Synopses & Reviews
Now available is the companion workbook Turn Your Ship Around! by David Marquet, filled with practical advice, tools and lessons.
Leadership should mean giving control rather than taking control and creating leaders rather than forging followers.”
David Marquet, an experienced Navy officer, was used to giving orders. As newly appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, he was responsible for more than a hundred sailors, deep in the sea. In this high-stress environment, where there is no margin for error, it was crucial his men did their job and did it well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention in the fleet.
Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasnt challenged, the answer was Because you told me to.” Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things.
Thats when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around! is the true story of how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navys traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control.
Before long, each member of Marquets crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards and promoting a highly disproportionate number of officers to submarine command.
No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquets radical guidelines to turn your own ship around. The payoff: a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader.
Review
“I dont know of a finer model of this kind of empowering leadership than Captain Marquet. And in the pages that follow you will find a model for your pathway.”
—STEPHEN R. COVEY, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
“David Marquet is the kind of leader who comes around only once in a generation. He doesnt just know how to lead, he knows how to build leaders. His ideas and lessons are invaluable to anyone who wants to build an organization that will outlive them.”
—SIMON SINEK, optimist and author of Start With Why
“Turn the Ship Around! delivers a brilliant message.”
—LIZ WEISMAN, author of Multipliers
“Read Turn the Ship Around! and you will learn how to build an enduring high performer, where people cant wait to get to work.”
—ADMIRAL THOMAS B. FARGO (USN, RET.) former commander, U.S. Pacific Command, and chairman, Huntington Ingalls Industries
“Its The Hunt for Red October meets Harvard Business School.”
—JOE DEBONO, founder and president, MBA Corps
Review
Named one of Motley Fools "The 12 Best Business Books of All Time"
'I don't know of a finer model of this kind of empowering leadership than Captain Marquet. And in the pages that follow you will find a model for your pathway.'
— Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
'To say I'm a fan of David Marquet would be an understatement.... I'm a fully fledged groupie. He is the kind of leader who comes around only once a generation. He is the kind of leader who doesn't just know how to lead, he knows how to build leaders. His ideas and lessons are invaluable to anyone who wants to build an organization that will outlive them.'
— Simon Sinek, optimist and author of Start with Why
'How do we release the intellect and initiative of each member of the organization toward a common purpose? Here's the answer: With fascinating storytelling and a deep understanding of what motivates and inspires. David Marquet provides leaders in the military, business, and education a powerful vehicle that will delight, provoke, and encourage them to act.'
— Michael P. Peters, president of the St. John's College, Santa Fe
'I owe a lot to Captain David Marquet ... not only for turning the Santa Fe around during some REALLY bad times but I learned many lessons on leadership from him that have been invaluable in my post-Navy life. I preach the three legs (control, competence, clarity) of Leader-Leader everyday to empower my people and move the decisions to where the information lives.... I used these principles to turn around the GE Dallas Generator Repair Department, which was in crisis when I arrived in 2010 and now is the best Generator Repair Department in the GE Network.... Now I am tasked with turning around the Dallas Steam Turbine Repair Department....'
— Adam McAnally, Steam Turbine Cell Leader at the GE Dallas Service Center and former crewmember, USS Santa Fe
'This terrific read actually provides new and valuable insights into how to lead. And nothing important gets done without leadership. Captain Marquet takes you through his life of learning how to lead, and presents you with a winning formula: not leader-follower, but leader-leader. It's about leading by getting others to take responsibility--and like it. It works for business, politics, and life.'
— Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of several business boards, and a former columnist for The New York Times
'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
'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)
"This is the story of Captain David Marquet's unprecedented experiment in the most rigid of environments on the Santa Fe, a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine. He had the courage to operate counter-culture, reengineering the very definition of leadership accepted by the U.S. Navy for as long as it has existed. He took huge risk to do this. The outcome was revolutionary - within a few short months, the crew of the Santa Fe went from worst to first. In today's information age, Human Capital is our most precious resource. It is the 21stCentury weapon of choice. Captain David Marquet's experiment in leadership has far greater application to the entire business world. This is thought leadership."
— Charlie Kim, Founder and CEO of Next Jump, Inc.
"Leaders and managers face an increasingly complex world, where precise execution, teamwork and enabling of talent are competitive advantages. David Marquet provides a blue print, along with real-life examples and implementation mechanisms. Anyone who is charged with leading and making a difference needs to read this."
— John Cooper, President and CEO, Invesco Distributors
"David Marquet's book discusses 'successful motivation' that provided his people the energy to overcome difficult obstacles. The values that he imbued in his folks provided a 'burst of energy' that positively energized them by satisfying their needs for achievement, providing appropriate recognition, providing a sense of belonging, developing self-esteem, permitting a feeling of control, and permitting an ability to live up to appropriate standards. This type of leadership energizes the work force and allows senior management to 'paint the future and light a path that takes the entire team to it.' This is a must read for all who desire good moral influence on the work force!"
