Nathan Whitmore

Founder of Authentic Leadership Learning

01/07/2025

David Marquet became the Captain of the Santa Fe, the Navy's worst-performing submarine. Marquet knew very little about this sub because he was initially selected to captain the USS Olympia, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, which he studied for over a year. During a simple drill to simulate a fault with the sub-reactor, Captain Marquet ordered, “ahead two-thirds.” The officer on deck repeated the order, “Ahead two-thirds.”

Nothing happened.

Captain Marquet noticed the helmsman looking very unsettled. Marquet asked, "What's the problem?" the helmsman pointed out that there were no two-thirds in the electric propulsion mode, unlike all his previous submarines. The officer was asked, “did you know there were no two-thirds?” the officer responded, “yes,” but repeated the command, knowing it was wrong.

Now, Captain Marquet did not have the luxury of changing his crew, unlike what typically takes place in most business organizations. Captain Marquet realized that the leader-follower environment his team has grown accustomed to failed, and if he had any chance to turn around the performance of this sub, the environment must change.

Marquet began treating his crew as leaders, giving rather than taking control. He changed the environment, and not long after, the Santa Fe went from the Navy's worst-performing submarine to the best navel sub in its history. As leaders, when you get the environment right, great things can happen because it’s never the people; it’s the environment.

Click the link in the comments to read more.

01/07/2025

Slow down!

Everyone wants everything so damn fast that they cut corners on their lives and it leads to leaks 💦 and breaks and it’s easily the biggest mistake I see in the under 30 year old set.

They leave great jobs cause they want a title promo too fast, they quit side hustles because they didn’t get enough followers or dollars in year one and yet it would have been great if they waited and had 2 more years of patience.

Please my friends…. lean into patience and consistency & discipline in 2025.

It will save you from needing a “life Plummer.”

01/27/2024

As leaders, we often associate accountability with negative consequences when someone makes a mistake. However, we fail to see the positive side of accountability when someone does the right thing or achieves their goals. Research suggests that fear of accountability is correlated with the fear of being exposed or identified as a failure, a bad person, or a fraud.

As a leader, it's our responsibility to create a supportive environment where team members can learn and grow without fearing ridicule. If someone struggles with accountability, we should help them understand that being held accountable provides clarity on where they need to develop or where their strengths lie. It's not enough to simply tell someone to become more comfortable with accountability. We need to provide a path forward with action items, books, videos, and training. This will help them see a path to success or improvement and build a strong mentor-mentee relationship.

Your team deserves this from their leader. Imagine where you would be if you didn't have a mentor to guide and provide clarity to your development areas. Let's leverage accountability as a tool to help individuals grow and thrive both personally and professionally.