As part of our management theory in practice module we had to watch a film based around Ernest Shackleton who was a Polar explorer leading 3 expeditions in his lifetime. This particular film is based around his 2nd expedition, where his ship landed up freezing into the ice and he lead 12 of his men to safety after months of being stranded. We particularly viewed his leadership styles, along with level-5 leaders: those who lead good to great.
Throughout this year I have been quite fascinated to find out the different types of leaders. Before this course I didn’t know what leadership really is. And although there isn’t one answer to this, I believe our group has a very good idea now of what a true leader looks like.
If you are loud, controlling and know what you are doing, it does not make you a good leader. If people look to you for answers, you are not particularity a leader. A leader is someone who praised in public and practices in private, someone who bring out the best in their team and everyone around them, someone who doesn’t always have the answer but have an ability to extract great things from others.
Ernest Shackleton was a man who was very good at showing his emotions. If he was anything like they portrayed him to be in the film then I would have thought he had everything under control. He had a vision, and nothing was going to get in the way of that. And most important to me, was his absolute indistinctive drive to protect his men.
He was not necessarily the most appraisable or friendly man, but he would do anything in his power to make sure those around him came first. This is a true leader. In his success, he praised those around him and where he showed heart, it was for a good reason to either motivate those around him, or build his men up to the strengths they needed to be. Everything was done for a particular purpose.
We have 7 great leaders in our group who have grown and developed over the year. Each individual has their special talents and characteristics which we have come to realize of those around us, and of ourselves. We have put ourselves in each others shoes in order to better understand each others and have never lost focus of our team goal. We pull each other back onto the path we want to be on, the path that will make us achieve.
I would definitely recommend this film in seeing how one great man lead his team back to safety, as we strive to be as great a leader as he was,
Pandacoustics- “We are leading to learn, and learning to lead”.
The UCT Genesis Project 2013 