I’ve been reading Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet about his experience leading by giving up control and encouraging leadership throughout the organization. He experimented with this leader-leader model while commanding a US nuclear submarine, the USS Sunfish. The results were dramatic; the Sunfish went from the worst performing submarine to the highest performing boat in the Navy. His story inspires me.

I love this idea that each member of the organization has some control over how things get done. In my experience, that is when I have fun and get excited about my work.

It reminds me of a time in high school gym class playing ultimate frisbee. I was on a team with a mix of skill levels, with many new to frisbee. Somehow we all got excited about the game and managed to do really well against teams with more athletic players. The key was that we all handled the frisbee as we passed it back and forth. Each pass was a decision made, an act of leadership. I remember the joy of flowing down the field with my teammates, seeing them out of their comfort-zone but excited and enjoying themselves as they attempted to make passes and out-wit our opponents.

The opposite is soul sucking. Who enjoys getting micro-managed? Being told what to do, how to do it, and when it has to be done? And yet this is accepted. Companies try to control their employees through layers of management, procedures, and policies.

Maybe it is because the leader-leader model is hard to pull off when you don’t know what you are doing. David Marquet describes an initial failure with this approach where he didn’t support giving up control with the necessary tests for competence and the necessary organizational clarity. The result was chaotic.

I can’t wait to try some of the methods that David Marquet describes from his time on the USS Sunfish. At my work, and in my life, the challenges are too complex for a leader or a management team to solve alone. It is way too much work to try to keep everyone in line when they need to be told what to do. No, the challenge of the leader-leader model is worth it. Plus it seems like way more fun!