Turn the Ship Around: Summary Review
This is a summary review of Turn the Ship Around containing key details about the book.
What is Turn the Ship Around About?
"Turn the Ship Around" is a leadership book that presents a new approach to leadership based on the principles of Servant Leadership and the idea of empowering subordinates to take on more responsibility and ownership in their work.
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.
Summary Points & Takeaways from Turn the Ship Around
Some key summary points and takeaways from the book includes:
* Leadership is about creating a culture of accountability, where every member of the team feels responsible for the success of the mission.
* The traditional command-and-control style of leadership is outdated, and a more empowering leadership style is needed in today’s fast-paced, complex world.
* Leaders must be willing to give up control and delegate authority to their team members, allowing them to take ownership of their work and make decisions.
* The transformation of the USS Batfish from a struggling, ineffective submarine to a top-performing unit is a testament to the power of this new leadership style.
* The key principles of the “turn the ship around” approach are clear expectations, trustworthy relationships, open communication, and continuous learning.
* Leaders must be able to clearly communicate their vision, values, and expectations to their team, and must earn the trust of their team members by consistently demonstrating integrity, transparency, and respect.
* An open, two-way communication channel must be established, where leaders listen to the thoughts and ideas of their team members, and team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas.
* Continuous learning is essential to ongoing success, and leaders must be willing to seek out feedback, learn from their mistakes, and continuously improve their leadership skills.
Who is the author of Turn the Ship Around?
L. David Marquet [mar-'kay] is a retired United States Navy captain and the bestselling author of Turn the Ship Around and Leadership is Language. He was the commander of the submarine USS Santa Fe.
Turn the Ship Around Summary Notes
Reevaluating Leadership in the United States Workforce.
The United States workforce is experiencing a significant crisis in terms of job satisfaction and productivity, and it's time to look at the root cause. The traditional leader-follower approach, which has been used for centuries, is no longer effective in a workforce where most jobs require cognitive tasks and decision-making. This approach has resulted in a leadership crisis, causing many workers to feel dissatisfied with their jobs and leading to a dip in overall productivity.
To empower workers and increase productivity, organizations need to reevaluate their overall idea of leadership. A new approach to leadership is required, one that empowers workers and encourages them to take ownership of their work. This new approach involves a shift from leader-follower to leader-leader, where every member of the team is encouraged to take ownership of their work and be accountable for their decisions. By creating a culture of ownership and accountability, organizations can encourage their employees to take pride in their work and become more engaged in the work they do.
In order to achieve this shift in leadership, organizations need to focus on creating a culture of trust, where leaders trust their employees to make decisions and take ownership of their work. This requires leaders to give up control and allow their employees to take on more responsibility, which can be challenging for some leaders. However, this shift in leadership can result in a more engaged and productive workforce, as employees feel empowered to take ownership of their work and contribute to the success of the organization.
Turn the Ship Around: A Revolutionary Leadership Approach for Organizational Success
The United States is facing a crisis in leadership, resulting in dissatisfaction and a decrease in productivity in the workforce. The traditional leader-follower approach to leadership, suitable for physical labor, is no longer effective in the cognitive and decision-making workforce of today. The key to empowering workers and achieving organizational success is a leader-leader approach, where decision-making power is distributed evenly throughout the chain of command. This approach recognizes that leadership is not a quality that only a few possess, but everyone has the potential to lead in their own way. In a leader-leader system, individuals can act on newly arriving information without waiting for it to ascend the chain of command. The leader-leader approach has been proven effective on the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine in the US Navy, which transformed from one of the worst performing to the most-improved ship in the fleet. The leader-leader approach is advantageous, but implementing it requires a shift in mindset and the creation of a shared vision and values among all team members. Leaders must empower their team members to make decisions, communicate openly, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. By adopting a leader-leader approach, organizations can turn the ship around and achieve success in the 21st-century workforce.
Empowering Employees: The Key to Productivity and Success
Another point is the importance of empowering employees by giving them more responsibility. By shifting to a leader-leader structure, decision-making power is evenly distributed throughout the chain of command, and employees are given more agency to act on newly arriving information without having to wait for it to ascend the chain. This not only leads to more efficient and effective decision-making but also empowers employees, making them more invested and passionate about their work.
To implement a leader-leader structure, organizations need to rewrite their foundations to reflect this shift in structure, which can involve delegating some power from managers to employees. For instance, on the USS Santa Fe, Captain Marquet gave more decision-making power to the chiefs, who were responsible for individual divisions within the submarine. By granting them greater responsibility over their men and division, they became more passionate about running that division at its highest performance, improving overall efficiency almost immediately.