— Vice Admiral Al Konetzni, (USN, ret.) Former Pacific Fleet submarine commander.
"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
"What I learned from and with David Marquet is that developing a bottom-up, Leader-Leader culture produces highly empowered people and highly effective teams. It worked on a nuclear submarine and it worked in the mountains of Afghanistan. That said, cultivating a Leader-Leader culture is much easier said than done because you must overturn almost everything people grow up thinking and learning about leadership."
— Captain (sel) Dave Adams, USN, Former Weapons Officer, USS Santa Fe, Khost Province PRT commander, Commanding Officer, USS Santa Fe
'Captain Marquet's compelling leadership journey inspires each of us to imagine a world where every human being is intellectually engaged and fully committed to solving our toughest challenges. If it can be done on a nuclear submarine, it can be done everywhere. Turn the Ship Around! delivers a brilliant message.'
— Liz Wiseman, Author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
Review
“The best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution.”
—Fortune on the original Turn the Ship Around
Synopsis
"Leadership should mean giving control rather than taking control and creating leaders rather than forging followers."
David Marquet, an experienced Navy officer, was used to giving orders. As newly appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, he was responsible for more than a hundred sailors, deep in the sea. In this high-stress environment, where there is no margin for error, it was crucial his men did their job and did it well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention in the fleet.
Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn't challenged, the answer was "Because you told me to." Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things.
That's when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around is the true story of how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control.
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 fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards and promoting a highly disproportionate number of officers to submarine command.
No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquet's radical guidelines to turn your own ship around. The payoff: a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader.
Synopsis
Since Turn the Ship Around was published in 2012, hundreds of thousands of readers have been inspired by former Navy captain David Marquet's true story. Many have applied his insights to their own organizations, creating workplaces where everyone takes responsibility for his or her actions, where followers grow to become leaders, and where happier teams drive dramatically better results.
Marquet was a Naval Academy graduate and an experienced officer when selected for submarine command. Trained to give orders in the traditional model of leadership, he faced a new wrinkle when he was shifted to the Santa Fe, a nuclear powered submarine, at the last minute. Facing the high-stress environment of a sub where there's little margin for error, he was determined to reverse the trends he found: poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention rate in the fleet, on board a submarine he didn't know.
Almost immediately, Marquet ran into trouble when he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn't challenged, the answer was "Because you told me to." Marquet realized that while he was trained for a different submarine, his crew had been trained to do what they were told -- a deadly combination.
That's when Marquet flipped the leadership model and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around reveals how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control to his subordinates.
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 fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day. The Santa Fe set records for performance, morale, and retention. Over the next decade, the officers of the Santa Fe were selected to become submarine commanders in highly disproportionate numbers.
Whether you need a major change of course or just a tweak of the rudder, you can apply Marquet's methods to turn your own ship around.
Synopsis
"One of the 12 best business books of all time.... Timeless principles of empowering leadership." - USA Today
Since Turn the Ship Around was published in 2012, hundreds of thousands of readers have been inspired by former Navy captain David Marquet's true story. Many have applied his insights to their own organizations, creating workplaces where everyone takes responsibility for his or her actions, where followers grow to become leaders, and where happier teams drive dramatically better results.
Marquet was a Naval Academy graduate and an experienced officer when selected for submarine command. He faced a new wrinkle when he was assigned at the last minute to the Santa Fe, a nuclear powered submarine that he hadn't been trained for. Facing the high-stress environment of a sub where there's little margin for error, he was determined to reverse the trends he found: poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention rate in the fleet.
Almost immediately, Marquet ran into trouble when he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why, the answer was "Because you told me to." Marquet realized that while he had trained for a different submarine, his crew had been trained to do what they were told -- a deadly combination.
So Marquet flipped the leadership model and began to push for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around reveals how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control to his subordinates.
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 fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day. The Santa Fe set records for performance, morale, and retention. And over the next decade, the officers of the Santa Fe were selected to become submarine commanders in highly disproportionate numbers.
Whether you need a major change of course or just a tweak of the rudder, you can apply Marquet's methods to turn your own ship around.
Synopsis
"One of the 12 best business books of all time.... Timeless principles of empowering leadership." - USA Today "The best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution." --FORTUNE
Since Turn the Ship Around was published in 2013, hundreds of thousands of readers have been inspired by former Navy captain David Marquet's true story. Many have applied his insights to their own organizations, creating workplaces where everyone takes responsibility for his or her actions, where followers grow to become leaders, and where happier teams drive dramatically better results.
Marquet was a Naval Academy graduate and an experienced officer when selected for submarine command. Trained to give orders in the traditional model of "know all-tell all" leadership, he faced a new wrinkle when he was shifted to the Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine. Facing the high-stress environment of a sub where there's little margin for error, he was determined to reverse the trends he found on the Santa Fe poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention rate in the fleet.
