Leadership Styles in the Book Endurance
Book Review: Endurance
Endurance is an astounding true story of heroic leadership and relentless perseverance through seemingly impossible odds. In August 1914, days before the outbreak of the First World War, the notorious Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven men set sail for the South Atlantic with one goal in mind: becoming the first group of individuals to cross the Antarctic continent by foot. However, the decreasing temperatures set off a series of events that would lead Shackleton away from his original goal and test him not only as a man, but as a leader as well. Maneuvering a treacherous path through the freezing Weddell Sea, the crew was less than a hundred miles shy of their destination when their ship, the Endurance, became locked in an island of ice. Soon the ship was crushed like a stack of cars at the junk yard, leaving the crew stranded on the floes.
Shackleton refused to allow his men to give up hope, even after the Endurance sank and they were left to riding ice floes and their small lifeboats. Rather than losing his composure and giving up, his new goal quickly became succeeding and leading his men home despite facing nearly every hindrance possible. While he did not complete the original goal that he had hoped for, he did complete his second: bringing back all 27 of his men home alive. During his journey, Shackleton’s leadership would be tested in every context and situation imaginable, but he always came through as an admirable example. Although there are many leadership themes and styles that can be analyzed throughout this book, this review specifically points out three leadership approaches throughout the interesting story: servant leader approach (putting the interest of the team before themselves,) skills approach (good conceptual skills) and team management approach.
Great leaders put the interests of their teams before themselves, also known as Servant Leadership, which is exactly what Shackleton did. He always thought
Endurance is an astounding true story of heroic leadership and relentless perseverance through seemingly impossible odds. In August 1914, days before the outbreak of the First World War, the notorious Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven men set sail for the South Atlantic with one goal in mind: becoming the first group of individuals to cross the Antarctic continent by foot. However, the decreasing temperatures set off a series of events that would lead Shackleton away from his original goal and test him not only as a man, but as a leader as well. Maneuvering a treacherous path through the freezing Weddell Sea, the crew was less than a hundred miles shy of their destination when their ship, the Endurance, became locked in an island of ice. Soon the ship was crushed like a stack of cars at the junk yard, leaving the crew stranded on the floes.
Shackleton refused to allow his men to give up hope, even after the Endurance sank and they were left to riding ice floes and their small lifeboats. Rather than losing his composure and giving up, his new goal quickly became succeeding and leading his men home despite facing nearly every hindrance possible. While he did not complete the original goal that he had hoped for, he did complete his second: bringing back all 27 of his men home alive. During his journey, Shackleton’s leadership would be tested in every context and situation imaginable, but he always came through as an admirable example. Although there are many leadership themes and styles that can be analyzed throughout this book, this review specifically points out three leadership approaches throughout the interesting story: servant leader approach (putting the interest of the team before themselves,) skills approach (good conceptual skills) and team management approach.
Great leaders put the interests of their teams before themselves, also known as Servant Leadership, which is exactly what Shackleton did. He always thought