Exercise 1 (Step Three) | Explore the Crucibles of Shackleton’s Life Story
Part 1
Reflect on Ernest Shackleton as a person and his path to leadership. What were his crucibles of leadership? What were his leadership attributes? Briefly explore his traits and attributes that resulted in this extraordinary story of leadership. Thoughts on the process of leadership? Overall context?
Part 2
Modern management suggests that lifetime learning is a critical element of leadership today. Based on the Shackleton’s expedition what lessons can we learn?
Part 3
In servant leadership, the core concepts is to put your people first and serve them. Do you see elements of servant leadership in Shackleton’s approach?
Exercise 2 (Step Four) | Decide on strategies for hiring an outstanding team
Part 1
If you were Shackleton and looking to hire your crew for this journey, what would you look for? Are there specific traits, attributes, experiences, profiles, etc. that you would look for?
Part 2
To make this concrete, write the short newspaper advertisement (for 1913) that you would post.
Exercise 3 (Step Five) | Determine how you would create a spirit of camaraderie
Part 1
If you were in Shackleton’s position and leading this team of people into adverse conditions, how would you create a spirit of camaraderie? What type of team culture might you create and maintain? What would psychological safety look like in these conditions?
Part 2
Building on the concept of camaraderie, how might you ensure you are ‘getting the best from each individual’? After all, optimal performance from each individual is critical for the team’s survival in these harsh conditions.
Exercise 4 (Step Six ) | Explore leading effectively in a crisis
In the case of Shackleton’s journey, there was an inherent understanding of the potential risk during the advanced planning phase. Is there any way to be more effective in leading in a crisis? Does leadership in this scenario differ?
Exercise 5 (Step Seven) | Build forward from Shackleton’s time to modern leadership
Part 1
In organizational behaviour there is a concept of ‘teaming’ – as introduced in a TED Talk by Amy Emerson. Building on her ideas of teaming, the extreme example of the Chilean miners trapped underground, and Shackleton’s leadership under harsh conditions, what do you think about forming teams for difficult assignments?
Part 2
Are there lessons that we can transfer to our leadership roles in modern organizations? In more general terms and based on your understanding of Shackleton’s leadership, what lessons can we extract for leadership in the current time?
Exercise 6 (Step Eight )| Consider beyond Shackleton’s leadership lessons
Richard Danzig, an appointed US Secretary of the Navy, was impressed with Shackleton’s approach to leadership. He stated, “The values of leadership he [Shackleton] provides are eternal. They’re derived from the nature of human character and involve making bold ventures and bringing out the best in human beings.” Danzig, after discovering the story of Alfred Lansing’s Endurance, distributed copies of the book to his navy and marine officers. He further stated:
“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. This is important to a leader, so one of my primary aims in distributing books is to get people to think outside themselves and to think broadly.”
With this concept in mind, highlight one book (historical or fiction) that you think has the capacity to influence leaders to think outside themselves and to think broadly.
Exercise 7 (Step Nine) | Reflect on several leadership quotes from Ernest Shackleton
Below are six leadership quotes from Shackleton:
“There are lots of good things in the world, but I’m not sure that comradeship is not the best of them all.”
“Optimism is true moral courage.”
“Leadership is a fine thing, but it has its penalties. And the greatest penalty is loneliness.”
“The loyalty of your men is a sacred trust you carry. It is something which must never be betrayed, something you must live up to.”
“I have often marveled at the thin line which separates success from failure.”
“If you’re a leader, a fellow that other fellows look to, you’ve got to keep going.”
Select one that of the quotes and share a few thoughts.