Almost immediately, Marquet ran into trouble when he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why, the answer was: "Because you told me to." Marquet realized that while he had been trained for a different submarine, his crew had been trained to do what they were told--a deadly combination.
That's when Marquet flipped the leadership model on its head and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around reveals how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control to his subordinates, and creating leaders.
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.
Whether you need a major change of course or just a tweak of the rudder, you can apply Marquet's methods to turn your own ship around.
Synopsis
A new model for leadership, by a former Navy captain who transformed his submarine Imagine a workplace where everyone is totally engaged and contributing their full intellectual capacity; where people are healthier and happier because they have more control over their work. That’s what David Marquet achieved as captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear submarine dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention rate in the fleet. He took his ship from worst to first in its class by challenging the Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach. Instead he implemented a new framework he calls “leader-leader,” resisting his impulse to take control to create something vastly more powerful: an entire ship full of leaders.
Turn the Ship Around! offers powerful strategies to apply Marquet’s approach in any organization.
Synopsis
Former U.S. Navy Commander Michael Abrashoff attracted worldwide media attention for his success in turning around a struggling ship, the USS
Benfoldthe subject of his acclaimed bestseller,
Its Your Ship. Since then, hes been a fixture on the business lecture circuit, spreading an empowering message that any organization can be turned around with compassionate but firm leadership.
Abrashoff never claimed to have all the answers. He also knew that there were plenty of other creative leaders in the navy, army, air force, marine corps, and even the coast guard who could teach businesspeople how to motivate, inspire, and get great results under pressure. So he asked around, found some fascinating people in every branch of the U.S. military and the business world, and interviewed them about leadership and teambuilding. The result is Get Your Ship Togethera book that will be just as valuable as Its Your Ship.
For example, Abrashoff introduces us to a working-class enlisted man who rose rapidly in the navy for his creative leadership under fire; an army platoon leader who fought in Afghanistan; the first woman to fly an Apache helicopter in combat; a former commander of the air forces elite Blue Angels; and many other unsung heroes. Abrashoff distills their stories into fresh lessons that can be applied in the business world, such as:
- Make a contract with your people and honor it
- Develop your subordinates better so you can buy back a little quality of life
- Conduct the battle on your terms, not those of your adversary
Synopsis
A companion workbook filled with practical advice, tools and lessons based on the acclaimed leadership book, Turn The Ship Around! by David Marquet.
In Turn the Ship Around! former U.S. Navy Captain David Marquet introduced a bold new approach to leadership, based on his experiences turning around the troubled submarine USS Santa Fe. He gave up the traditional command-and-control model and instead inspired his crew to assume responsibility for every individual action. Santa Fe rapidly improved its dismal performance record, and started winning awards as the best ship in its class.
Now Marquet returns with a workbook so readers can apply his methods to their own organizations. With extensive questions and exercises on how to delegate and inspire, this workbook will help readers build a work community based on personal responsibility and trust.
Synopsis
The true story of how an unlikely leader helped inspire a team of rocket scientists to achieve the near impossible: landing a two-thousand pound rover on Mars. Few organizations solve as many impossible problems as NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and nobody knows more about leading rocket scientists to unlikely breakthroughs than Adam Steltzner.
As the phase lead and development manager for EDL (entry, descent and landing) of the Curiosity rover to Mars, Steltzner spearheaded the creation of one of engineerings wackiest kluges the sky crane that allowed the heaviest rover in the history of space exploration to land on Mars unscathed.
Steltzner is no ordinary engineer. His path to leadership was about as unlikely as they come. A child of beatnik parents, he was a daredevil and avid mountain biker, breaking thirty-two bones before squeaking through high school. He blew off college in favor of work at a health food store and playing bass in a band. After an interest in the movement of the stars led him to enroll part time at community college, Steltzner discovered an astonishing gift for math and physics. Within years he got his PhD and ensconced himself within the offbeat Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASAs decidedly unbureaucratic cousin, where success in a mission is the only metric that matters.
The Right Kind of Crazy is the story of the teamwork, drama, and extraordinary feats of innovation at the Jet Propulsion Lab, that culminated in landing the rover Curiosity on Mars in 2012. It also weaves Steltzners professional lifecentering on the ten years he and his team spent planning and then executing the landing of the roverwith his unlikely journey from academic underachiever to rocket scientist.
Along the way, readers will learn about what makes effective teams, how to stay on task for the long haul, and strategies for solving incredibly complex problems. The Right Kind of Crazy is a book for anyone striving for excellence.
About the Author
A top graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, L. David Marquet commanded the nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine USS Santa Fe from 1999 to 2001. Santa Fe earned numerous awards for being the most improved ship in the Pacific and the most combat-effective ship in the squadron. Since leaving the Navy he has worked with businesses nationwide as a leadership consultant. David also teaches graduate level leadership at Columbia University. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and lives in Florida with his wife, Jane.