Sir Ernest Shackleton wanted to be the first man to walk across the Antarctic continent. In 1914, with a crew of 28 men, he set sail on the Endurance to complete the first “Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition." But harsh winds and frigid temperatures threatened the voyage from the start, and in short order the ship was marooned thousands of miles away from civilization. Shackleton suddenly realized a different task was at hand – keeping his crew alive. A team of restless seamen who quickly run out of food, patience, and hope. In this episode of Teamistry, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite travels back in time to discover the surprisingly modern leadership skills of Shackleton, like emotional intelligence and empathy. Hear from the diary of one of the crew to get a sense of the uncertainty and fear the seamen grappled with, and listen as Nancy Koehn, a historian and professor at the Harvard Business School, walks you through the pivotal moments when Shackleton's superior decision-making helped him salvage the expedition and hold the hearts of his men. Also, Tim Jarvis, an explorer who recreated some of Shackleton's journey, discusses how Shackleton's strategies can help us face climate change, and Thomas H. Zurbuchen talks about how he applies Shackleton's leadership lessons at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to www.atlassian.com/podcast.
We were marching along, three of us harnessed to one sledge in very bad light.
All of a sudden, we heard a shout of help from the man behind.
We looked round and saw him supporting himself by his elbows on the edge.
Of a chasm that is explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.
Remembering one of his most harrowing adventures.
In the Antarctic, we rushed back and helped the man.
Now then, we lay down to have a look, but nothing but a black drought lay below.
If you've heard of Ernest Shackleton, it's probably because of his famous and ill fated trip in 1914, which is what this episode of tea mystery is about.
But the thing is, in that recording, he's talking about his previous expedition in 1907.
That trip was also ill fated and his crew faced frostbite, starvation and almost didn't survive.
In the end, they never even reached their destination of the South Pole.
And yet, just a few years later, he was at it again, heading back on an even more ambitious expedition to cross Antarctica on foot, a mission that would test him and his crew to their very limits and beyond.
They're cold, they're hungry, and they arrive on this absolutely deserted island.
There is zero chance that a ship will find them.
There is zero chance they will be rescued there.
So is this a story of failure?
Well, actually it's one of the most incredible adventure stories of all time.
A leadership masterclass in the face of insurmountable challenges.
Shackleton made each of the men feel like they were capable of doing harder, better things than they could do on their own.
And I think that's a really important aspect of real leaders.