Turn the Ship Around!
A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
About the book
When former Navy captain L. David Marquet was shifted to command the nuclear-powered submarine Santa Fe, he inherited a crew with low morale, weak results and the fleet's worst retention rate. Trained in a model where the leader knows everything and gives every order, he soon issued an order that was impossible to carry out, yet his crew still tried to carry it out simply because he had told them to. Marquet responded by handing control to his subordinates and pushing for leadership at every level of the crew. His account shows how that shift, which went against the Navy's traditional leader and follower approach, took the Santa Fe from worst in the fleet to first.
Simon Sinek singled it out as a leadership book by a submarine commander who dropped traditional models once they failed him, and Jason Fried called it his favorite business book.
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This book has 3 recommendations
Lynn Perkins (CEO/Urbansitter)
I gained so many tips about teaching leadership at all levels of an organization. It's a great book for when you're going through growth, and when you have young employees with a ton of potential but lacking in experience.
Simon Sinek (Best-selling Author)
So many leadership books are either theoretical (written by people who study it but don’t do it) or by people who look back and try to explain how they did it. Though both valuable, most leadership books are also very hard to implement as prescribed. That’s what makes Marquet’s book is so remarkable. A submarine commander, he used to obey traditional models of leadership … until they failed him. Unable to change any variables (people, technology or equipment), the only thing left for him to change in order to achieve success was how he acted as a leader. Based on real life events, Marquet presents his ideas in a superbly practical way — perfect for implementing.
Jason Fried (Co-Founder/Basecamp)
Turn the Ship Around is my favorite business book. A wonderful look at what leadership is really about. I recommend it highly.
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