In 2022, I set out to read 12 books on leadership. I read old favorites like 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and modern reads like Leaders Eat Last. “What’s your favorite leadership book?” became my favorite question to ask people, and I quickly learned to write down the ones people really raved about. A book that jumped to the top of my list was Turn the Ship Around!

Turn the Ship Around! is the story of Navy Captain David Marquet, who was assigned to the worst-scoring submarine in the Navy, Sante Fe. How bad was the Sante Fe? A picture circulated throughout the Navy depicting its sloppy crewmen, and phrases like “Don’t be the Sante Fe” were heard on decks across the world.

David Marquet was assigned to captain the Sante Fe and had just six months to prepare the submarine for deployment. How did he do? Marquet defied expectations by not only deploying the Sante Fe on time, but eventually leading her to achieve the highest performance score in Navy history within just one year of assuming command.

Santa Fe

Captain Marquet knew very little about the Sante Fe when he was assigned to serve as its captain. He spent the previous two years studying and reviewing a submarine named Olympia. He was familiar with Olympia’s blueprints, HR reviews, turnover and promotions statistics, and even interviewed its crew. To his surprise, his assignment with Olympia was canceled five days before he was to take command. His new assignment? Turn around Santa Fe.

Why was Santa Fe the worst-scoring sub in the Navy? Marquet notes that there was a leadership vacuum. The sub’s captain was scolded for poor performance, morale was low, junior officers were trained but underutilized, and the senior enlisted men, also known as “the chiefs”, were unempowered and uninspired. Real change was needed and thus began an incredible leadership experiment.

Santa Fe was desperate for quality leadership, but Captain Marquet had to choose what type of captain would serve the submarine best. On Olympia, the crew was told exactly what to do and followed orders precisely. Marquet describes this as a “leader-follower” model in which much, if not all, of the responsibility falls on the top leadership. This model works if the leader at the top is an expert in everything, always knows all information, and wields authority like a cattle prod.

David, however, wasn’t an expert on Santa Fe, didn’t know anything about its officers and their work, and saw a crew so demoralized that wielding authority brandishly would cause more harm than good. He jokingly retells a story where he was interviewing a crewman and asked what each button did on the crewman’s display. The crewman promptly explained each one, but Marquet noticed he had skipped one. When asked about the one he missed, the crewman wilted and admitted he had no idea what the button did. Commander Marquet laughed and said, “I don’t know what it does either. Let’s push it and find out!” The crewman smiled, and a bond of trust began to form between the two.

The Change

The “leader-follower” model wouldn’t work on Santa Fe, so, over the next twelve months, Captain Marquet developed a new model of leadership that he later named “leader-leader.” In a “leader-leader” model, everyone at every level takes responsibility for their job, their improvement, and the needs of those around them. Marquet developed what he calls “mechanisms” to put into writing new laws of leadership. Mechanisms were based on three categories:

  1. Clarity – “What is the right thing to do?
  2. Competence – “How do I do it right?”
  3. Control – “How can I take responsibility for seeing improvement?

Imagine a crew that isn’t waiting around for an order to be given before they act:

  • If the submarine goes silent due to the possible threat of enemy detection, a crew member in the engine room can decide to halt all maintenance without being told.
  • Suppose another department orders the wrong part needed for a repair. In that case, a frustrated crew member can take ownership, talk with the department, and solve the problem without bad-mouthing their fellow crew member.
  • When the Captain stands in the control room, crew members don’t wait for direction but offer what they think is the best course of action based on their knowledge of an ever-changing situation.

Marquet shares story after story about how he experientially developed each mechanism:

  1. He had a crewman violate a “red-tag”—one of the worst possible safety sins—that led to inspectors being called onboard. His new mechanism, “Embrace the Inspectors.” Learn all you can from inspectors, chat them up, and let their scrutiny make you better.
  2. He had a crewman abandon his post and officers called for a “captain’s mast.” A “captain’s mast” is the highest form of punishment on a submarine. After interviewing the crewman, he realized the section chief hadn’t qualified enough of his men for the job, so this lone crewman was working 8 hours on and 4 hours off in back-to-back shifts. Chiefs needed to care about their people as much as the captain cared for the chiefs. His new mechanism? “Continually and Consistently Repeat the Message.” This helped him repeat that same message day after day, meeting after meeting, event after event. In other words, the chiefs got the message.

The Takeaway

You likely don’t have a button that shoots nukes and could start WWIII, but you still have influence on others around you. In fact, I think you have a lot of influence.

Think about the role God currently has you in. You might be a father, mother, supervisor, employee, pastor, business owner, bible study leader, or even a Navy Captain. You lead someone! How do you lead? Top-down?  Brandish authority? A do-what-you-‘re-told mentality? Or do you lead like Marquet, seeking to create an environment where you can experimentally figure out ways to make those you lead—and yourself—better?

Turn the Ship Around! isn’t a new idea but a reminder of an old one. In Matthew 22, Jesus gives us the Great Commandment to love God with all of ourselves and to value others as much as we value ourselves. Leaders who value others as much as they value themselves look like Jesus. And guess what? They make other leaders that look like Jesus, too. If you are looking for a great way to lead like Jesus, pick up Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet. You won’t see scripture in this book and might even read a bad word or two, but I still believe this book on leadership is immensely valuable because you will gain practical leadership insights from a Navy sub-captain who valued his crew so much that they turned their ship around.