Leading at The Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition Second Edition

In December of 1914, the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, sailed from the island of South Georgia in the Southern Ocean. Its goal: the first overland crossing of Antarctica. Soon trapped in a prison of solid pack ice, the crew became engaged in a legendary fight against brutal cold, impenetrable ice, dwin­dl­ing food, and complete isolation. Despite these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the team remained cohesive, congenial, and mercifully alive - a fact that speaks not just to luck but to an unparalleled feat of leadership.

Part adventure tale, part leadership guide, Leading at The Edge demonstrates the power of strong leadership in times of adversity, uncertainty, and change. This engaging and practical book reveals Ten Strategies for Success™, illustrating how leaders can:

• Instill optimism while staying grounded in reality

• Have the courage to step up to risks worth taking

• Consistently reinforce the team message

• Set a personal example

• Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about

• Never give up—there’s always another move!

The second edition features new case studies highlighting the strategies in action, tools to uncover and resolve conflicts, and expanded resources. An updated epilogue compares Shackleton’s leadership style with that of famed polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott, and offers insights into how their contrasting approaches led to strikingly different outcomes.

Today’s leaders have much to learn from this gripping account of survival against all odds. Leading at The Edge will help them navigate the rough waters of any turbulent environment and achieve success in the face of adversity.

Advance Praise for Leading at the Edge

“Shackleton’s extraordinary adventure demonstrates invaluable, practical traits of leadership. I could not recommend Leading at the Edge more highly.”

— John H. Dalton, Former Secretary of the Navy

“Fascinating. Great story after story, along with important learnings about leadership.”

— Ed Lawler, Director, Center for Effective Organizations, USC

DENNIS N. T. PERKINS, Ph.D., is Chief Executive Officer of The Syncretics Group, a consult­ing firm dedicated to effective leadership in demanding environments. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he served as a Marine company commander and later a faculty member of the Yale School of Management. He has taken his passion for The Edge to Antarctica, where he retraced Shackleton’s journey, and now resides in Madison, Connecticut.

MARGARET P. HOLTMAN, PAUL R. KESSLER, and CATHERINE McCARTHY, Ph.D., are consultants specializing in leadership, coaching, and team development.

DENNIS PERKINS is the author of Leading at The Edge and CEO of Syncretics Group, a consulting firm dedicated to helping leaders and teams thrive under conditions of adversity, uncertainty, and change. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, he successfully completed his first Sydney Hobart Race in 2006. JILLIAN B. MURPHY is the Director of Client Services at Syncretics.

Margaret P. Holtman is director of employee development at Hartford Life, Inc. Paul R. Kessler is a managing consultant at Stromberg Consulting. Catherine McCarthy, Ph.D., is a principal of the consulting firm Kaye

CHAPTER 1

Leaders who take their organizations to The Edge must channel energy

toward two equally important goals. First, they must continually be

aware of their ultimate destination—their longer-term, strategic objective.

This ultimate goal, however, may be distant and uncertain. So while

pursuing this long-term target, leaders also must be vigilant in focusing

the scarce resources of the organization on the critical short-term tasks

that create momentum and ensure survival. Ernest Shackleton demon-

strated an almost uncanny mastery of these two essential, but very

different, leadership skills.

Be Willing to Find a “New Mark”

It is hard to imagine a bleaker scene than the one surrounding the de-

mise of Endurance. Shackleton and his crew had suffered as the ship

was slowly, inexorably crushed by millions of tons of ice. For days, they

watched the death agony of the ship, waiting helplessly as their floating

home disintegrated plank by plank.

Even with the uncertainty of the shifting ice, wind, and ocean, life

aboard ship had followed a relatively predictable routine.The crew had

warm food and the comforting security of a familiar environment. Now,

marooned on the ice and snow, their familiar, stable world had been

turned upside down.

With the end of Endurance, Shackleton saw his dream of crossing the

Antarctic Continent die as well. And he faced more than failure:

Shackleton was not expected by the world to reappear until February

1916, and his chances of rescue were nonexistent.

In this wrenching moment of personal challenge, however, Shackleton

was able to shift quickly his long-term goal from the crossing of the

continent to bringing every man back alive. Refocusing his efforts, he

wrote, “A man must shape himself to a new mark, directly the old one

goes to ground.”2 With no prospect of rescue, facing an unknown fu-

ture with little chance of survival, he turned to his crew and simply

said: “So now we’ll go home.”3

How was Shackleton able to exercise this kind of tenacity in the face

of such overwhelming adversity? He certainly had his private doubts,

writing in his diary,“I pray God I can manage to get the whole party to

civilization.”4 Acutely aware of his responsibilities as the leader,

Shackleton let go of his original plan, shifted his focus, and devoted

himself completely to this new mission. By the intensity of his conviction

and the force of his will, he instilled in others the deep belief that they

would achieve their new goal: returning safely, without loss of life.

Lessons for Leaders

Efforts to explore the unknown are inherently filled with unexpected

events. Changing environmental conditions and shifting opportunities are

part of any truly innovative, challenging adventure.This means that, as a

leader, you need to be willing to shift both long- and short-term goals

without clinging to the past. Additionally, you must be able to commit to

these new goals with as much passion and energy as you did to the orig-

inal mark.

A classic business example of this is CEO Andy Grove’s decision to

alter Intel’s direction. Intel, a company known for microprocessors, was

once primarily a maker of memory chips. In the mid-1980s, Japanese

chipmakers moved to win away Intel’s chip business by undercutting its

prices by 10 percent.The Japanese were successful, and Intel lost $173

million in one year.

After considering many options, Grove determined to take Intel out

of the memory-chip business and make a commitment to microprocessor

manufacturing. In coming to this decision, Grove asked his colleague

and former Intel CEO Gordon Moore a hypothetical question: “If we

got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think

he would do?”5

Moore told Grove that this new CEO would take the company out

of the memory-chip business. Grove decided that rather than wait for his

successor to change things, he would do it himself.Thereafter, resources

were redirected into developing Intel microprocessors, a business sector

then secondary to chips.This new direction provided the foundation for

Intel’s future success.

Intel continued to adapt to changing demand by looking beyond the

microprocessor market. While projections for PC sales fell, Intel boldly

acquired assets in the cable-modem chip, wireless chip, and security soft-

ware businesses. It redirected resources to new product lines: Intel chips

for tablet computers and smartphones.6 With each of these moves, Intel

was finding a new mark and forging ahead in Shackleton style.

* * * * *

Turn the page to enjoy an excerpt from

Into the Storm: Lessons in Teamwork from the Treacherous Sydney-to-Hobart Ocean Race

Dennis N.T. Perkins and Jillian B. Murphy

Coming Fall 2012

Arthur Psaltis watches the boat’s digital readout as the wind speed

races from thirty-five knots, to forty, and then forty-five knots. At

sixty knots, the readout suddenly goes blank.Arthur stares at the

empty screen.Then it hits him:The metal fitting that holds the wind

meter on top of the mast has been torn off, rendering the instrument

useless.

The next blast...