Being an avid reader, my choice of books, usually follow a particular genre. Anytime I can get my hands on books about leadership, I know my life will get a little better because of them. My latest reads, are three incredible books on this subject. We will cover two in Part 1, and the other in Part 2.
The first one is: Turn The Ship Around! by L. David Marquet, Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired). Captain Marquet took the worst Nuclear submarine in the fleet, to the very best, in a very short time. The USS Santa Fe, was run like many other ships in the U.S. Navy, top down leadership. He used his experience from two different subs, one with the wrong way to lead, and the other a new way. Captain Marquet, took the latter approach, of Empowerment, and it made a huge difference. A dramatic change from the way things always were. Instead of a Leader-Follower method, he introduced a Leader-Leader, method.
The changes were not immediately embraced, but this new empowerment, started to catch on. He started with mid-management, (Chiefs, the highest enlisted men). Once the men saw the changes at this level of leadership, the officers, and the crew wanted in.
Leadership began to grow, and after a short period of time, the Santa Fe, became the best in the fleet. Awards from excellent inspections, and readiness drills, began to be earned. The Command and others crews, started to take notice. More and more men were promoted to higher command from the Santa Fe. Everyone was happier when they went to work, while being deployed for up to six months at a time. I highly recommend this book, for every leader and follower.
The next book is: Great By Choice, by Jim Collins, . This is the fourth in a powerful series, by Jim Collins. This book is one of the best in the group. It sums up all the rest, with powerful stories, and easy to remember examples. Some of the Topics are:
10X Leadership: Companies who performed 10 times better than a similar company, with the same opportunities.
20 Mile March: Grow, and be able to hold back in the good times, preparing for the bad.
Craft a SMaC Recipe: A mission plan of Specific, Methodical, and Consistent, goals.
Fire Bullets, then Cannonballs: Try low risk/cost projects, to see if they succeed. Then fire Cannonballs of time and money, at what works.
Leading above the Death Line: Know when your organization is in a death spiral, and recover before it is too late.
Genius of the And: Be able to multitask many projects at the same time.
The others are: Built To Last, Good To Great, and How The Mighty Fall, all incredible reads.
Add these incredible books to your library. You will be glad you did. Click on the Hyperlinks, to check out purchase options. We continue in Part 2. CHRIS
Covenant Chronicles with Chris Lovett 