Another way to empower employees is by using simple phrases like “I intend to…” to give employees the power to make decisions about the running of the organization. By doing so, employees feel more invested and confident in their work, which ultimately leads to higher productivity and success.
To maintain the leader-leader dynamic, two key pillars need to be established: competence and clarity. Competence involves training and developing employees to ensure they have the skills and knowledge necessary to make informed decisions, while clarity involves providing clear communication and direction to avoid confusion and miscommunication. By establishing these pillars, organizations can successfully implement a leader-leader structure and empower their employees to achieve greater productivity and success.
Ensuring Competence: A Key Element in Empowering Employees
In the book "Turn the Ship Around" by David Marquet, one of the key ideas is to empower employees by giving them more responsibility. However, ensuring that they can handle this responsibility competently is just as important as giving it to them. Marquet suggests two practical mechanisms to ensure that employees build and maintain their competence levels.
The first mechanism is "taking deliberate action." This involves pausing, vocalizing, and gesturing to what an employee intends to do before they do it. This technique lessens errors and allows others to monitor and correct mistakes before they happen. Marquet used this method on the USS Santa Fe and achieved the highest grade ever awarded on its nuclear-reactor operations inspections.
The second mechanism is "certifying" instead of "briefing" employees. Instead of simply giving information, certifying requires crew members to answer questions about the task they've been assigned in order to be allowed to work on it. This ensures that individuals working on the task are competent and allows for further training of employees who could not answer the questions adequately.
By using these tactics, Marquet was able to increase efficiency, employee satisfaction, and employee performance through the leader-leader structure aboard the USS Santa Fe. However, there is one final element that is vital to bringing this newly empowered crew to its full potential. This final element is trust.
Marquet realized that trust is built by giving employees the freedom to make decisions and by being transparent about the decision-making process. This allows employees to see the big picture and to understand why certain decisions are being made. By building trust, employees become more engaged and motivated to take on more responsibility.
The Importance of Clear Goals in a Leader-Leader Organization
One of the key ideas presented here is the importance of clear goals in a leader-leader organization. In a leader-leader structure, decision-making power is dispersed throughout the organization, and every employee must be on the same page when it comes to goals. To achieve this, corporations must uphold their core values and inspire their employees by highlighting their history and legacy. Immediate recognition and praise should also be administered to employees who uphold these values, as this has the greatest impact on motivation.
Furthermore, the structure of rewards can have a significant impact on productivity. Man-versus-man rewards are counterproductive, as they promote competition among employees. In contrast, man-versus-nature rewards turn all employees against an external enemy and promote collaboration and camaraderie.
The USS Santa Fe provides an excellent example of how a leader-leader structure can increase productivity and empower workers. By changing the traditional approach to leadership and embracing a leader-leader dynamic, organizations can achieve success and drive the economy forward.
Book Details
- Print length: 272 pages
- Genre: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction
Turn the Ship Around Chapters
Chapter 1:Pain
Chapter 2:Business as Usual
Chapter 3:Change of Course
Chapter 4:Frustration
Chapter 5:Call to Action
Chapter 6:"What ever They Tell Me to Do!"
Chapter 7:"I Relieve You!"
Chapter 8:Change, in a Word
Chapter 9:"Welcome Aboard Santa Fe!"
Chapter 10:Under Way on Nuclear Power
Chapter 11:"I Intend To…"
Chapter 12:Up Scope!
Chapter 13:Who's Responsible?
Chapter 14:"A New Ship"
Chapter 15:"We Have a Problem"
Chapter 16:"Mistakes Just Happen!"
Chapter 17:"We Learn"
Chapter 18:Under Way for San Diego
Chapter 19:All Present and Accounted For
Chapter 20:Final Preparations
Chapter 21:Under Way for Deployment
Chapter 22:A Remembrance of War
Chapter 23:Leadership at Every Level
Chapter 24:A Dangerous Passage
Chapter 25:Looking Ahead
Chapter 26:Combat Effectiveness
Chapter 27:Homecoming
Chapter 28:A New Method of Resupplying
Chapter 29:Ripples
What is a good quote from Turn the Ship Around?
Top Quote: “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” - Turn the Ship Around Quotes, L. David Marquet
What do critics say?
Here's what one of the prominent reviewers had to say about the book: "The best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training and driving flawless execution." — Fortune Magazine
* The editor of this summary review made every effort to maintain information accuracy, including any published quotes, chapters, or takeaways. If you're interested in enhancing your personal growth, I suggest checking out my list of favorite self-development books. These books have been instrumental in my own personal development and I'm confident they can help you too.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
