Captain David Marquet single-handedly “turned his ship around” when he became captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear powered submarine which had a crew ranked dead last in retention and operational standings. By treating his crew as leaders, not followers, Marquet’s sub went from “worst to first.” The author of Turn The Ship Around: How To Create Leadership at Every Level (called “the best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution” by Fortune magazine), Captain Marquet addresses audiences who want to create empowering work environments that release the passion, initiative, and intellect of everyone on their team. His bold and highly effective leadership approach can be summarized as “give control, create leaders.” Marquet recently released his video “Greatness” (above), with it summarized by Inc.com, below:
If you were playing charades at a party and picked ‘leader’ out of the hat to act out, you’d probably know just what to do. Straight back, proud bearing, lots of pointing and bold gesticulations. In short, you’d act a lot like a nuclear submarine commander from a cinema thriller.
But take it from an actual nuclear submarine commander — at least a former one — that’s not what real leadership is about. Not if you want to inspire greatness in your team, anyway (if you want to win a role in a Hollywood blockbuster as a macho commander, stop reading now.)
In a great and highly entertaining ten-minute talk Captain David Marquet, who used to be the top man aboard a U.S. nuclear submarine, tells the story of how he decided to flip his old ideas of leadership on their head. Giving orders, he realized, was making his crew into a bunch of yes men and creating a yawning gap between mission critical information and where decisions actually got made.
So what did he do instead? He vowed to never give another order again (except for the final one to launch a weapon) and replaced instructions with intent, giving the control of the ship to his men. How’d that work out? Phenomenally, it turns out.
He is not the only one whose critiquing the stereotype of leaders as those who use their personal charisma and wisdom to take control and attract followers. Marquet insists that, instead, the type of people who inspire greatness “give control and create leaders.” And, it turns out, many social scientists agree according to a long, fascinating article that appeared recently in The Boston Globe.
Entitled “The myth of the visionary leader,” the piece by Leon Neyfakh delves into recent research showing that “the kind of leaders we idolize may be the last people we really want in charge. The character traits that tend to convince us someone deserves power, these thinkers say, have remarkably little to do with how effective that person will be at actually running a city, or a company, or a nation.”
So while we may long for Russell Crowe in epaulettes, what we need are more workaday virtues like adaptability and the ability to build consensus. That’s useful to consider if you’re a board member picking a CEO, but it’s also a good thing for small business leaders to bear in mind — being a leader and looking like one are two very different things.