Breakout

David Marquet

Former Nuclear Submarine Commander, Student of Leadership & Organizational Design, and Bestselling Author

Captain David Marquet imagines a workplace where everyone engages and contributes their full intellectual capacity, a place where people are healthier and happier because they have more control over their work — a place where everyone is a leader. His compelling presentations deliver the powerful message that in highly effective organizations, leadership is not for the select few at the top.

A 1981 US Naval Academy graduate, Marquet served in the US submarine force for 28 years. After being assigned to command the nuclear-powered submarine USS Santa Fe — then ranked last in retention and operational standing — he realized the traditional leadership approach of "take control, give orders," wouldn’t work. He “turned the ship around” by treating the crew as leaders, not followers, and giving control, not taking control. This approach took the Santa Fe from “worst to first,” achieving the highest retention and operational standings in the navy. It also created more subsequent leaders than any other submarine.

Calling himself a continuous student of leadership, Marquet is the bestselling author of three books: Turn the Ship Around, which was named Fortune magazine’s #1 must-read business book of the year and has been listed as one of the top 12 business books of all time by USA Today; Leadership is Language, which has been featured in the Wall Street Journal’s Top 10 bestselling business books list; and his forthcoming, Distancing: How Great Leaders Reframe to Make Better Decisions.

Marquet retired from the Navy in 2009, and now speaks to those who want to create empowering work environments that release the passion, initiative, and intellect of each person. His bold and highly effective framework is summarized as “give control, create leaders.” He was named one of the top 100 leadership speakers by Inc. magazine. Marquet is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and in 2015 was named to the American Management Association's "Leaders to Watch" list.

Why attend

Sessions

Breakout session

Wednesday, April 29, 10:45AM - 11:45AM

Think Like A Leader

SKILLS

Gallup’s recent employee engagement poll reports worldwide only 13% of employees are engaged at work. For many of our people, the workday is something to be tolerated. Their daily objective is a negative one – to avoid errors, problems, and confrontations. As a result, they do not pull their full passion and intellect into their work.

Our mission is to change all that by creating empowering work environments that release the passion, initiative, and intellect of each person. This bold and highly effective leadership approach can be summarized as “give control, create leaders.” This is possible, but not with the current leadership paradigm. It will require us to think differently and be open so that people are encouraged to share their ideas and act on what they learn.

In this fast-paced and fun workshop, David Marquet, former nuclear submarine commander and leadership and organizational design expert, uses snippets from the movie “Master and Commander” to illustrate the negative impacts of traditional leader-follower model where people are motivated to avoid errors. This is contrasted with leader-leader organizations where people are motivated to achieve truly remarkable things.

At the end of this workshop, you will be able to apply what you have learned immediately in order to:

Create an environment where people actively engage and think
Discover mechanisms to encourage questions and feedback
Have a plan to give control, for pushing authority to where the information lives
Have a personal commitment to talk with your co-workers in an empowering way
Implement the idea of leadership as creating more leaders – not more followers
Implement the idea of leadership as giving control – not taking control

David Marquet