Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

by L. David Marquet

He said he wanted to empower his people as far as he possibly could

within the Navy’s confines, and maybe a little bit more. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eye when he told me that.

leadership is a choice, not a position.

Those who take orders usually run at half speed, underutilizing their imagination and initiative.

Leadership is not some mystical quality that some possess and others do not. As humans, we all have what it takes, and we all need to use

our leadership abilities in every aspect of our work life.

great improvements in effectiveness and morale but also makes the o...

Leader-leader structures are significantly more resilient, and they do not rely on the designated leader always being right.

Control, we discovered, only works with a competent workforce that understands the organization’s purpose. Hence, as control is divested, both technical competence and organizational clarity need to be

strengthened.

One of the things that limits our learning is our belief that we already know something.

When the performance of a unit goes down after an officer leaves, it is taken as a sign that he was a good leader, not that he was ineffective in training his people properly.

When a leader leaves the system should run the same. S\he should have trained them to operate.the same.

My challenge would be to use the same people and support team and by changing the way they interacted and behaved, dramatically increase the combat effectiveness of Santa Fe.

If you walk about your organization talking to

people, I’d suggest that you be as curious as possible. As with a good dinner table conversationalist, one question should naturally lead to another. The time to be questioning or even critical is after trust has been established.

I ignored that. Instead, I spent my time walking around the ship talking to people. I also set up a series of walkabouts

This is leadership at all levels.

Another thing bothered me as well. Who, exactly, was the “they” in the statement “whatever they tell me to do”? Wasn’t “they” us?

“Don’t move information to authority, move authority to the information.”

Short, early conversations make efficient work.

Use “I intend to . . .” to turn passive followers

into active l...

Resist the urge to provide...

I wanted to make sure they deliberately decided to take charge.

You can’t invoke leader-follower rules to direct a shift from leader-follower to leader-leader.

The submarine organization manual was a Navy document that we weren’t supposed to change.

Now, with the chiefs’ having more authority, the junior enlisted men were motivated to suppress their immature responses and get to the work of the day. So far, so good.