Another Leadership Advice
Each of us needs to be good leaders so I'm posting again some leadership advices from work....

The Power of Leadership Storytelling
By: Melissa Delin

Historical Leadership Stories: Shackleton's Way

The story of Ernest Shackleton and his doomed 1914 expedition to Antarctica aboard the vessel Endurance is fraught with drama, hazard, and valuable lessons in team leadership. The tale, which has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent months, strikes a chord with training and development professionals who see meaningful parallels between Shackleton's leadership style and the kind of leadership necessary to navigate the rough waters of today's business environment.

The mission of the Endurance expedition was to cross a 1,800-mile expanse of Antarctica on foot. Just one day's journey from its intended landing site, the ship became stuck in the polar ice of the Weddell Sea. The ice dragged the vessel for ten months and eventually crushed her, forcing the crew to abandon ship. The men salvaged Endurance's lifeboats before she inevitably sank but they were stranded with no means of communicating with the outside world and no hope of timely rescue.

The group camped out on the ice, sleeping in crude tents and subsisting on a diet of penguins, seals, and dogs. Knowing that they would die if despair and hopelessness took hold, Shackleton, or "the Boss," as the crew dubbed him, made sure that the men felt useful and productive. They had to believe that they were actively trying to get out of their predicament, and that if they worked together, that they would succeed. Shackleton had to balance negative and positive energy to make sure that the naysayers among them wouldn't destroy the group's fragile confidence. To get the men working together, he dropped all pretenses of hierarchy and treated everyone, including himself, as equals. He set up work assignments on a rotating schedule so that everyone did the same tasks. On occasion, he even stepped aside and let another member of the group assume leadership. To encourage the men to remain in good spirits, he insisted that they play music, keep journals, create and perform skits, and otherwise engage their minds creatively.

After nearly six months of living on the ice, the Endurancecrew braved the turbulent waters of the Weddell Sea and set sail in their lifeboats to Elephant Island. Shackleton left to seek rescue, leaving the majority of the men on Elephant Island. Eventually, Shackleton and a small crew returned to rescue the men of the Endurance. Amazingly, there were zero casualties.

Shackleton is lauded for his bravery and tenacity in times of grave peril. The members of the Endurancecrew credit their survival to the might of their leader, a claim that is thoroughly documented in the book Shackleton's Way by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell. Morrell and Capparell also explore how companies today are using Shackleton's story to inspire teamwork and commitment within their own organizations. The Shackleton story is highly effective, as he employed leadership cornerstones that are universally applicable and steeped in collaboration and positive thinking.

He led by example, never assigning work to any man that he would not do himself. He insisted on open communication among the team, built on a foundation of trust. He built morale among his team; he maintained an image of capability and resilience, never expressed doubt that they would see safe rescue, and created and sustained a feeling of optimism. His leadership style appeals to many of today's leadership values: direct, unguarded communication, democratic voice, flat structure, valuing people, and high morale. Overall, Shackleton's story demonstrates the power of leadership in its purest, and possibly most powerful, form.

The Power of Leadership Stories

Leadership storytelling is fast becoming one of the most popular methods of developing leaders, for many basic reasons. It's not difficult - anyone can do it, everyone has a story to tell, and every story is relevant and significant. Additionally, storytelling is contagious - one person sharing their story to a group leads to others in the group sharing their stories with each other.

The human element of a corporate environment is endlessly complex - tiers of responsibility, clear and covert sources of power, entities with conflicting objectives, unspoken sentiments, suspicious motives, multifarious personalities and temperaments - progress is often stymied by poor communication. Organizations are learning that sharing leadership stories helps to inspire partnership and truthfulness, which allows employees to let go of the rhetoric and politicking that may be overshadowing real breakthrough work.

Whether they are personal, heroic, or historical, sharing leadership stories creates shared learning and understanding within a group by bringing personal goals and beliefs into business discussions. Organizations that use storytelling as a leadership tool find that, on a personal level, engaging in candid discussion raises the comfort and confidence level of individuals. On a team level, heightened confidence leads to an increase in the flow of opinions, ideas, and breakthroughs in group situations. And on an organizational level, teams and business units operating at top performance boost the number and quality of interactions, improve the quality of outputs, and lead to increased business results throughout the organization.