Em um mundo constantemente perseguindo a próxima grande coisa, há uma mudança revolucionária de volta aos princípios fundamentais que definem a excelência. Seja o fascínio atemporal dos clássicos do rock ecoando em nossos fones de ouvido ou a proeza estratégica descrita em "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done" de Larry Bossidy e Ram Charan, a mensagem é clara: o verdadeiro sucesso decorre do domínio dos fundamentos. À medida que indústrias e indivíduos buscam aproveitar o poder dessas habilidades fundamentais, a mistura de nostalgia e disciplina está abrindo caminho para um futuro enraizado em estratégias comprovadas e ritmos sinceros.

Conceitos principais:

1 - Avaliar o intelecto de um indivíduo é simples para aqueles envolvidos em contratação e promoção, mas avaliar sua capacidade de efetivar resultados, particularmente em ambientes colaborativos, é desafiador.

2 — Ocasionalmente, os líderes rejeitam a realidade. Quando solicitados a articular os pontos fortes e fracos de suas empresas, eles geralmente enfatizam os pontos positivos, embora tenham dificuldade em reconhecer os problemas.

3 - Um líder que afirma: "Tenho dez prioridades", não tem entendimento. Ele não tem certeza sobre quais questões são mais significativas. Um conjunto limitado de prioridades pragmáticas afeta o desempenho geral da organização.

4 - A informalidade é crucial para a transparência. Este foi um dos princípios de Jack Welch. A formalidade obstrui a comunicação; a informalidade a facilita. Discussões e apresentações formais oferecem menos oportunidade para debate. Conversas casuais são permitidas. Elas estimulam questionamentos, promovem a espontaneidade e estimulam o pensamento crítico.

5 - Um líder nunca deve transferir a responsabilidade de selecionar os indivíduos apropriados para certas funções. A Dell superou a Compaq, uma corporação muito maior, devido à seleção diligente de indivíduos proficientes na execução de sua estratégia de negócios com precisão por Michael Dell.

6 — A estratégia de nível corporativo avalia o portfólio da empresa e determina os ajustes necessários para otimizar retornos sustentáveis. Por exemplo, a GE se desfez do setor de aeronaves após o fim do governo Reagan, e Jack Welch alocou recursos para os setores mais lucrativos.

7 - A estratégia delineia o destino de uma empresa, enquanto o processo de seleção de pessoal determina quem facilitará sua realização. A estratégia operacional delineia a trajetória para a frente. Ela decompõe resultados de longo prazo em objetivos de curto prazo.

Turn the Ship Around tells the story of how one US Navy captain turned a disgruntled submarine crew into a strong and respected unit. But how did he accomplish it? This narrative will teach you that we all can be leaders by changing the way we think about leadership.

David Marquet graduated at the top of his class from the U.S. Naval Academy and then commanded the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, from 1999 to 2001. Marquet is presently a leadership consultant and a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

As a manager, you know that it's crucial to continually develop your leadership skills so that your team stays on track and focused.

What if your plans aren't functioning, though? What if your staff seem less motivated and uninterested in the tasks you give them?

It may be time to reassess how you lead. L. David Marquet, a U.S. Navy lieutenant who turned one of the fleet's worst-performing submarines into a well-oiled, effective team, shares his first-hand experience in these tips.

Marquet recognized that being a better leader meant empowering others to lead, which in turn helped his entire team perform better and thrive together.

In the following pieces of advice, you'll also find: 

Why the way people led when they built the pyramids in Egypt is no longer helpful;

Why the best way to lead is to make more leaders around you; 

Why people fall asleep during briefings instead of getting inspired.

The Book

The United States is struggling to find effective leaders, which is detrimental to its business.

Do you like your job? You're not the only one who said "no."

People in the United States are less happy with their jobs than ever before. Between 2004 and 2012, fewer than half of U.S. workers reported being satisfied with their occupations. A 2009 Conference Board survey found that worker happiness was at its lowest level ever.

There has been a rise in dissatisfaction among workers in recent years. We've also seen a significant reduction in productivity, with the US alone losing up to $300 billion because of productivity problems.

