404: Mission-Driven Leadership: The Navy's Lessons for Business Success

Leadership With Heart

In this episode, I’m joined by Marc Koehler, a former U.S. Navy submarine officer. His unique perspective, gained from leading in a nuclear submarine where every action has consequences and complacency can be catastrophic, offers some of the clearest thinking on leadership I've heard in a long time. Marc shares how his experiences taught him lessons about accountability, emotional influence, and self-leadership that every leader on land needs to hear.

What struck me most is Marc’s belief that leadership isn’t something we wait to be given. We must choose to step into it, regardless of our title or time on the team. He shares practical stories from his time aboard the USS Pogi, from navigating dangerous missions with a crew whose average age was 23, to learning how to lead through presence, not authority.

Marc explains how submarine culture requires everyone to be seen as a leader and to see themselves as one. When you’re hundreds of feet below the surface, the person closest to the problem must take charge, whether they’ve been onboard for three years or three days. That belief forms the foundation of his leadership framework, Fast Attack Leadership.

We also explore what it means to emotionally regulate under pressure, how leaders can transfer thinking instead of just giving answers, and why connecting every task, no matter how small, to the bigger mission makes all the difference in team performance and culture.

If you’ve ever wrestled with how to balance accountability and care, or how to build leadership capacity at every level of your team, this conversation has the potential to reframe your entire approach and inspire a new way of leading.

So here’s my question for you: How are you creating a culture where everyone sees themselves as a leader? And what would change in your organisation if they did?

Join the conversation and share your thoughts.