What happens when you combine the spine-tingling adventures of a group of intrepid adventurers with a thoughtful exploration of personal leadership at its best? Shackleton's Way by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell. This new book seamlessly combines two of my passions (adventure travel and relationship-oriented leadership.) Read it for the true-life adventure epic. Read it for the practical leadership insights. Or, read it for both. In any case, Shackleton's Way deserves a place on your bookshelf.

From the Publisher:

A thrilling survival story makes an inspirational handbook for a new generation of leaders

He has been called the greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none. In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton led twenty-seven men, for almost two years, through a harrowing fight for their lives after the wreck of their Antarctic vessel, Endurance, left them stranded on an ice floe twelve hundred miles from civilization. But every man survived. And every man ascribed it to Shackleton's superb leadership.

Nearly a century later, this once-overlooked explorer is riding a wave of "Shackleton mania." Shackleton's Way draws on anecdotes, crew diaries, contemporary material, and interviews with some of today's leaders to illustrate Shackleton's tactics. Here readers will learn how to manage crises with limited personnel and resources, how to create order out of chaos, how to hire good workers, how to support and inspire employees to do their best, and how to lead by personal example—with optimism, egalitarianism, humor, strength, ingenuity, intelligence, and compassion. Shackleton's Way is a fascinating and practical case study of a leader who triumphed by putting people first and striving for the seemingly impossible.

A great idea for holiday reading. Satisfy your armchair Indiana Jones and your practical "ought to be reading something useful" side at the same time.

Click to order Shackleton's Way -- Leadership Lessons From the Great Antarctic Explorer through Amazon. Copyright 2001.

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