The following contains excerpts from the book, Turn the Ship Around (L. David Marquet).
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. When dealing with the subject of Leadership, relationships become paramount, and how a leader treats people becomes the core issue that defines the success or failure of the leader.
This book is the account of the personal journey of the Captain of the U.S. submarine, Santa Fe. His journey to move away from the ‘top-down’ leadership structure to a crew-empowered autonomous structure is chronicled and discussed. He uses the terms leader-follower negatively and the term leader-leader positively, showing how he took the failing and demoralized crew of the Santa Fe to the top most-awarded sub in the Navy.
“We are in the middle of one of the most profound shifts in human history, where the primary work of mankind is moving from the Industrial Age of ‘control’ to the Knowledge Worker Age of ‘release.’ As Albert Einstein said, ‘The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.’ They certainly won’t be solved by one person; even, and especially, the one ‘at the top.’
“Leadership is the enabling art. It is the art of releasing human talent and potential. You may be able to ‘buy’ a person’s back with a paycheck, position, power, or fear, but a human being’s genius, passion, loyalty, and tenacious creativity are volunteered only. The world’s greatest problems will be solved by passionate, unleashed ‘volunteers.’”
“My definition of leadership is this: Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it themselves.” (Steven Covey, forward)
The top-down leadership model was “developed during a period when mankind’s primary work was physical. Consequently, it’s optimized for extracting physical work from humans.”
“In our modern world, the most important work we do is cognitive; so, it’s not surprising that a structure developed for physical work isn’t optimal for intellectual work. People who are treated as followers…have limited decision-making authority and little incentive to give the utmost of their intellect, energy, and passion. Those who take orders usually run at half speed, underutilizing their imagination and initiative.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we encourage each student to become aware of their own potential, as well as those of their colleagues. Learning to see and believe in others is the first step towards developing a culture of trust and respect.
“The problem with empowerment programs is that they contain an inherent contradiction between the message and the method. While the message is ‘empowerment,’ the method – it takes me to empower you – fundamentally disempowers employees. That drowns out the message.”
“Naval tradition and the approach of the naval nuclear power program, which stresses accountability and technical competence, reinforce that natural accretion of power, authority, and control at the top…When I took command of the Santa Fe, its crew were at the bottom of the fleet – technically, operationally, and emotionally. Within a year, the situation was totally turned around. We went from worst to first in most measures of performance, including the one I valued most – our ability to retain our sailors and officers.”
“As control is divested, both technical competence and organizational clarity need to be strengthened.”
“To promote long-term success, I had to ignore the short-term reward systems…It is precisely the success of the top-down, leader-follower structure that makes it so appealing. As long as you are measuring performance over just the short run, it can be effective. Officers are rewarded for being indispensable, for being missed after they depart. When the performance of a unit goes down after an officer leaves, it is taken as a sign that he was a good leader, not that he was ineffective in training his people properly.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas it is our goal to empower the student to become self-sufficient, giving them the ability to ultimately teach themselves and others with full autonomy.
“Another factor that makes this leadership approach appealing is the induced numbness. It absolves subordinates of the hard work of thinking, making decisions, and being responsible and accountable…There’s a cost to the people, though, which only becomes evident over time. People who are treated as followers treat others as followers when it’s their turn to lead. A vast untapped human potential is lost as a result of treating people as followers.”
When first taking the Santa Fe, Marquet noticed that “the crew adopted a hunker-down mode in which avoiding mistakes became the primary driver for all actions. They focused exclusively on satisfying the minimum requirements. Anything beyond that was ignored.”
We teach students in our music school to see ‘mistakes’ or ‘failures’ as learning experiences rather than internalizing them as self-identifying, encouraging them not to make statements like, “I’m a failure.”
“Does leadership in your organization take control or give control?”
“‘Whatever they tell me to do.’ That was the attitude all over the ship. I began to see things in a new light…Everyone below the captain and the department heads had their brain shut off…Everything we did reinforced the notion that the guys at the top were the leaders and the rest of the crew were the followers. The problem for Santa Fe wasn’t an absence of leadership. It was too much leadership of the wrong kind, the leader-follower kind.”
“Focusing on avoiding mistakes takes our focus away from becoming truly exceptional…Reducing mistakes would be an important side benefit to attaining our primary goal, achieving excellence.”
“I, we, needed everyone to see the ultimate purpose for the submarine and remember that it was a noble purpose…Once the crewmen remembered what we were doing and why, they would do anything to support the mission.”
“Do you spend more time critiquing errors than celebrating success?”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we give more time to encouragement than we do to correction. Correction, of course, is necessary but we want to always focus on the positive.
“My primary focus when I assumed command of Santa Fe was to divest control and distribute it to the officers and crew. Control is about making decisions concerning not only how we are going to work but also toward what end.”
We want to establish a positive, can-do, way of thinking at our music school in Midland, Texas, and it starts with believing in each student’s potential and identifying their unique strengths. We help students develop those uniquenesses by training them in core competencies and letting them experience success. When they do so, they begin to gain confidence in their own potential.