Retired naval officer provides leadership advice in first book

La Jolla resident and retired Navy officer Steven-Paul Lapid knows people are busy and that his peers subscribe to the “bottom line up front,” or BLUF, model of communication.

So his debut book, “Helm & Horizon: Daily Leadership Principles for the Motivated Sailor,” can boil its style down to one word: concise.

“Helm & Horizon,” released on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, is intended as a practical guide to leadership with help from Lapid’s insights from his 25 years of service, along with naval history and more. The title alludes to taking the helm of leadership and keeping your eyes on the horizon.

“Basically … I wrote 366 … daily entries,” Lapid said. “Each day equates to one page of the book, and each entry consists of a principle I pulled from some of the top leadership texts out there.”

The book’s bite-size format makes it tailored to sailors or anyone who is trying to lead a team, family or business.

“I really wanted it quick, to the point,” Lapid said. “It’s for busy people. Especially in the military, you’re so focused on tasks and completing the mission. We don’t have time to sit back and reflect on leadership.

“You can read one page a day in under five minutes and get ‘Here’s the gist of this principle, and here’s how we can apply it for the day.’”

Lapid conceived the idea for “Helm & Horizon” after he retired from active duty in 2022 and began work as a defense contractor for the Navy.

The career shift gave him more time to pause and reflect, Lapid said. Beyond that, it reignited his passion for ultrarunning, or running longer than the 26.2-mile marathon distance. Common distances are 30, 50, 100 miles or much more.

“When I got back into ultrarunning, instead of listening to music on my long runs, I switched to listening to audiobooks,” Lapid said. “That’s where I picked up a lot of these leadership books that I reference in this book.”

Lapid estimates he listened to 50-60 leadership books ranging from classic philosophy to  contemporary corporate leadership guides.

With those insights in mind, he put his thoughts on paper.

Though this is his first release as an author, it isn’t the first work he’s published. As a defense contractor, Lapid has been tasked with writing training and warfighting policies.

“This is a little bit different, because what are the metrics out there that capture good leaders’ influence?” Lapid said. “I get a lot of feedback through stories [rather] than data. It’s not numbers — it’s anecdotal.”

Thus far, Lapid said, feedback to the book has been largely positive. “Helm & Horizon” was listed as the top new release in the adult and continuing education category on Amazon upon its release, along with a top-three start among new releases in the naval military history category.

Though there are north of 350 lessons to be gleaned from the book, Lapid said leadership is a mindset rather than a rank or title. And age shouldn’t hold people back from developing their leadership skills, he added.

“In my mind, rank equated to leadership,” Lapid recalled. “We’re all trying to strive for that next title. … But that mindset is wrong. What we should learn is that rank [and] titles bring authority but doesn’t bring leadership.

“What I want this book to bring out to the readers is that you can be a leader from Day 1.”