NOLS Leadership Skills: Expedition Behaviour

Endurance trapped in pack ice during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

"Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency 

but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, 

get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." 

Sir Earnest Shackleton is legendary for the most successful failure in Antarctic exploration.  Away from his expeditions, Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled. In his search for shortcuts to wealth and security, he launched businesses which failed, and he died damaged by alcohol and heavily in debt. 

When it came to Antarctic expeditions, however, there was no one like Shackleton.  

For his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–17, he chose his crew, largely based on his knowledge of what's needed and on his gut.  He was a master of fund-raising.   His ship, Endurance, is a story in herself.  She left the whaling station of Grytviken on the South Georgia Island on December 5, 1914 heading for the southern regions of Antarctica's Weddell Sea.  On January 19, 1915, Endurance became frozen fast in an ice floe.  On October 24, she began taking on water.  On November 21, 1915, Endurance finally slipped beneath the surface.  And that's when the real heroism began.  

Shackleton led his entire crew back to civilization in what is nothing less than a miraculous, remarkable, journey, and which ultimately included even a joyride of a glissade to the whaling station on South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.   You can read all about it in Alfred Lansing's, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.  Talk about expedition behavior.

When I took my classic 26-day Outward Bound course, at Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, my instructor was Sam Scott, and our watch name?  Shackleton.  

Last time we introduced the seven NOLS leadership skills.  Today we're looking at the first: expedition behaviour.  You'll remember that the seven skills are part of the 4/7/1 Leadership Education Model that includes four roles and one signature style.  These seven NOLS leadership skills are a holistic skill set to be applied situationally and in combination with each other.  

Then as now, here's what good expedition behavior looks like in the 21st century: 

• Serve the mission and goals of the group. 
• Be as concerned for others as you are for yourself. 
• Treat everyone with dignity and respect.  
• Support leadership and growth in everyone.  
• Respect the cultures you come in contact with.  
• Be kind and open-hearted.  
• Do your share and stay organized.  
• Help others, but don't routinely do their work.  
• Model integrity by being honest and accountable.  
• Say yes and deliver, or say no clearly if you cannot.  
• Resolve conflict in a productive manner.  

Shackleton was forced to land on the wrong side of South Georgia Island.  He then travelled 32 miles (51 km) with two crew members over extremely dangerous mountainous terrain for 36 hours to reach the whaling station at Stromness on May 20, 1916, one year, four months, and one day after Endurance was beset in ice.  Long story short, he went back and got everyone else.  Alive.  Sir Shackleton was a brilliant sea captain, a courageous sailor and a studied master of men.  He knew how to strike the right balance with an intuitive genius that made their "failure" perhaps the most remarkable seafaring success in history. 

Next: Competence 

Note: This is the fourth in an occasional series on leadership, drawing from the NOLS Leadership Education Notebook. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoors skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms.