Author
L. David Marquet
The submarine captain who stopped giving orders and turned the fleet's worst boat into its best.
1 book on BookYol
The story and the impact
David Marquet graduated from the United States Naval Academy and spent his career in the submarine force. After a year training to command one submarine he was given a different one, the USS Santa Fe, which then had the fleet's worst morale and retention.
Commanding the Santa Fe from 1999 to 2001, he replaced orders with stated intentions and pushed decisions to the people who had the information; the boat became the fleet's top performer and kept the standard after he left. He retired from the Navy in 2009.
Turn the Ship Around!, published in 2012, told the story and the method; Leadership Is Language, in 2020, distilled the language changes behind it. He now speaks and consults on intent-based leadership.
The signature
Marquet writes as a practitioner reporting what he tried and what happened, with the failures kept in. His signature is the language rule, I intend to, answered with very well, and the insistence that authority can only move to the information if competence and clarity move first.