Hilary Murray
Scott C. Hammond
Management 3800
8 June 2016
Was Ernest Shackleton a Good Leader?
The story of Ernest Shackleton is one that defies all odds. The fated quest of the Endurance and its crew is a lesson of perseverance, intuition, social skill, and adaptability. Shackleton’s integrity was challenged before the Endurance even left port in England with the start of World War I. The captain was willing to sacrifice men and ship for the war effort after months of preparation and planning. He was a man that was searching for greatness, while keeping things simple and calm. At the core of this born leader’s personality was optimism and with generosity combined with sympathy for the crew, he made everyone feel like they were part of the team. Amidst everything working against the crew of the Endurance from being trapped in the pack ice, trying to march to the water, rowing through waters that none of us can even imagine in very small boats and being marooned on Elephant Island the crew maintained one thing. Hope. This one element dominated all the rest and was made the reality of the crew because of the realistic but optimistic expectations and vision of Ernest Shackleton.
According to Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones in our readings HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership, “Inspirational leaders rely heavily on their instincts...we call them good situation sensors, and by that we mean that they can collect and interpret soft data. They can sniff out the signals in the environment and sense what’s going on without having anything spelled out for them.” (Goffee 86) This is something Ernest Shackleton embodied and examples of this quality are apparent in several scenarios of his ordeal. He knew when it was time to abandon ship because all efforts had been thwarted by the ice which buckled around the ship, breaking and splintering, and until finally