Chaos is constant. Markets shift. Teams feel pressure. Leaders carry the weight.
Dave Chauhan brings a clear compass. His Nautical Leadership model gives you a way to act with clarity, courage, and humanity.
On the “Success, Motivation & Inspiration” TV series, Dave Chauhan shared the ideas behind his new book, “Captain Set, Sail” and walked through practical tools you can use today.
From Factory Floors to Boardrooms
Dave Chauhan built his approach over 17+ years leading diverse teams. He worked in high-stakes environments with real consequences. He made hard calls. He learned what works when conditions change without warning.
“Captain Set, Sail” is the result. It is a playbook for leaders who want to steer through uncertainty without losing their values or their people.
The Origin Story: No Lightning Bolt—A Series of Choices
There was no single eureka moment. Dave Chauhan described a series of small failures, stumbles, and courageous steps that shaped his perspective.
While finishing an MBA program, he asked a hard question: Why did I start this journey? That reflection unlocked a pattern. Leadership happens in small moments. You decide, adjust, and lead again.
“Captain Set, Sail” grew from that pattern. It captures lessons from the trenches, not from theory.
A Storm That Changed Everything
Early in his career, Dave faced a breaking point. A critical contract extension hung in the balance. The project hit snags. Team morale dipped.
A quiet, steady director delivered a stark message: if they failed, families would suffer. Real people. Real lives.
The takeaway: leadership is not corporate theater. Leadership is human. You cannot control the world. You can control your response. You can lead with clarity when the waters turn rough.
The Nautical Leadership Compass
Dave Chauhan’s model gives leaders three anchors:
- Beacon: Your core values and purpose.
- Wayfinder: Awareness, adaptability, and pattern-recognition.
- Seafarer: Courageous action under pressure.
“Captain Set, Sail” shows how these elements work together. The compass is simple. The application is disciplined.
Beacon: Values That Hold in the Wind
Your Beacon is not a slogan. It is who you are when no one watches. It guides decisions on bad days.
Dave Chauhan teaches leaders to identify values by looking at real moments:
- Recall decisions where you stood firm under pressure.
- Note what felt right and why.
- Extract the values beneath those choices.
Then align your Beacon with your team and organization. Every decision must pass the values test.
Try this practice: for the next seven days, pause for seven seconds before hard actions—emails, calls, feedback. Ask, Who do I want to be after this? Act from that standard.
Wayfinder: See Change Before Others Do
Leaders hear “be adaptable” all the time. Few learn how. Dave Chauhan gives a simple method:
- Weekly horizon scan: Write down subtle signals from the past seven days.
- Customer cues. Team whispers. Market shifts. Process friction.
- Over time, the log sharpens your pattern-recognition.
This is not reactive leadership. This is trained awareness. The Wayfinder builds the habit of reading conditions like a seasoned captain reads the ocean.
Seafarer: Courage When Conditions Are Foggy
Courage is not bravado. It is timed action. Dave Chauhan draws a clear line:
- Crisis mode: Decide on trained judgment. You cannot wait for perfect data.
- Business-as-usual: Move at 70% clarity / 70% confidence. Ship the plan. Adjust as reality shifts.
Perfect plans arrive too late. “Captain Set, Sail” urges leaders to act when the signal is strong enough, not perfect.
Heart & Steel: The Balance Leaders Need
Great culture is not soft. Great performance is not cold. Dave Chauhan pairs both:
- Steel: Clear standards. Clear boundaries. Clear expectations.
- Heart: Respect, empathy, and support for the person’s future.
A common test is low performance. Draw the line on outcomes. Offer real help. If the role is a bad fit, guide the person to a better place. Standards rise. Trust rises too.
Drop Perfectionism. Build Progress.
Perfectionism stalls growth. Dave Chauhan calls it overrated. He points leaders to a cleaner target: better than yesterday.
Work with the constraints you have. Be honest about context. Make the best call with current data. Then iterate.
This mindset frees teams to improve without fear. It keeps strategy moving while quality improves week by week.
