The article titled “7 Characteristics of Leadership I Learned From Sir Ernest Shackleton” written by Cathy Graham, discovers the reasons for Shackleton’s success. Shackleton was an adventurer who was set out for an expedition across Antarctica (21 months and 13 days). He and his crew went through many hardships such as finding food and having to amputate a crew member, ultimately failing their mission, however Shackleton's leadership was argued to have been the best it could have been given the circumstance. I have developed my own opinion on the different aspects of Shackleton’s character that the author was attempting to establish. I would like to further develop my own opinion on the author's main points when talking about the leadership
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Whether he was right or wrong was irrelevant, especially in the spur of the moment. A split second decision could be the difference between life and death. Throughout their voyage Shackleton’s crew experienced many of very stressful situations that seemed impossible to overcome, such as the reduction of their rations, Shackleton leaving his crew to find help, and when he came back to his crew being able to stay on focus and on task. He gave the crew members a sense of safety and a sense of the metaphorical weight being lifted off of them. An astounding example of this is when the floe broke into two parts separating his crew into two groups, “there was no time to worry about him then because the crack was opening once more, this time very rapidly, cutting off the occupants of Shackleton’s tent and men” (P. 183), conveying how important Shackleton became in this instance. Shackleton was able to deal with this difficult situation, “separating his crew into two groups”, on top of saving his crew members that fell into the water. Even after he had obviously failed and lost his team, he was able to immediately think of a solution and use what had happened to his advantage, “no one spoke... Launch a boat” (P.183). In this instance we are able not only see how a leader operated under pressure, but also how he overcame adversity. In conclusion Shackleton’s ability to use his decisiveness to his
Whether he was right or wrong was irrelevant, especially in the spur of the moment. A split second decision could be the difference between life and death. Throughout their voyage Shackleton’s crew experienced many of very stressful situations that seemed impossible to overcome, such as the reduction of their rations, Shackleton leaving his crew to find help, and when he came back to his crew being able to stay on focus and on task. He gave the crew members a sense of safety and a sense of the metaphorical weight being lifted off of them. An astounding example of this is when the floe broke into two parts separating his crew into two groups, “there was no time to worry about him then because the crack was opening once more, this time very rapidly, cutting off the occupants of Shackleton’s tent and men” (P. 183), conveying how important Shackleton became in this instance. Shackleton was able to deal with this difficult situation, “separating his crew into two groups”, on top of saving his crew members that fell into the water. Even after he had obviously failed and lost his team, he was able to immediately think of a solution and use what had happened to his advantage, “no one spoke... Launch a boat” (P.183). In this instance we are able not only see how a leader operated under pressure, but also how he overcame adversity. In conclusion Shackleton’s ability to use his decisiveness to his