Book Report: Turn the Ship Around

When people think of military-style leadership, they imagine orders shouted, and orders being followed with a Yes Sir! 

The standard format for any bad situation would be for someone to come in, take control, and tell people what to do. But in his book Turn the Ship Around, Captain David Marquet challenges this “leader-follower” style. 

Master “Leader-Leader” Style

When Marquet takes command of the USSN Santa Fe, an underperforming nuclear submarine in the US Navy, he uses several techniques to transform the USSN Santa Fe into a high-performing, award-winning team. He did this by turning his crew from followers into leaders. 

Leader-follower style consists of a leader who is in charge and everyone else who does what the leader says. The followers are allowed limited thought and even less pushback. It reduces members of the team’s engagement, ownership, and agency. This also negates their expertise and experience, reducing the overall intelligence and effectiveness of the group. “Leader-leader” style on the other hand, actively seeks out and fosters intelligence by encouraging deliberate actions and responsibility. 

Leader-leader style focuses on three aspects: control, clarity, and competence. Here’s a closer look at each one and how they can help your business thrive.  

1. Control

It's hard to lead something over which you have no control. Marquet recognizes this and proposes that the first step to creating a leader-leader dynamic is by handing over control to others. 

One way to do this is to not immediately provide solutions for team members you are encouraging to be leaders. Rather than telling people what to do, let employees figure it out for themselves. While at first decisions will be made slower, this will lead to everyone being engaged in the processes and solutions. You can also try thinking out loud. By expressing your train of thought, you relinquish control of problem solving and others will be invited to provide their insights. This makes it easier for everyone to align around the best solution instead of just executing someone else's plan. Doing these two things can empower the entire organization.

2. Competence

Giving up control is inherently vulnerable. What if the person you let take on the challenge makes the wrong decision? Marquet found that while that’s always a risk, it’s lessened by competence. 

One way to improve competence in your team members is by taking deliberate actions. Think of a route you drive frequently on your way home from work. If you take the same route every day, you probably space out as you wind through the streets and suddenly find yourself pulling into your driveway. The same thing happens with repeated tasks, and this is when mistakes can happen. It’s a route you know, so you look away from the road. 

Taking deliberate action pulls us out of automaton mode. To be deliberate we must state what we’re doing to others around us, to ourselves, or to a little rubber duck on our dashboard. “I will turn left at the light and then pass the school,” makes us mindful of our path. When we say the steps and purposefully engage with doing them, we build competence in our organization, processes, and ourselves. 

3. Clarity

When decision making moves from leadership to all team members, it’s essential that everyone in the organization has clarity about its core purposes. Marquet posits that people can make better decisions when they understand the goals of the organization and their role within it. 

Marquet says we can better do this by highlighting the past to inform the future. Ask: 

• What has your team accomplished last year or over the last five? 

• What does the legacy of your business say about the purpose of your team? 

These are conversations that should be held with the entire team so everyone is on the same page. 

The leader-leader dynamic may sound a bit familiar, as Gary Keller often says “authorship is ownership.” When you inspire team members to contribute to the success of your business by giving them control, making sure they are competent, and providing them with clarity–everyone wins. 

By the time Marquet left the USSN Santa Fe, the team had won awards for most-improved ship and battle efficiency. Sailors were advancing where previously they had stagnated and morale had never been higher.  This was possible because he turned his crew from followers into leaders. If his methodology can work in a rigid and intense environment like on a nuclear submarine in the US Navy, it can work for you and your organization as well.

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