Running head: Shackleton’s Way Analysis
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Shackleton’s Way Analysis
David Becerra
North Greenville University
Shackleton’s Way Analysis
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Shackleton’s Way Analysis
In the book Shackleton’s Way it is shown steps to become a great leader.
Shackleton is regarded as the best leader ever because of the way he led his men through
an unsuspected grueling voyage. Throughout the book many lessons are shown to what to
look out for, and what to do to encourage men. The main reason for this is because without
all of these skills that are shown in the book, it is done to lead people, many of the crew
members under Shackletons order would have died or have made bad decisions. The book
is essentially made of 7 different lessons, or steps to become a leader using Shackleton’s
strategies.
The first of these strategies is that of having good core values. Shackleton
was brought up by a hard working farming family (Huntford). He has the right hard
working values implemented in him since he was born. His father originally wanted for
Shackleton to continue to study and become a doctor, but shackleton didn’t see the same
vision and looked to join the merchant navy where he fell in love with traveling and sailing
(Huntford). During this time with the navy is when Shackleton became obsessed with
reaching the South Pole. His dream was then crushed when another explorer was able to
reach the South Pole before him, so he set out to be able to navigate from one end of the
Antarctic to the other, while crossing the South Pole. During the navy time this is where
Shackleton also got some new connections for his future voyages, also found ways to
(Capparell, 2002)recruit people for long voyages. Typically during this time of his career
was his training days, he learned to become disciplined, learned traits of leadership, while
also learning how to control a boat on dangerous waters (Huntford). Without having going
through these life experience it’s safe to say that Shackleton’s ways of leaderships would
Shackleton’s Way Analysis
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have been drastically different. These experiences shaped the way Shackleton became a
man, and a leader to the men in his book.
One of the most important parts of a voyage is the people in the voyage.
Shackleton learned this lesson when he was in the navy. He learned the ability to know
what kind of personalities and abilities people had. Using this ability that he learned
Shackleton brought and hired old faces from the past and new faces to the voyage to cross
the South Pole (Capparell, 2002, p. 53). Frank Wild was one of his best mates where he
meets while being in the navy, Frank was a very important character in the story, because
of the relationship they had, and also the relationship Frank was able to build with the crew.
Shackleton’s ability to hire Frank ultimately helped him in the long run because Frank was
the second in command in the crew, and when Shackleton had to leave part of the crew