Title — Turn That Ship Around!
Author — L. David. Marquet
Genre — Non-Fiction
Why I read this book:
While reading another book in which I have completed a previous book review, Simon Sinek’s “Leaders Eat Last”, there is a chapter in which the author refers to a story of a former Nuclear Submarine Commander L. David Marquet. Commander Marquet was a top notch naval officer and we was preparing to take over command of one of the newest and most sophisticated nuclear submarine in the Navy, the Olympia. Commander Marquet studied and eventually he knew the ins and outs of the Olympia as well as he knew his own vehicle. Well, just before he was to take over the Olympia, he was ordered to take over the Sante Fe instead. The Sante Fe was still a nuclear submarine but it was older and more importantly, it had rated at the bottom of all sub’s in the Navy for some time. Basically, whoever was assigned to work on the Sante Fe immediately requested to be transferred out ASAP because morale and operations was horrible. Commander Marquet took it as a compliment as well as a challenge to turn the Sante Fe around and make it the envy of the Navy.
During one of the early drills the Sante Fe was conducting, Commander Marquet told his crew to “increase speed by two thirds.” The helmsman just sat there, squirming. When asked why he had not completed the order, the helmsman responded “There is no ahead two thirds on this boat Captain..” That was an order that could only have been completed on the Olympia.
Commander Marquet knew immediately what he had to fix on his new boat. Empowerment. In traditional top down leadership, you follow orders. You certainly do not disagree with them. On the “new” Sante Fe, the response would have been “Captain, there is no two thirds so I will go ahead and increase by the equivalent..” A new leadership style of Leader-Leader was replacing the old style of Leader-Follower. It was then I knew if Simon Sinek liked this book, I MUST read it.
What I learned:
There are three parts to Commander Marquet’s Leader-Leader philosophy–Control, Competence, Clarity. A quick summary of each is as follows:
–Control — A good leader has to be willing to ogive up some of his/her control to their Team. This is otherwise known as empowerment. It is impossible for a Leader to be everywhere, all the time. Also, is cases where Leaders are not willing to give up any power, it causes several ussies:
A) Employees are standing around waiting for orders.
B) Requests from staff get stalled/forgotten about because they have to wait for the 1 person to approve them all.
C) Employees have no desire to stay at an organization where they feel they have no say or freedom in the sunning of not only the business but just their own section of the business.
–Competence –Instead of always trying to prevent mistakes from happening in your area, you are openly trying to figure out HOW mistakes happen, talk out loud how you are going from A to B and eventually become an expert at your craft so you AVOID mistakes instead of just trying to prevent them.
–Clarity– Clarity comes when the entire organization understands WHY the vision statement is what it is, believes they are a part of achieving the vision statement and everyone trusts everyone else that they will do their part.
Why reading this book will help me succeed:
Today there are probably almost as many “Leadership” books as “Diet” books…Ok, that may be an exaggeration but there are A LOT of Leadership books on the shelves right now.
Why is THIS one going to help me better myself?
I believe this book shows a model of Leadership I would want to implement in MY organization or with my individual Team. I do not want to be the “all-powerful” Leader and force everyone to go through me for everything. Sales has been a passion of mine for my entire adult life. And I am good at it. However, no matter how good I am at sales, I am a better Coach. There is nothing more gratifying to me than being able to see someone I have helped Coach progress from point A to point B, become successful on their own, and know that I was a part of the
Page 1 of 2 10/5/2022
Why reading this book will help me succeed:
Today there are probably almost as many “Leadership” books as “Diet” books…Ok, that may be an exaggeration but there are A LOT of Leadership books on the shelves right now.
Why is THIS one going to help me better myself?
I believe this book shows a model of Leadership I would want to implement in MY organization or with my individual Team. I do not want to be the “all-powerful” Leader and force everyone to go through me for everything. Sales has been a passion of mine for my entire adult life. And I am good at it. However, no matter how good I am at sales, I am a better Coach. There is nothing more gratifying to me than being able to see someone I have helped Coach progress from point A to point B, become successful on their own, and know that I was a part of the reason why they were able to maximize their potential.
A Leader-Leader organization or coaching style is a perfect model for me to follow:
–Empowering your people to make choices with out constant approval from above and trusting them is how people grow not just as employees but as humans.
–You are never going to learn if you are afraid to make mistakes. Become an expert at your craft or your job/department and you can prevent mistakes through knowledge and competence instead of holding your breathe and praying NOTHING happens.
The end of the book lays out the turnaround of the Sante Fe, including how many people on Commander Marquet’s ship ended up becoming leaders themselves (an astonishingly disproportionate number compared to other subs) and I would LOVE to have 25% of the success Commander Marquet had in developing talent and making the Sante Fe one of the most envious subs in navy history.
About Me:
My name is Jeff Piecka and I was sentenced to 34 months in a Federal Prison Camp in Oxford, WI, after committing and pleading guilty to a white collar crime several years ago. Before self-surrendering on June 6, 2022, I promised my wife and family that I WILL exit prison a better husband, son, brother, Christian, future employee, and overall better member of society because I am going to better myself in three ways: 1) Physically–Not just for vanity purposes but a better operating body equals a better operating mind. 2) Mentally–Reading books, stories, papers, and magazines that educate and elevate my mind and expand my vocabulary.
3) Spiritually–For ME, this means learning more from the Bible but it can also mean whatever “Greater Good” you believe in.
Shortly after self-surrendering, I read Michael Santos’s book “Earning Freedom–Conquering a 45 Year Prison Term” and it inspired me to want to help just 1 person who is possibly heading to prison so I started emailing my family Posts that my sister uses to post as a Blog on Reddit dot com called “Letters From Federal Prison”. I believe to date it has close to 7,000 views and shares plus there are now 3 comments from people advising that the Blog has helped them. This has motivated me to keep writing (which I have NEVER done anything like this before) and I REALLY want to help more people when I return to society next year.
