Turn the Ship Around!

One of Brad Malone’s favorite books on leadership s is Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet, a retired Navy officer. When he was appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, the ship was plagued by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention in the fleet.

Turn the Ship Around is the true story of how Marquet transformed the Santa Fe from worst to first within a year, by challenging the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, Marquet ultimately achieved the more powerful model of giving control. The primary objective is that you are pushing control down to the people closest to the working level, and yet you’re retaining the full responsibility. Really flipping the paradigm.

Navigate has found that the struggle to let go of control is very real in the integration industry. Not surprising, since the industry is full of entrepreneurial types that built their businesses from the ground up. They are the ones that made it happen, and it isn’t easy giving away control. But what happens as companies grow, and there are more people making more and more decisions?

No matter your business, you can apply Marquet’s advice to turn your own ship around.