This is said to be the greatest
story of survival.
In December 1914, twenty eight
men sailed toward Antartica in the South Pole. Soon, the frozen sea trapped and
crushed their ship. For almost two years,
the men endured hunger, thirst, freezing temperature and darkness. In times
that the sun came out, it was unbearably hot.
With weak bodies, they walked
miles and miles on deep snow, pulling their heavy 30-foot life boats. They
found an island which had nothing but rocks and more ice.
Drinking water was hard to
find because any liquid froze so fast. When they ran out of stored food, they survived
on unappetizing penguin and seal meat. They were even forced to shoot and eat the
sled dogs they loved.
Rescue would never come even
if they waited there for eternity. So, six of them had to sail for weeks across
waves 50-feet tall in search of civilization. They climbed a snow mountain for
several days with almost no food, no water and no rest.
When the leader came back on
a rescue ship, all 28 had survived !
This is the legendary story
of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew in
their Imperial Trans Antartic Expedition.
In an event like that, the
first casualties would be morale and esprit de corps. In his own book, Shackleton
narrated “I knew how important it was to keep the men cheerful.” His concern
was to uphold the men’s will to survive and their willingness to stick together
working as a team. He encouraged them to have conversations with one another,
to play games and sing songs.
According to a New York Times
essay by Nancy F. Koehn, Shackleton “acted quickly to contain their opposition
and negativity by trying to win them over and keeping close watch on
them.” In fact, “He assigned potential trouble makers to his own tent.”
In the worst conditions, his
men were at their best being cooks, hunters, navigators, meteorologists,
oarsmen, friends, etc.
Shackleton earned their trust
because he had the vision. He reassured them that in order to be rescued, he
had to cross the angry ocean to reach the nearest island. He was always the
optimistic, the consistent, the cheerful and the caring one. He is described as
“ good natured” and “likeable” by markofaleader.com.
At times he raised his voice,
but his anger was righteous and his motivations were clear. He kept his
composure. I have not seen a report about of him bullying, shaming,
bad-mouthing or alienating his critics.
If his talk was inconsistent
and his values, questionable, he could have created a gang of angry and
confused men divided into factions if not killing each other. He could have brought out the worst in them.
Proof that he was a trusted
leader, some of the men joined him in his return voyage.
But the great leader made a
mistake, too. He decided to proceed with the journey despite being warned that
the sea could freeze.
We can only pray that nobody
leads us to dangerous waters.
“ Everything rises and falls on leadership. “
- John
Maxwell, leadership guru
( Fortunately, the ordeal of
the Shackleton team was captured on film by crew member James Hurley. The
original footage can be viewed on Youtube.
Sources for the article :
South : The Story of Shackleton’s 1914-1917
Expedition by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
The Shackleton Expedition, markofaleader.com
Leadership Lessons from the Shackleton Expedition, Nancy F. Koehn, nytimes.com
Wikipedia )
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