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.
“Instead of trying to change mind-sets and then change the way we acted, we would start acting differently and the new thinking would follow.”
“‘Don’t brief, certify’…described a phenomenon I’d seen many times. A briefing is a passive activity for everyone except the briefer. Everyone else ‘is briefed.’…A certification is different from a brief in that during a certification, the person in charge of his team asks them questions…If the team has not adequately demonstrated the necessary knowledge during the certification, the operation should be postponed…briefing an action many times compensates for poor planning…Certifications shift the onus of preparation onto the participants. All participants are active…This increases the intellectual involvement of the crew significantly.”
“‘Continually and consistently repeat the message’ is a mechanism for competence…I didn’t realize the degree to which old habits die hard, even when people are emotionally on board with the change.”
We continually and consistently provide students at our music school in Midland, Texas objective insight as to their progress, and help them refocus their efforts when they drift off course.
“‘Specify goals, not methods’…The problem with specifying the method along with the goal is one of diminished control. Provide your people with the objective and let them figure out the method.”
“As more decision-making authority is pushed down the chain of command, it becomes increasingly important that everyone throughout the organization understands what the organization is about. This is called clarity, and it is the second supporting leg – along with competence – that is needed in order to distribute control. Clarity means people at all levels of an organization clearly and completely understand what the organization is about.”
We believe that students at our music school in Midland, Texas are capable of much more than they think they are. It is our goal to equip them to the point that they are autonomous in making their own decisions towards their unique development.
“‘Building trust and taking care of your people is a mechanism for clarity’…What I learned is this: Taking care of your people does not mean protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior. That’s the path to irresponsibility. What is does mean is giving them every available tool and advantage to achieve their aims in life, beyond the specifics of the job. In some cases that meant further education.”
“I feel that my job as a commander is to tap into the existing energy of the command, discover the strengths, and remove barriers to further progress.”
Santa Fe Principles
- Initiative – means we take action without direction from above to improve our knowledge as submariners, prepare the command for its mission, and come up with solutions to problems.
- Innovation – means looking at new ways of doing the same thing.
- Intimate Technical Knowledge – we study diligently.
- Courage – means we choose to do the right thing, even if it may be uncomfortable.
- Commitment – means we are present when we come to work.
- Continuous Improvement – continually seek ways to learn from processes and improve them and ourselves.
- Integrity – means we tell the truth to each other and to ourselves.
- Empowerment – we encourage those below us to take action and support them if they make mistakes.
- Teamwork – we back each other up in a positive way.
- Openness – we exercise participative openness: freedom to speak one’s mind.
- Timeliness – means we do things on time…working to reduce inherent delays and time lags results in a more effective organization.
“My own behavior frequently needed adjustment when it was tested against the guiding principles…Guiding principles have to accurately represent the principles of the real organization, not the imagined organization. Falseness in what the organization is about results in problems. Since these are a set of criteria that employees will use when they make decisions, decisions won’t be aligned to the organization’s goals.”
This is our goal for each student at our music school in Midland, Texas: that they each understand core competencies deeply, which provides them with a framework to make all other artistic decisions.
Using ‘Immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviors’ is a mechanism for clarity.
“‘Begin with the end in mind’ is an important mechanism for clarity…For how far in the future are you optimizing your organization?”
“‘Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience’ is a mechanism for clarity…Will your people follow an order that isn’t correct? Do you want obedience or effectiveness? Have you built a culture that embraces a questioning attitude?”
We want students at our music school in Midland, Texas to be inquisitive, not to be afraid of asking difficult questions.
“Do you have the fortitude to go against the grain? There are significant benefits to thinking differently about leadership.”
Overview for instituting the Leader-Leader Model:
Control
- Find the genetic code for control and rewrite it.
- Act your way to new thinking.
- Short, early conversations make efficient work.
- Use ‘I intend to…’ to turn passive followers into active leaders.
- Resist the urge to provide solutions.
- Eliminate top-down monitoring systems.
- Think out loud (both superiors and subordinates).
- Embrace the inspectors.
Competence
- Take deliberate action.
- We learn (everywhere, all the time).
- Don’t brief, certify.
- Continually and consistently repeat the message.
- Specify goals, not methods.
Clarity
- Achieve excellence, don’t just avoid errors.
- Build trust and take care of your people.
- Use your legacy for inspiration.
- Use guiding principles for decision criteria.
- Use immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviors.
- Begin with the end in mind.
- Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience.
“‘Don’t empower, emancipate’…empowerment at its core is the belief that the leader ‘empowers’ the followers, that the leader has the power and ability to empower the followers…What we need is release, or emancipation. Emancipation is fundamentally different from empowerment. With emancipation we are recognizing the inherent genius, energy, and creativity in all people, and allowing those talents to emerge. We realize that we don’t have the power to give these talents to others, or ‘empower’ them to use them, only the power to prevent them from coming out. Emancipation results when teams have been given decision-making control and have the additional characteristics of competence and clarity. You know you have an emancipated team when you no longer need to empower them. Indeed, you no longer have the ability to empower them because they are not relying on you as their source of power.”
The above statement perfectly describes our vision for each student at our music school in midland, Texas. We want them so deeply trained in the basic disciplines of music education, principles that have spanned centuries, that they have the freedom and framework to approach any project with a successful outcome, by using their own creativity and unique strengths, finding their own voice.
“Ultimately, the most important person to have control over is yourself – for it is that self-control that will allow you to ‘give control, create leaders.’ I believe that rejecting the impulse to take control and attract followers will be your greatest challenge and, in time, your most powerful and enduring success.”
This way of thinking is not foreign to me. I watched it in my musical development growing up, playing in orchestras. My earliest impression of a symphony conductor was that he must know how to play all the instruments in the orchestra. Of course, that idea was quickly abandoned since as I grew, I understood that my father only played the trumpet. Yet, as a conductor, he was able to interact with all the different players, each having their own set of disciplines and unique strengths.
My leadership paradigm from this example was formed early, as I saw that leadership was less about control and more about releasing and focusing the talents of the team, basically ‘getting out of their way’ and pointing to the goal. Much of the work I have endeavored to do in leading musical ensembles and teaching has been to resolve problems and obstacles that hinder their involvement.
As a parent, of course, one has to provide close supervision for the child early on. But the ultimate goal of parenthood is for the child to become completely independent. For the child to be dependent on the parent is, ultimately, failure. The same can be true in leading any organization. If the organization is, in the end, dependent on the leader, the leader has failed to train properly. Ultimately, this means no legacy for the leader, and no enduring success for the organization.