Shackleton Leadership and Communication Styles

¶ … Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition might very well have been viewed as a tremendous disaster. When he and his crew found their ship trapped by ice, they remained for nine months waiting for enough of a thaw that they might be able to escape, until the ship was crushed by the ice. They then lived for six months on top of the ice, in an encampment, until the water was sufficiently clear that a journey on lifeboats could be attempted.

Shackleton and the crew made it finally to land at the edge of Antarctica, on Elephant Island, where they had no chance of rescue. So Shackleton selected five men to join him in a single lifeboat and cross the open ocean for 800 miles, where they reached South Georgia Island, then had to cross unmapped mountains and glaciers on foot for 26 miles until they reached a Norwegian whaling station. It was then that Shackleton had to return for the rest of his crew, which required four attempts with four different ships.

He finally reached them, and found that all his men had survived. Shackleton's legendary expedition has given him an almost mythical reputation as a leader, and therefore it is worth inquiring what was the secret to his leadership style and how it could best be understood in contemporary terms. The popular conception of "servant leadership" is surely a useful one in considering Shackleton's skills. Certainly one of the crucial concepts with servant leadership is the idea of leading by example.

We can witness this when the escape attempt from the initial entrapment in ice hits its most difficult point, where Shackleton and his men find themselves on Elephant Island. The level of preparation necessary for an Antarctic expedition meant that Shackleton was perfectly aware that it would require an 800-mile journey in an open boat to make it to the nearest chance of civilization.

The fact that Shackleton put himself forward as one of the party that would make the crossing shows tremendous bravery, but also a recognition that, as the captain and best-informed man in the expedition, the chances of saving everyone would be greatest if Shackleton himself took this personal risk. The integrity and generosity that we associate with the concept of servant leadership are also recognizable.

The generosity lies in the fact that Shackleton was shielding his own men from the riskiest part of the escape plan, and the integrity lies in the fact that Shackleton asked his men to recognize his qualification for leadership resided in the fact that he was not only willing to assume this great risk personally, but also that his qualifications meant that its chance of success was probably maximized if he was one of the six men who would travel 800 miles in a lifeboat.

In terms of communication styles, we can recognize that Shackleton must have been a tremendously charismatic presence. When he needed to choose the six men for the lifeboat journey, every single man on the expedition volunteered. This indicates the enormous level of trust that Shackleton had established with his men through leading by example. Shackleton's selection process was successful, which suggests that he understood the.