What if the best leaders stopped giving orders altogether?
David Marquet — former US Navy submarine commander and author of Turn the Ship Around! — took command of the worst-performing crew in the fleet and transformed them into one of the best. His breakthrough wasn’t about charisma, authority, or discipline. It was about letting go.
By replacing command and control with intent and trust, Marquet built a culture where everyone thought like a leader and acted with ownership. It wasn’t theory — it was survival, forged in the pressure of life underwater. Ten of his crew went on to become submarine captains themselves, proof that true leadership multiplies, not manages.
In this conversation, Rich Stockdale and David dive into the hidden costs of bad leadership, the power of language in shaping culture, and why our obsession with control is killing creativity. They talk about burnout, vulnerability, the strange beauty of uncertainty, and the coming wave of AI that will force leaders to evolve again — this time faster than ever.
This is not another management chat. It’s a challenge to rethink what leading really means — and to ask yourself the hardest question of all: would your team still thrive if you stopped giving orders?
