Shackleton: A Tale of Courage and Endurance

Ernest Shackleton is best remembered for his outstanding leadership during a time of crisis than for the various explorations he led in the early 1900s. In August 1914 he set up an expedition aiming to cross Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, cutting through the South Pole. But before reaching his destination, his ship the Endurance became trapped in a pack ice in the Wedell Sea. After being stuck in the floating ice for ten months the Endurance was crushed between the drifting ice sheets and afterwards sunk. To many, being trapped in hundreds of miles of ice with limited food and water is a scenario so hopeless that thousands of seamen and explorers had in the past surrendered their courage and lost their lives in it, but to Shackleton hopelessness was not an option, and through a heroic display of courage and hope he turned their failure to cross the Antarctic into a legendary story of endurance and survival. Of the 27 crewmen he took with him, none lost their lives during the two harrowing years of living on the ice more than a thousand miles away from civilization.

When the Endurance sank, Shackleton and his team had no choice but to make a settlement on a floating ice floe where they lived for six months. Soon, when the floating ice began to break apart, they knew they had to get on their remaining boats, paddling for seven days from ice floe to ice floe until they arrived on the uninhabited Elephant Island.

With his crew already suffering from frostbite, scurvy, fever, cold, hunger and mental depression, Shackleton knew he had to act fast. Thus, he decided to go to the nearest known whaling station in the island of South Georgia (Antartica), setting out with five of his men on a dangerous open-boat journey aboard the James Caird (one of the last functional boats they had). He left the rest of his men in Elephant Island and vowed to return to rescue them. For 16 straight days he and his five crewmen rowed south across the Atlantic, reaching the nearest part of South Georgia after surviving episodes of ferocious storms, squalls and stress in the open ocean. Polar historian Caroline Alexander described this as one of the most extraordinary feats of seamanship and navigation in recorded history.

The crew of the Endurance. Photo taken by the expedition's photographer Frank Hurley

However, the boat landed on the wrong side of the island, and Shackleton and his men decided to take a very difficult 36-hour hiking through the snowy valley to get to the nearest whaling station at Stromness Bay on the other side, wading through miles and miles of snow and glacier across the island’s mountainous interior without any map, tent, sleeping bag and proper mountaineering equipment aside from a carpenter’s axe. Eventually they arrived at Stromness, and there Shackleton was able to borrow a ship and mount a rescue mission to save his men in Elephant Island, a mission which, after four attempts, proved futile. But soon Shackleton was able to contact London and four months later secured the survival of all his sailors, bringing them home to England in May 1917 aboard a rescue ship.

The Endurance crushed between the ice

Shackleton was credited with saving his crew during their long ordeal which might have cost the lives of all of them. For this, despite his failure to cross the Antarctic and reach his goal, Shackleton and his crew were awarded the Polar Medal.

His ability to lead his men out of a seemingly hopeless adversity by continuously providing them the will to carry on and therefore endure became a classic example of excellent and inspiring leadership, and has ever since become a model used not only by soldiers and seamen but also adopted by managers in the corporate world.

What did Shackleton do to avert more disaster and therefore, reverse his failure into a story of exemplary leadership?

Charles Chappell of Wharton University’s Executive MBA Program cited five leadership qualities which largely contributed to the survival of the Endurance crew. These were: a.) Putting your people first; b.) Flexibility in tactics; c.) Choosing people for character and not just competence; d.) Optimism in times of adversity; e.) Leadership by example and; f.) Equal treatment of men. Chappell explains each one of them:

a.) Put your people first. In 1907, Shackleton led an attempt to be the first to the South Pole. He and his men trekked across hundreds of miles of the Antarctic continent to within 97 miles of the Pole. He knew that being the first to reach the Pole would have brought him everlasting fame and glory. But Shackleton and his men were weakening, and he knew that a final push to the Pole would put their lives in grave danger. He turned back. As strong as his desire to lead expeditions was, his sense of responsibility for his men was stronger.

In addition to being a principled choice, this decision gave those who served under him on the Endurance confidence that their lives would not be cavalierly sacrificed to meet the expedition’s goal… crossing Antarctica was [the expedition’s] nominal goal, but its fundamental goal was to ensure that the men survived. This clarification, along with the knowledge of Shackleton’s general experience in polar exploration, helped ensure confidence in, and the credibility of, Shackleton’s leadership. It helped give Shackleton what John Gardner calls “the capacity to win and hold trust.”

b.) Be flexible in tactics. Although the fundamental goal of survival remained paramount, Shackleton wisely remained flexible in the tactics he chose to achieve that goal.