Team Trust You Can Feel: “Mistake Mondays”
Teams follow leaders who own their actions. Dave Chauhan uses a simple ritual:
- Leaders go first: “I made a mistake, and here is how I will fix it.”
- Invite others to do the same.
- Focus on responsibility and repair, not blame.
This removes toxic perfection. Learning becomes normal. Accountability becomes shared. Trust grows.
Legacy Thinking: Plant Seeds You Will Never See
We live on the gifts of past generations. We did not earn them. We benefit from them.
Dave Chauhan challenges leaders to shift the lens: what will your work make possible for people ten years from now? Fifty years from now?
Legacy is not statues or headlines. Legacy is transformed lives. Legacy is leaders you helped build.
Leadership in the Age of AI
AI will reshape work at a scale we have not seen in centuries. Fear will not help. Preparation will.
Dave Chauhan advises leaders to keep the heart of leadership human:
- Double down on purpose and values.
- Use technology as an extension of service, not a replacement for humanity.
- Teach young people to find purpose early. Let skill and tech sit on that foundation.
“Captain Set, Sail” positions leaders to integrate tools while deepening trust.
“Captain Set, Sail” as Movement
Dave Chauhan is launching the book as a conversation. Leaders from business and mission-driven sectors are exploring a shared theme: the fundamentals of leadership hold across roles, budgets, and org charts.
The goal is impact. Speak plainly. Act bravely. Align culture with values.
The message is clear: the compass works for families, teams, nonprofits, and global companies. Beacon. Wayfinder. Seafarer.
Speaking, Workshops, and Advisory
“Captain Set, Sail” opens doors to deeper work. Dave Chauhan helps teams install the model with real exercises and operating rhythms:
- Keynotes on Heart & Steel and the Nautical Leadership compass.
- Workshops on horizon scanning and 70/70 decision-making.
- Advisory sprints to align values, culture, and execution.
Leaders leave with tools they can run the same day.
Action Steps You Can Use This Week
- Seven-Second Pause: Before a tough action, ask, “Who do I want to be after this?” Then act from your Beacon.
- Horizon Scan: Once a week, log one signal of change. Customer comment. Process glitch. New pattern. Keep the log.
- 70/70 Rule: When you have 70% clarity and 70% confidence, decide. Move. Adjust on the move.
- Mistake Mondays: Go first. Own a mistake and the fix. Invite the team to follow.
- Heart & Steel Audit: Write your standards for performance. Write your support plan for people. Run both at once.
Real-World Scenarios
Scenario 1: Missed Milestones and Board Pressure
Use the Wayfinder. Run a one-hour horizon scan with your leads. Identify three signals that matter. Reset the plan at 70/70. Communicate the Beacon and the new path. Act within 48 hours.
Scenario 2: Rising Star, Wrong Seat
Use Heart & Steel. Clarify expectations. Share the gap. Co-design a role shift that fits strengths. Set a 30-day outcome with support. Track progress weekly.
Scenario 3: Team Fear After a Visible Failure
Use Mistake Mondays. Leaders go first. Normalize ownership and repair. Capture lessons in a short write-up. Apply the fix in the next sprint.
Why “Captain Set, Sail” Resonates with High Performers
- Simple words. Deep practice. You can apply it today.
- Human first. The model respects people while driving results.
- Repeatable. The rituals become habits. Habits become culture.
Top leaders want clarity, not jargon. They want a compass, not a script. Dave Chauhan delivers both clarity and courage in one framework.
Memorable Lines from Dave Chauhan
“Do not fall in love with the rules of the game. Fall in love with why you play.”
“There is no perfect plan. Move at seventy percent and steer.”
“Your values are your values—make them your filter.”
“Leaders bring the whole crew to the win.”
How Dave Chauhan Aligns Personal Branding with Leadership
Personal branding without values is a costume. Dave Chauhan ties brand to Beacon. Your brand becomes credible when your choices match your values under pressure.
“Captain Set, Sail” gives founders and executives a way to turn brand promises into daily behavior. The result: trust.
Culture Change that Sticks
Culture work fails when it stays on slides. Dave Chauhan anchors culture in three operating habits:
- Values in decisions: The seven-second pause.
