Send to KindleTurn The Ship Around – A Review
The military is a terrific leadership development environment. I firmly believe that our armed forces 
produce the best leaders of any organization anywhere. That doesn’t mean all military units are blessed with outstanding leadership and unfortunately, the military has its share of leadership failures as well. The beauty of the military system is that even when someone in the leadership chain fails, someone else usually picks up the slack and the mission continues. Turn the Ship Around is the story of one leader who not only picked up the slack, but completely changed his part of the system.
Even in the often unusual world of military service, there is a group that is even more unusual: those that motor around the globe submerged under the oceans. These folks are, as a group, not very talkative about their daily activities and Turn The Ship Around is an enlightening peek into a normally unseen world.
Of course, no big secrets are revealed, but there is information of great value in the book.
L. David Marquet provides us with a look at how good, basic leadership can bring about the fundamental changes necessary to transition an organization from marginally functional to outstanding. In his earliest assignment, Marquet had learned some of those effective leadership fundamentals from an enlightened boss but, as happens to so many budding leaders, his efforts to practice them in subsequent assignments were squashed by less enlightened bosses and a system that was designed to be bureaucratic.
He held on though and finally was in a position to implement the leadership techniques he knew would be more effective. The key to his success was making others accountable for their own actions and areas of responsibility. Marquet did not accept the notion that he should lead and manage every aspect of running the submarine but insisted that his subordinate leaders step up to leadership as well. He describes the techniques he found successful and details ways to implement them.
While Marquet provided the support necessary to help his subordinate leaders grow, the support he received from his boss was critical to his success. His boss allowed him to try a different approach and deviate from common wisdom and long-standing procedures.
Frankly, I haven’t seen a lot of really good leadership books lately so this was a pleasant surprise. In Turn the Ship Around, Marquet provides an excellent manual for good leadership wrapped in an interesting story about life aboard a submarine.
Read this book!