It has also been hard for people who aren't working. The unemployment rate in the U.S. stayed at 9% for a record 31 months, until November 2011.

A doctor can suggest that the symptoms are bad. However, we need to determine the root cause of the illness before it worsens. To achieve this, we need to examine how organizations are structured.

For hundreds of years, we built our organizations around a particular way of leading. The Egyptians used it to create the pyramids, and this same idea led to the Industrial Revolution.

In this style of leadership, the boss makes decisions and the workers follow them.

A leader-follower system is ideal for jobs that require physical labor, as it enables multiple people to perform small tasks, thereby increasing efficiency. However, many professions nowadays require people to think critically and make decisions, which is not a strength of a "follower" workforce.

Because of this, the leader-follower model doesn't work well in today's world. For example, it's a terrific way to build pyramids, but not a good way to run a nuclear-powered submarine or even establish a tech company!

We need to change how we think about leadership if we genuinely want to empower workers. Learn how we begin with the next piece of advice.

The cornerstone to a successful organization is a leader-leader model, where everyone works together.

We need to rethink the way we perceive leaders and followers. What are the other options, then?

To make our employees happy and give them authority, we should switch to a completely different leadership style: a leader-leader system.

This method demonstrates that leadership isn't something reserved for only a few people. It knows that we are all leaders in some way, though.

The way decisions are made reveals the distinction between a leader-led and a leader-following strategy.

In a leader-follower organization, information is conveyed up the chain of command, and a decision is made only when the people at the top have received and understood it.

In a leader-leader system, however, the power to make decisions is shared across the chain of command, allowing people to act on new information promptly.

For instance, a navigator knows that his submarine is off track and in very shallow water. He doesn't tell his boss first; instead, he takes action and fixes the situation securely and effectively.

This isn't a made-up example; the author lived through it.

The USS Santa Fe was a nuclear-powered submarine in the U.S. Navy that was known for its operational difficulties. It also had the lowest rate of staff retention. That is, until the author became its commander and employed the leader-leader structure to turn the sub from one of the fleet's poorest performers to one of its best.

Thanks to the author's leadership techniques, tactical effectiveness rose from "below average" to "above average to excellent" in inspections. Some 36 crewmen elected to re-enlist, and the USS Santa Fe won the Arleigh Burke Trophy for most-improved ship in the fleet.

There is no doubt that a leader-leader strategy is sound. But how can you put it into action? We will see in the following advice.

Give your employees additional responsibility to increase their productivity.

Now you know that a leader-leader method can help your team do a better job. But how can you start using it in your business?

To establish a leader-leader system, you need to reevaluate the fundamental building blocks of your organization, or its DNA.

You need to ensure that employees are involved in decision-making and that this involvement is sustained. But to do this, you may have to give up part of your power as a manager. It may be difficult, but it's the only way to modify a firmly rooted hierarchical system.

This meant giving chiefs, who were in charge of each division on the USS Santa Fe, the authority that was usually reserved for captains. Before anything else, the author spoke with each chief to determine how he could assist them.

The leaders wanted the men in their divisions to have more responsibility, starting with the power to grant leave time. In the past, this meant that chiefs had to sign off on a leave request, which then went via three distinct officers: a department head, an executive officer, and finally, the chief.

The author handed over to his bosses the right to approve leave, which ended the slow procedure completely. As commanders took on more responsibility for their divisions, they became increasingly passionate about how well their troops performed and began to focus on making things run more smoothly overall.

However, giving people more responsibilities isn't the only way to empower them. The USS Santa Fe employed a simple three-word phrase to engage the entire crew in controlling the submarine. The phrase was: "I plan to..."

Instead of asking the captain to change course, the navigator would only tell him, "I plan to change our path." The captain could then immediately say "go ahead" to provide his approval. However, the navigator ultimately made the decision.

We've seen two examples of how a leader-leader system works. One is giving control to someone else in the chain of command. However, more actions are needed to sustain such a dynamic.

Next, we'll learn about the pillars of competence and clarity and why they are so important.

You also need to ensure that your personnel can handle additional responsibility when you assign it to them.

It can seem risky to give employees more responsibility. You know that giving them more power is a good thing, but are you sure they'll be able to handle it?

