Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Building Leaders by Breaking the Rules

David Marquet, an experienced Navy officer, was used to giving orders. As newly appointed captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine, he was responsible for more than a hundred sailors. In this high-stress environment, where there is no margin for error, it was crucial his men did their job and did it well. But the ship was dogged by poor morale, poor performance, and the worst crew retention in the fleet.

Marquet acted like any other captain until, one day, he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why the order wasn't challenged, the answer was Because you told me to. Marquet realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things.

That's when Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around! is the true story of how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the US Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control.

Before long, each member of Marquet's crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards and promoting a highly disproportionate number of officers to submarine command.

No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquet's radical guidelines to turn your own ship around. The payoff?--a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader.

L. David Marquet, a top graduate of the US Naval Academy, commanded the nuclear-powered, fast attack submarine USS Santa Fe from 1999 to 2001. Since leaving the Navy, he has worked with businesses nationwide as a leadership consultant. He also teaches graduate-level leadership at Columbia University. He lives in Florida with his wife, Jane.

Stephen R. Covey (1932-2012) was a renowned leadership authority, family expert, teacher, organizational consultant, and cofounder of FranklinCovey Co. He was author of several New York Times bestsellers, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has sold more than twenty million copies. Named by Time magazine as one of the 25 Most Influential Americans, he held the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair in Leadership at the Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.