Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Building Leaders by Breaking the Rules

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The legacy of a Commanding Officer, or the leader of any organization, is how well the organization performs after he/she departs and the subsequent motivation, success and institutional contribution of those next generation leaders trained and developed. Read Turn the Ship Around! and you will learn how to build an enduring high performer, where people can’t wait to get to work.”– Admiral Thomas B. Fargo(USN, ret.) Former Commander U.S. Pacific Command Chairman, Huntington Ingalls Industries

David Marquet’s message in Turn the Ship Around! inspires the empowerment of engaged people and leadership at all levels. He encourages leaders to release energy, intellect, and passion in everyone around them. Turn the Ship Around! challenges the paradigm of the hierarchical organization by revealing the process to tear down pyramids, create a flat organization, and to develop leaders, not followers.”– Dale R. Wilson, Sr., business management professional, and editor/blogger at Command Performance Leadership (commandperformanceleadership.wordpress.com) It’s the Hunt for Red October meets Harvard Business School. Turn the Ship Around! is the consummate book on leadership for the Information Age–where unleashing knowledge workers’ intellectual capital is pivotal in optimizing organizational performance: from maximizing market share and minimizing customer churn to improving margins. Capt. Marquet’s thesis is a complete paradigm shift in leadership philosophy. This new approach to leadership is applicable in all industries and across all corporate functions. If you’re an Organizational Behavior or Leadership expert or enthusiast this book can have a substantial impact on you and your organization s ability to meet its goals.”– Joe DeBono, Founder and President of MBA Corps and Merrill Lynch Wealth Manager

If all you need to do is what you are told, then you don’t need to understand your craft. However, as your ability to make decisions increases, then you need intimate technical knowledge on which to base those decisions.” Fake it til you make it" - or, as the author says "Acting your way to new thinking" as a mechanism for control. Even if you feel bad - smile - that will eventually make you feel better (it's proven). If you have doubts and don't fully commit to a new thing - it will come through so fake it til it feels natural and only then will you be able to determine the efficacy. From simple ways to first, improve you and after the people around or even your team, to more complex things like transforming the way we think and see things, how to run a business, and like the name suggests be a leader and not a follower at every level in your life or in your organization. David Marquet is the kind of leader who comes around only once in a generation ... his ideas and lessons are invaluable" Enhance opportunities for informal communication - encourage team members to think out loud as a mechanism for control and organizational clarity.

WE LEARN (EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME) is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." This was a great section on learning from mistakes without coming down really hard on the team members - everything is a learning opportunity. He discusses situations where team members automatically executed incorrect instructions from their leader or where mistakes were made because someone was operating on "auto pilot." Changing the processes to focus on the outcomes and goals rather than process/method made a huge difference.Before long, each member of Marquet’s crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became completely engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day. The Santa Fe set records for performance, morale, and retention. And over the next decade, a highly disproportionate number of the officers of the Santa Fe were selected to become submarine commanders. If there are rules, which could be applied in the military we can't say that our organisation is not agile enough to build the leader-leader approach to team management. The author explains why, in the long term, it is far more effective then leader-follower setup. You can also find here ready-to-use examples of how you can support your team members on their way to engage, taking ownership and becoming the leaders.