So, he was careful each day to use his body language and bearing as productive signals to his men. Shackleton knew that in a crisis the people he was responsible for took all kinds of cues from his presence, including his voice, energy, and whether he appeared confident, focused, and positive. Lesson Two: Show up in service to your mission. Hiring your team is more than filling individual positions you are trying to build a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. In ongoing crises, resumes tell us less about the right fit between a person and a position than attitude and character. Leaders today can learn from the importance Shackleton placed on assembling his team and how he did this. Shackleton understood that in the life-threatening conditions of the Antarctic, he needed people with optimism, perseverance, cohesion, adaptability, a sense of humour, and dedication to mission. Shackleton had hundreds-perhaps thousands-of applicants to choose from, and he accepted and rejected men based largely on these attributes, always looking to create an ensemble of crew members: an integrated cast of personalities, traits, and strengths that would work well together under conditions of great uncertainty and high stakes. Lesson One: In times of great volatility, hire for attitude train for skill. Here are some of the most important lessons that thousands of leaders have drawn from Shackleton and how he navigated the rolling crises of being trapped on the ice off the coast of Antarctica for almost two years. In scores of virtual seminars, talented men and women from many countries (who had read at least a condensed version of the 'Endurance' story), talked about what they intended to take away from Shackleton’s leadership as they tried to navigate their people and organisations through a world convulsed by crises. mayors, public safety officials, business executives, philanthropic heads, artistic leaders, teachers, and scientists. Healthcare leaders wanted to learn from his story. This utterly gripping book, based on firsthand accounts of crew members and interviews with survivors, describes how the men survived, how they lived together in camps on the ice for 17 months until they reached land, how they were attacked by sea leopards, had to kill their beloved dogs whom they could no longer feed, the diseases which they developed (an operation to amputate the foot of one member of the crew was carried out on the ice), and the extraordinary indefatigability of the men and their lasting civility towards one another in the most adverse conditions conceivable.Then in early 2020, the Covid pandemic hit, initiating an unprecedented global health crisis, followed quickly in many countries by a widespread economic crisis, a political crisis, and then a social crisis, as the issues of racial inequality, broad-based vulnerability, and related forms of injustice became more prevalent and pressing.īy mid-2020, it seemed that everywhere I turned I encountered Shackleton. For five months Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways on one of the most savage regions of the world. In October 1915, still half a continent away from their intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in ice. The object of the expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland. In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men set sail for the South Atlantic on board a ship called the Endurance.
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