Fortunately, there are ways to ensure that your employees remain skilled and competent. The first of these is about "taking deliberate action."

On the USS Santa Fe, a crewman once broke the rules and turned off a circuit breaker too soon. The captain had to make sure this didn't happen again. The crewman knew he had broken the rules; therefore, more training wasn't the answer. More oversight wasn't needed, however, since it was already in place.

The captain addressed the issue of inattention by establishing a rule requiring deliberate action. Now, before they did something, the crew would stop, say what they were doing, and point to it.

Taking purposeful action, whether it was turning a valve or changing direction, cut down on mistakes in every situation, regardless of the task. This was because it let others watch and fix problems before they could happen.

Using this method, the USS Santa Fe got the best rating ever on inspections of nuclear reactor operations. But there was one more critical modification on the USS Santa Fe that made the crew more skilled.

When assigning duties, the focus shifted from briefing to certifying. You can only be sure that the person giving the brief is competent when you are giving it. People who are being briefed often daydream or stop paying attention halfway through because they already know what to do and have heard it before.

Instead of just presenting information, the certification process required crew members to answer questions concerning the job they were given. If the answers were good enough, the crew members were then "certified" to do the job. In this manner, you can identify and address teams that aren't ready or not paying attention when a crew member is unable to answer questions about a task.

The leader-leader organization on the USS Santa Fe made both employees happier and more productive. However, there was one more thing that was crucial in helping this newly empowered team reach its full potential, as we will see in our final piece of advice.

For a leader-leader strategy to work optimally, businesses must be clear about their objectives.

In an organization where leaders lead, everyone has the power to make decisions. Because of this, it's essential that everyone in the company be on the same page and working for the same goals.

But how do you ensure this?

It is essential to uphold fundamental beliefs to maintain a cohesive and effective organization. One approach to achieve this is to use the company's past or history to motivate personnel.

The crew of the USS Santa Fe made sure everyone on board knew how important their work was by doing things like announcing when the ship passed a sinking U.S. submarine. This strengthened the crew's feeling of mission, which was to serve and protect the United States.

Companies can also leverage their history to motivate employees. Apple, for instance, holds regular employee meetings where it discusses the company's history of innovation to demonstrate the importance of "think differently." This inspires Apple employees to view original thinking as a personal and company goal.

You can also strengthen core values by giving employees who embody them in their work rewards. However, administrative problems often make it difficult to express appreciation right away. Rewards can take days to reach the person, by which time the activity is completely forgotten.

The author learned on the USS Santa Fe that the best way to commend someone was to do it right away. So, if a sailor made a swift decision that saved them from calamity, their division was informed about it soon after, which reinforced the ship's essential values immediately.

The way rewards are structured can also impact a company's productivity. It's not helpful to have man-versus-man rewards when workers are instructed to compete with one another. However, man-versus-nature rewards put employees against an external enemy, which helps them work more effectively, for instance, by giving staff bonuses when the company's stock price outperforms that of a competitor.

The USS Santa Fe demonstrates that the leader-leader model can enhance productivity and grant individuals more authority simply by altering our perspective on leadership.

Remember the numbers that were mentioned in the first piece of advice. The U.S. economy needs a change, too! Just think of all the success we could have if organizations all around the world worked to create a new leader-leader relationship!

Final Thoughts

The most important thing to take away from this book:

A top-down style of leadership doesn't work and fails to utilize the natural leadership skills we all possess. Transitioning to a leader-leader organizational model requires only a few modifications to the company's operations, but it necessitates an entirely new approach to leadership. But both the workers and the company will gain from such a change.

Advice that you can use:

Talking to each other is essential!

When you get a project, don't attempt to finish it exactly before showing it to your boss. Talk to her often, but keep the discussions short and early in the day so that you both know what your goals are.

Throughout history, the concept of energy has evolved significantly. The term "energy" often conjures abstract notions, such as a speaker energizing a crowd or the boost we feel after exercise. However, these are metaphorical. Scientifically, energy is defined as the capacity to perform work, a principle rooted in the Greek term energia, used by Aristotle to mean "activity" or "operation." This scientific understanding is encapsulated in the first law of thermodynamics, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.