Getting Unstuck: Leading with Language – a Conversation with L. David Marquet
“I realized all my leadership training was fundamentally about coercion was about getting people to do what I chose for them to do. And I was really good at it. But it didn’t activate the thinking of my team. We had a great can do culture but not so much a can think culture. The only way out of it was NOT for me to figure out how to get better orders. But for me to figure out how NOT to be the order giver in the first place.”
Today on Getting Unstuck
When I read Turn Your Ship Around back in 2015, I knew I had found a kindred spirit in how leadership should be exercised. David Marquet’s principle of stop giving orders to staff, but start developing their capacity to think has become a standard part of my consultancy, coaching and most recently the writing of my own book, Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change.
Asking staff to explain their thinking out loud with “I intend to (take the following action) because (rationale)” was revolutionary in its simplicity. And it works. David and his crew of 130+ thinkers turned the USS Santa Fe from being the worst performing submarine in the Navy into its best.
And now with his new book, Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say – and What You Don’t, David digs deeper into how language can transform leadership and staff performance. Ultimately changing the language we use with each other helps us see the leader in ourselves.
What to listen for
• There is a critical need to blur the lines between thinkers and doers. As much as possible let the doers wrestler with the thinking because they're closer to the problem. Let them be the deciders.
• Changing the relationship between thinkers and doers can have a measurably improved impact on physical and mental health.
• When acknowledging contributions, make it intrinsic to the doer, not extrinsic to your judgment of them. If fact, stand next to them and allow them to tell their story.
“There are things in the Navy that you obviously can’t control, but what we can control was how we talk to each other. We change the language we use, the shift was reflected in the simple change of language, replacing request permission to with I intend to.”