Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet
“On Sante Fe, doing well on inspections was going to be the natural outcome of being excellent, not the goal”
3 Main Messages:
For long term success you have to ignore short term reward systems
To build a legacy you need to build a leader-leader culture
Control without competence is chaos
I am always looking for new book recommendations and so was intrigued when I kept seeing this book lurking below the email signature of one of my clients. He is an inspirational leader who is always looking to empower and build his team and so I trust his judgement, though the picture of a nuclear submarine on the cover put me off. We are told, however, not to judge a book by its cover and so I submerged myself in the book and was both impressed and inspired by what I read.
Unlike many other leadership books, this book is a story. The author, L. David Marquet tells us the tale of how he became a nuclear submarine commander, what he found in his new ship and how he built a culture of leadership and learning and a legacy to outlive his tenure.
Marquet’s humility is clearly apparent as he talks us through his observations and thoughts, his actions and mistakes. He shares with us the steps that took the Santa Fe from being a ship with “poor morale, poor performance and the worst retention in the fleet” to a ship with intent-based leadership.
Each chapter begins with a question which is relevant to all leaders reading the book, providing context, relevance and relatability. Next he tells us a story about something which happened on the ship and the lessons learned from it. Chapters then conclude with a lesson for us all and questions we can ask ourselves about how we are leading in our own communities.
I’ve never been on a submarine and find the idea of 90 days at sea, confined in a metal container with no natural light, akin to something from a horror movie. Marquet, however, presents this as an enviable, uplifting and highly relatable story about people, relationships and a leadership journey. His stories are fascinating in learning about life on a submarine and also about the importance of language, delegation and empowerment.
According to Forbes, staff retention occurs when “A good employer/coach works to guide employees in the right direction by offering advice, support and goals while still allowing their workers to have a high degree of autonomy.” It is this approach which Marquet demonstrates in building his leader-leader model.
By invoking intent-based leadership, changing practices and introducing new language to the crew he built up the competency and confidence of his team. They “rejected the inevitability of mistakes and came up with a way to reduce them”, found ways of “allowing initiative from the bottom” and changed the decision making authorities within the organisation.
Truly an inspiring read on how to lead differently. As Ralph Nader (American political activist) once said: “The function of leaders is to produce more leaders, not more followers,” and Marquet gives us a blueprint of how to do just that. I can see now why my colleague enjoyed this book so much; it is a must read for anyone looking to leave the team stronger than they found it.
