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Richard Danzig, U.S. Secretary of the Navy in 1998 Commander James Lovell of Apollo 13
Richard
Danzig
“The values of leadership he provides are eternal,” says Dr. Danzig. “They’re derived from the nature of human character and involve making bold ventures and bringing out the best in human beings.” The secretary discovered Shackleton years ago reading the Alfred Lansing’s “Endurance.” He is convinced that Shackleton’s knowledge of a wide variety of literature contributed to the explorer’s success as a leader. Dr. Danzig himself makes a point of handing out books--including the Endurance story--as gifts to Navy and Marine officers. “One of the great advantages of reading fiction or history is it gives you the opportunity to understand the world from different vantage points and different time periods and different psychologies,” he says. “That’s important to a leader, so one of my prime aims in distributing books is to get people to think outside themselves and to think broadly.”… He looks to Shackleton for examples of how to build the loyalty of those under one’s command. Shackleton’s commitment to his men was total, and he protected them from physical and psychological harm. The stranded explorer had to deal with the gamut of human emotions, including fear, anger and despair, Dr. Danzig observes. “At the same time, the men had only one asset, and that was each other. There were no other people for thousands of miles. In that circumstance, the pressures of that situation, you could either fracture and divide or weld into a tight group. Shackleton’s amazing achievement is he always got it to go in the direction of staying together."
James J. CramerOn
Hiring an Outstanding Crew
"Shackleton saved my life," he says simply. Mr. Cramer read about Shackleton in late 1998, at the end of the worst year of his professional life. His New York-based hedge fund Cramer Berkowitz & Company was in its deepest slump since its launch in 1987. A tumbling stock market in the second half of the year caused the aggressive fund to lose $100 million and finish the year with just a 2 percent return on assets. “People were pulling out capital,” Mr. Cramer recalls. “I personally lost $15 million. It was time to hunker down.” … Amid all the voices telling him to give up, he heard Shackleton telling him to stick with it. He started writing quotations from Shackleton in red marker on the white board in his office to bolster his and his staff’s spirits. “Optimism is true moral courage,” stayed up through the entire 1998 sell-off, Mr. Cramer says. "If I hadn't been schooled by Shackleton, I would have given up," he says. " It was the worst year I ever had. He got me through it because everybody, everybody tells you to give up. But I came back in a style that was unbelievable and proved the pessimists were wrong." Wrong indeed. By early 1999, his interests had made a dramatic turnaround, and he was catapulted into fame and a good deal of fortune. The New York Times Company and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation took minority stakes in TheStreet.com and eventually set up joint ventures. His hedge fund, which had tumbled to about $180 million in assets in 1998, more than doubled its value. In one year, Mr. Cramer had made a stellar comeback from the brink. Had he done so, he says now, “It would have been the dumbest decision of my life."… As the new century dawned, some of the sizzle had gone out of Internet stocks and TheStreet.com was again being battered. One year after the red-hot IPO, the company had gone through a shakeup of top management, the stock had fallen to below its opening price, and the site had become mostly free of charge. Mr. Cramer gave up his salary in favor of stock options, and there were rumors of a pending sale. He's still ignoring the naysayers, however, insisting that those working hard toward a goal must stay optimistic. "If you surround yourself with pessimists you're doomed to failure in business," Mr. Cramer says. "They are the voices you can't let in your head. If you listen to the pessimists you'll make the wrong decision or be so confused and so befuddled you'll lose the emotional energy you need.”
Captain James A. Lovell Jr.On
Forming Teams for Tough Assignments Capt. James A. Lovell Jr. has something in common with Shackleton, having been the leader of another famous “successful failure,” as NASA dubbed the ill-fated Apollo 13 flight. The 1970 mission never landed on the moon as planned, but with the benefit of levelheaded leadership and teamwork it returned to earth without any loss of life, overcoming impossible odds. “People like Shackleton and myself are individuals who can take on challenges—challenges that might include the unexpected,” Capt. Lovell says. “You go in knowing everything is not going to work, and if you can think of things that can go wrong you can ‘think ahead.’ ” The astronaut reflected on his ordeal in space during a trip to the Antarctic in January 2000 to visit the National Science Foundation’s station at the South Pole. Beforehand, Capt. Lovell had read about Shackleton and what he calls the “miraculous leadership” he showed in rescuing the crew of the Endurance. … With just 15 minutes of power left for the life-support systems, the men were forced to abandon ship for the tiny lunar module, beginning an intense four-day struggle to survive. … Capt. Lovell gives credit for the rescue to the seamless teamwork between Mission Control’s brilliant scientists and engineers who drew up detailed plans and instructions, and the well-trained astronauts who made them work. Shackleton and his men, of course, didn’t have the benefit of outside help. Still, the captain sees a common thread in how people successfully survive a crisis. “I think it’s very important that everybody has a job to do and everyone chips in,” the former astronaut says. “In Apollo 13 there was no panic, no one swore, we all just went to work on what went wrong and how to get this thing back.”
On
Overcoming Obstacles to Reach a Goal He used Shackleton’s example of focus and sheer determination to fire up a group of salespeople for a challenging campaign his company was launching to boost sales 50 percent over the following year. He told the story of the Endurance expedition at a meeting in January 1999 in Dubai, where most of the division’s 139 independent dealers had gathered with Jaguar’s sales force to discuss strategy. “If you have the kind of commitment Shackleton had, you can absolutely achieve miracles,” was the message he conveyed to the salespeople. What followed looked like a miracle. By the end of the year, annual sales of Jaguar cars for the division surged to 35,039 – a jump of more than 56 percent over the 1998 figures. The division had finally beaten – and soundly – its previous sales record set in 1986 of 24,464 cars. “They were doing something right,” Mr. Dale says of the dealers. Of course, there are many reasons for Jaguar’s improved performance, including the introduction of popular new models, a booming U.S. economy, and a worldwide trend toward premium brands. But Mr. Dale likes to give some credit to his speech. He says he got “tremendous feedback” from the audience and believes his comments inspired many employees to redouble their efforts to do their best.
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Richard
Danzig, appointed U.S. Secretary of the Navy in 1998, was so impressed
with Shackleton as a model of good leadership that he held a daylong
seminar on the explorer’s Endurance expedition in December
1999. About seventy invited guests, including the deputy secretary
of defense, senior naval officers, and senior civilians in the Pentagon
attended.
James
J. Cramer credits Shackleton's optimistic example with nothing less
than rescuing him from financial ruin and relative obscurity just
months before he gained success, personal wealth, and international
fame as a major player on Wall Street. 
Michael
H. Dale, retired president of Jaguar North America, has regarded
Shackleton as a role model ever since he was a child in Birmingham,
England, and learned about the explorer. Throughout his professional
life, Mr. Dale has looked to Shackleton and various historical figures
for inspiration and guidance in matters of leadership. 
