Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer

So its a really famous book Shackleton's Way - loads of books reference it so I thought I'd better go to the source. Unfortunately a lot of its learnings have already been covered by the books that reference it so there wasn't anything new in there for me. As an audio book I had to fight through it to complete the book, but glad I've taken the time to read it.

Shackleton's Way is another good book for the Navy Reading List. The book is a very abbreviated version of the history of Shackleton and his many expeditions to the South Pole. The subtitle of the book “Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer” lives up to its name. In many ways Shackleton's life was one failure after another if the measuring stick is the completion of the goals he set out to accomplish. Shackleton never reached the South Pole, but his leadership may have been the greater accomplishment. I enjoyed reading this book at many levels. It was a simple book, well written and a good telling of the story. I think the leadership principles pulled from Shackleton's life and his very words were spot on. I never read the self help kinds of books, but using a man's life as a model has advantages. The greatest encouragement for me was seeing some of my own leadership habits in Shackleton. I have never taken credit for my style being my own, but an amalgamation of men I have been under or studied. The greatest advice my father ever gave me, when looking at men I had under my authority was, “look at the man first and his talent second.” Shackleton did this too, and that is the second thing my dad never told me, but lived – love your men in your actions.

I loved it