Rating

★★★★★

Category

non-fiction

Read

2024-10-05

Pages

192

Fantastic leadership biography of Admiral Rickover, the man behind the USA’s nuclear submarine program, written by someone who worked for him. Packed full of insight.

On culture:

The downside of culture is that it tends to stifle change and reform. A culture is akin to window shades. The lower the shades the less glare from the sun inside and the more comfortable it is for the people working in the room. However, with the shade down, outside events may pass unseen; certainly fewer people inside have the opportunity to recognize that the outside world is changing. As culture becomes stronger, it is equivalent to pulling the shades even lower. Thus, the very tool that helps people aggressively engage in conflict subliminally encourages “a preparation to fight the last war”—the most dangerous path for a military force.

On walking the start-up tightrope:

I have never seen a start-up in which people did not become overenthusiastic. As a consequence, those unfamiliar with the details may well believe the start-up is more robust, capable, and survivable than it actually is. The issue for leaders is how to manage that natural naïveté.

On performance:

He also understood that fellow workers do not appreciate having a nonperformer in their midst. It does not matter whether the person fails because he or she is not trying hard enough or is insufficiently talented. If the worker can’t perform, the team suffers. Failing to remove a nonperformer delivers the denigrating message that the manager does not value the group’s work.

On process and innovation:

By insisting on strict process control for routine evolutions yet concurrently encouraging individuals to challenge his system and his processes, Rickover was able to institute a scheme in which individuals did not have to choose between process and innovation. The nuclear-submarine force would value both.