Turn the Ship Around!

A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

By: L. David Marquet, Stephen R. Covey - introduction

Narrated by: L. David Marquet

“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

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.

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.

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.

Outstanding read for becoming a trusted leader

These are ideas that I easily absorbed and became my own. I look forward to reading pieces of it with my 12yo son tomorrow.

Leader-Leader Model

Impressive success of leadership model on US Navy Submarine. A must read if you are the leader of any organization.

Great framework for individual contributors as well as managers

I read this as an individual contributor at a large company, looking to take more autonomy where I can in my role. This have me great ideas and a framework that I will use to “manage up,” and encourage leadership to hand over more of the reigns to me and my peers.

A Great Read

Gave interesting insight into running a vessel and managing a crew. there were a few places where the diologe repeated itself for a sentence or 2 but overall a great read.

Entertaining & Informative

Great stories that engage & inspire are the hallmark of great leaders/teachers/mentors. This book was well-organized. informative, & gave practical applications as well as deep dive questions. What better way to inspire any organization to achieve its goals & inspire its people throughout generations of commabd/leadership. Thank you, Captain Marquette & those who inspired & mentored you!