Turn the Ship Around! (David Marquet)

I learned about David Marquet from, of all things, a YouTube video called “US Submarine Commander Rates 14 Submarine Scenes in Movies.” The comments on the video are a mix of movie buffs saying they thought Marquet did a great job with the assignment and seemed like a cool guy… and submarine buffs saying “holy %#*$ you got David Marquet to do this?” and making it clear that he’s a living legend among sub commanders.

Marquet’s claim to fame is that he was given command of the worst-performing sub in the Navy, the USS Santa Fe, and quickly took it from worst to first – and it stayed on top for several years, even after Marquet had left the boat. In Turn the Ship Around! Marquet tells us step by step how he did it, using techniques that often defied conventional wisdom (in the Navy and the business world) but got extraordinary results. It’s well worth reading and may change how you think about leadership.