Shackleton's Way Summary

Bood Review Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer In 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 others started on a journey to be the first people to cross the Antarctic Continent. Their ship was caught in the ice, eventually crushed, and the story of how they all survived has become a classic. In this book, the story is retold with new insights and information. The authors focus on Shackleton as leader. The conclusions are very well drawn, and the connections and insights regarding "leadership" are true, valid, and extremely worthwhile. They make sense, they are useful, and they work! I've been to South Georgia and Elephant Island, and thus have some appreciation of the difficulties Shackleton and his men faced.
His leadership skills came through for his team then, and the lessons learned are more than appropriate for leaders of today. Awesome book for those who love a great story about endurance and admirable leadership qualities. This guy got all of his crew out of probably the biggest quandary I can think of. They were stranded at the South Pole for nearly two years and never lost hope about their chances of survival. Shackleton did the impossible by constantly supporting and guiding his men through a perilously long journey. They never made it to the South Pole but they lost their boat when it was crushed in the ice and had to hike to the edge of Antarctica and sail to Elephant island. From there they still did the impossible by navigating to another island about 500 miles away without any real navigable instruments. Once they got there they hiked over the length of the island to finally catch up to the whalers who were awed at the sight of them. Loved the book because of the leadership lessons of always caring more about your men than yourself which helps me in my daily interactions with my soldiers Morrell and Capparell, his story is also the meaty material of lessons on how to lead with authority, integrity, humor, and compassion.