- Awareness in motion: The horizon scan log.
- Accountability with respect: Mistake Mondays.
Run these weekly. Keep them visible. Measure them. Culture shifts when behavior shifts.
Measuring What Matters
- Trust indicators: Team pulse scores after feedback cycles.
- Decision speed: Time from problem to first action.
- Learning rate: Documented fixes from Mistake Mondays.
- Signal accuracy: Wins traced to horizon scan insights.
Leaders can track these with simple dashboards. Numbers reinforce values when paired with stories.
Leading Across Sectors
The compass travels well. Dave Chauhan has tested it with corporate teams, founders, and nonprofit leaders. Different goals. Same fundamentals.
Beacon aligns decisions. Wayfinder sees change early. Seafarer acts when it counts. That mix works in any mission.
What “Captain Set, Sail” Teaches Young Leaders
Purpose comes first. Skills sit on purpose.
Young leaders who adopt the seven-second pause build identity fast. They make cleaner choices. They grow faster with less regret.
The book gives them a language for values and a rhythm for action.
What Seasoned Leaders Gain
Veteran executives gain speed with less friction. The 70/70 rule shortens the gap between analysis and action.
Mistake Mondays remove fear. Horizon scans expose risk early.
“Captain Set, Sail” becomes a shared operating system for the senior team.
Why the Model Scales
- Clarity: Three parts, one loop.
- Cadence: Weekly and daily practices.
- Consistency: Same language across teams.
Scale needs simple, sticky ideas. Dave Chauhan designed the compass to spread by use, not by mandate.
Conversation Highlights with Dave Chauhan
- Leadership is human. Real decisions touch real families.
- Uncertainty is daily. Control your response. Lead anyway.
- Values are personal. Align them to your team and company.
- Awareness can be trained. Write what you see. Patterns emerge.
- Act before the plan is perfect. Steer in motion.
- Balance empathy and standards. People grow when both are present.
- Own mistakes and repairs. Trust follows.
- Think in decades. Plant seeds you may never see.
A Clean Checklist to Start Today
- Define three core values. Write them in plain words. Share them with your team.
- Start a horizon scan doc. Add one new signal each week.
- Pick one decision stuck in analysis. Apply the 70/70 rule. Move.
- Host your first Mistake Monday. Go first. Model the repair.
- Write a Heart & Steel script for low-performance talks. Use it once this month.
- Block twenty minutes to consider your ten-year impact. Choose one seed to plant now.
Who Will Benefit Most from “Captain Set, Sail”
- Founders navigating scale and culture.
- Executives under quarterly pressure.
- Nonprofit leaders balancing mission and constraints.
- Team leads building trust fast.
- Emerging leaders who want a durable identity.
The common thread: people-first leadership that still delivers results.
Why Dave Chauhan Stands Out
Many talk about leadership. Dave Chauhan did the work before he wrote the book. He pairs lived experience with clean language and repeatable habits.
“Captain Set, Sail” is built for the real world. You can run the practices without a consultant in the room. You can teach the compass to your team in an afternoon and deepen it for years.
Closing Thoughts
Leaders do not calm the ocean. Leaders read it.
Dave Chauhan and “Captain Set, Sail” give you the compass to move with purpose, adapt with awareness, and act with courage.
Beacon. Wayfinder. Seafarer. Heart & Steel.
Run the habits. Build the culture. Bring your crew with you.
About the Guest
Dave Chauhan is the author of “Captain Set, Sail” and the creator of the Nautical Leadership model. He equips leaders to turn uncertainty into advantage through clear values, trained awareness, and courageous action.
About the Episode
This conversation on the “Success, Motivation & Inspiration” TV series focused on real tools for real leaders. It featured the core ideas of “Captain Set, Sail” and the practices that make teams stronger under pressure.
Calls to Action
- Adopt the seven-second pause before your next high-stakes message.
- Run your first horizon scan this week.
- Apply the 70/70 rule to one stalled decision today.
- Host “Mistake Monday” and model the repair.
- Share these ideas with one leader who is facing rough water.