US Navy as a context for a book using real-world examples seems refreshing at first, but it’s getting more and more difficult to digest. At least for me as Non-American, turned out to be a big turn-off eventually.
• The author keeps emphasizing his own work and contribution and achievements as opposed to talking about him and his team. Given that leadership actually means working with your team, this is very surprising and ended up being another annoyance for me.

On the upside, the book contains a lot of good examples and useful advice to become a better leader. It’s not exactly innovative and doesn’t bring up points nobody else did before, but it’s a good and easy to read (or: to listen) summary of much an aspiring leader can start doing immediately. AFAICT at least, I’m aspiring myself.

“If all you give are orders, then all you will get are order takers.”. Agreed.