Leadership lessons from the great antarctic explorer

I've just been glancing through Dr. Macklin's journal and came across this thought-provoking entry written on August 2, 1916... "It is hard to realize one's position her, living in a smoky, dirty, ramshackle little hut with only just sufficient room to cram us all in: drinking out of a common pot with people suffering from dental caries, etc., and living in close proximity to a man with a large discharging abscess - a horrible existence, but yet, we are pretty happy and our h

#Shackleton #Challenges #Leadership

In speaking of Shackleton and how he brought his whole team home alive from the ill-fated Endurance expedition, the great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen conqueror of the South Pole, said, "Courage and willpower can make miracles." Amundsen continued, "I know of no better example than what that man has accomplished." #Leadership #Challenges #MaintainingAPositiveAttitude #Shackleton #LeadingByExample

This is an interesting riff from store-keeper Thomas Orde-Lees on how Shackleton led his team through the horrific six-day boat journey to Elephant Island... “Practically ever since we had first started, Sir Ernest had been standing erect day and night on the stern counter of the Caird, only holding on to one of the stays of the little mizzen mast, conning our course the whole time the boats were underway,” wrote Orde-Lees. “How he stood the incessant vigil and exposure is ma

Shackleton's Way... Again, Shackleton set the tone by his own example. “His unfailing cheeriness means a lot to a band of disappointed explorers like ourselves,” Orde-Lees wrote. “He is one of the greatest optimists I have ever know. He is not content with saying. ‘It will all come out right in the end.’ It is always otherwise with him. He merely says that this is but a little setback not altogether unforeseen and he immediately commences to modify his program to accord with

When doing the impossible - catching the Nimrod, surviving the boat journeys, crossing South Georgia, Shackleton had a rock solid faith to lean on. In South, about the crossing of South Georgia, he wrote, “Still we were following the light.” The phrase is a reference to his favorite hymn, Lead Kindly Light, "I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me." #Shackleton #Challenges #Faith #Courage