How to Turn Followers Into Leaders

David Marquet was frustrated by his experience as an officer on a U.S. Navy submarine. When it was time to take command of his own ship, he made plans to empower the people who worked for him. He trained carefully for the assignment. At the last minute, he was assigned to a submarine he had not trained to operate. He had to get the people following him to lead, because he couldn’t rely on his own expertise.

David not only relied on his people, he led his submarine from being the worst in the Navy to being the best in the Navy in just one year.

These are the key ideas from David’s book, Turn the Ship Around! for turning followers into leaders. To see a short summary, check out the YouTube video embedded below.

1. Recognize that the old model is failing. The leader-follower dynamic is about controlling the people who work for you. This is how David was taught to lead at the U.S. Naval Academy. Leader-follower is for extracting physical labor from humans. When people take orders they only work at half speed and disengage mentally. This does not work for modern knowledge workers.

2. Most “empowerment” programs are misguided. The concept of empowering your employees implies that they depend on you, not their own will, to be empowered. Through this lens, everyone is dependent and never truly empowered. David believes that, “Humans are born in a state of action.” That’s how we’ve become the apex predator on planet Earth. Leaders need to work with people’s nature, not empower them.

3. The solution is a leader-leader model. In a leader-leader organization, the traditional leader will still be responsible, but learn to release control. Eventually, the leader will push control down the chain of command and members of the team will lead in their own way.

4. Want not to be missed. In leader-follower organizations, team performance is linked to the competence of the leader. When the Commanding Officer (CO) of a ship leaves and things fall apart, it’s a sign that he was a great leader and the ship needed him. That’s also very flattering to the outgoing CO. Instead, a leader-leader team creates an environment independent of the competence of a leader. It’s not comforting to your ego, but ideally your organization will continue to improve when you leave. Ask yourself this question from the book, “How reliant is your organization on the decision making of one person?”

5. Followers make followers. In the Navy, I worked for a guy who called everyone beneath his rank “minions.” When he was a lieutenant commander, he called his lieutenants minions and he was an important boss. When he was promoted to commander, suddenly all the lieutenant commanders were just minions. Where did he get this idea? How will people follow his example? Unfortunately, followers tend to treat others as followers when it’s their turn to lead. Break this cycle. Leaders create leaders.

6. Leader-leader is risky. A leader-leader organization requires the boss to retain accountability, but release control. This will feel uncomfortable. This is the heart of Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s excellent book, Extreme Ownership. You must be willing to accept risk. You must be able to simultaneously care and not care. Care about your people and your mission. Don’t care about how a mistake could negatively impact the bureaucratic processes of your career progression.

7. Shift focus from error to achievement. The previous point, accepting risk, is incredibly difficult for naval officers taught to avoid risk and mistakes at all costs. Eventually, avoiding risk is paralyzing because inactivity is the only way to truly prevent errors. Instead, aim for excellence. Excellence includes limiting errors, but reaches the human desire for action mentioned in point #2.

To see my short video summary of Turn the Ship Around, click here.