Once Shackleton realized that the Endurance was trapped in the ice, he resolved – and, despite his bitter disappointment, communicated matter-of-factly to his men – that their goal had changed from crossing Antarctica to wintering over on the ice.

c.) Choose your people carefully — for character, not just competence. Shackleton knew how well the rigors of Antarctic exploration would test the spirit of his men. In selecting the expedition’s members, he looked for technical qualifications, but he placed even greater emphasis on a positive attitude and a lighthearted, even whimsical nature. When he interviewed Reginald James, who became the expedition’s physicist, he asked whether James could sing. Alexander Macklin, a surgeon, won a place on the expedition when, in response to Shackleton’s inquiry about why Macklin wore glasses, Macklin replied, “many a wise face would look foolish without spectacles.”

d.) Sustain optimism in the face of adversity. Although everyone understands the importance of optimism, Shackleton recognized that being optimistic was most important when it was most difficult. When setbacks occurred, he had to remain outwardly optimistic, despite his own feelings, to prevent a growing despair among his men. He knew that such despair could, in the face of adversity, lead to dissension, mutiny, or simply giving up. Day after day, to counter the morale-sapping effect of the miserable cold, wetness, fatigue, hunger, and boredom of their life on the ice, he summoned the strength to remain optimistic – despite suffering the same conditions himself. Warren Bennis has noted that “all exemplary leaders are purveyors of hope and optimism.” Shackleton himself stated that “optimism is true moral courage.”

Shackleton knew that this same optimism was important in his men; as a result, he constantly sought to neutralize threats to morale. He noted that the moodiness of Frank Hurley, the expedition’s photographer, was improved by flattery and by being included in consultations about the expedition’s course, so he was sure to include Hurley in high-level meetings and often asked Hurley’s opinion (he used well two techniques of interpersonal influence described by Pfeffer: ingratiation, and engaging others to enhance their commitment). Similarly, he feared that the worrying of George Marston, the expedition’s artist, would spread like an infection to the other men. Shackleton’s insight was that the disposition of these men was distinct from, and sometimes more important than, their technical abilities.

In their tents on the ice, Shackleton ensured that the ability of such “bad actors” to erode morale was checked by having them reside in Shackleton’s own tent or his second-in-command Frank Wild’s tent. Later, when Shackleton made plans to leave Elephant Island to seek help at South Georgia Island, he was careful to leave Wild in command of the group that remained ashore, and to bring along Harry McNeish, the expedition’s carpenter, who had proven to be a particularly serious troublemaker. Shackleton recognized that much of the task of remaining optimistic could be accomplished by keeping the men so busy that they would have little opportunity to brood over their predicament. To that end, he encouraged and took part in a variety of pastimes, such as card games and sing-alongs. Seeking to keep his men fit as well, he encouraged soccer matches and dogsled races on the ice. When he sensed that the mood of the men was darkening, he would use a holiday observance or some other excuse to justify extra rations of food to boost morale. Shackleton appreciated the importance of what John Gardner calls understanding the needs of followers – not just their physical needs, but their psychological needs as well.

e.) Lead by example. Shackleton knew that actions persuaded more strongly than words. When he and his men were forced onto the ice by the destruction of their ship and faced the prospect of making their way over hundreds of miles of rough ice to land, he gathered his crew and, explaining the situation, he pulled his gold coins out of his pockets and threw them into the snow. He then took a Bible given him by the Queen of England, tore out two pages to keep with him, laid the Bible in the snow, and walked away.

f.) Strive for equal treatment. Shackleton realized that, while it was essential that his authority and leadership not be questioned, he should not receive favorable treatment. He dutifully took his turn performing the most menial of chores. When the men took to the ice and drew for sleeping bags, Shackleton somehow ensured that he and the other senior officers drew wool bags, while the more junior men got the warmer fur bags.

In addition, Frank Worsley, one of Shackleton’s crewmen wrote in his memoirs:

“I recalled the way in which he led his party across the ice floes after the Endurance had been lost; how, by his genius for leadership he had kept us all in health; how by the sheer force of his own personality he had kept our spirits up; and how, by his magnificent example, he had enabled us to win through when the dice of the elements were loaded most heavily against us…”

The crew towing one of their remaining boats

In an earlier journey to the South Pole (1907), Shackleton gave his only biscuit allotted for that day to the sick Frank Wild, who later wrote in his diary:

"All the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit and the remembrance of that sacrifice will never leave me."

In their book Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer (2001), Morrell and Capparell wrote: "Shackleton resonates with executives in today's business world. His people-centred approach to leadership can be a guide to anyone in a position of authority."

In his book The Worst Journey in the World (1922), Cherry-Garrard wrote: "For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organisation, give me [Robert Falcon] Scott; for a Winter Journey, [Edward Adrian] Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, [Roald] Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time.”

For this it is very appropriate to call Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition “the last great Polar journey that [was] made,” and was worthy of its place in the so-called Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.