Turn Your Ship Around - Success with Empowerment

For a while now, I am an advocate for empowering teams to reach their northpole autonomously - a human-centric and sustainable formula for success and growth. Recently, I got introduced to the story of the USS Santa Fe, a submarine that was commanded by David Marquet from a desolate state to the best operated submarine. A story of positive leadership.

Captain Marquet took a totally different approach to his role on the vehicle. Instead of being the centre of operation where all the information is gathered and he is making the decision, he delegated decision-making authority to the different units and ensured the relevant information is flowing between all units.

In an interview he mentioned that a first key change was the way he formulated orders. A typical command is direct like "sail the ship to this location at this speed and that depth". He started to express an intend: "I intend to be at this location in order to achieve that". Then the relevant units are required to suggest the right method to achieve this intention. This changed how people got involved and shared their expertise.

Other learnings shared by David Marquet:

• Fight the urge to take immediate action; pause and reflect first - this will develop the 'leadership muscle' of the team
• Signal to your team which mindset should be adopted in different situation; distinguish a 'prove' and 'improve' mindset
• Activate system thinkers and leaders at every level; this will create resilience and prevents stupid decisions
• Flatten the power gradient; make yourself available, create an environment where others contribute and join the team on their level

How can you apply this in your leadership role?

Learn more about the story:

• Turn Your Ship Around by Mark Bidwell (unfortunately, the link to the podcast is broken)
• #003: Turn the Ship Around with Capt. David Marquet, podcast by Dr. Jerry Zandstra