Leading at The Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition - Softcover

Perkins, Dennis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814431941 ISBN 13: 9780814431948

Publisher: AMACOM, 2012

Synopsis

Drawing on the amazing story of a polar exploration team’s survival against all odds, author Dennis N. T. Perkins demonstrates the importance of a strong leader in times of adversity, uncertainty, and change. Part adventure tale and part leadership guide, Leading at the Edge uncovers what the legendary Antarctic adventure of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of twenty-seven polar explorers can teach us about bringing order to chaos through true leadership. Among other skills, you’ll learn how to instill optimism while staying grounded in reality, step up to risks worth taking, consistently reinforce your team message, set a personal example, find things to celebrate, laugh small things off, and--even in the face of extreme temperatures, hazardous ice, dwindling food, and complete isolation--never give up.The book’s second edition features additional lessons, new case studies of the strategies in action, tools to uncover and resolve conflicts, and expanded resources. An updated epilogue compares the leadership styles of the famous polar explorers Shackleton, Amundsen, and Scott, which transcend the one-hundred-plus years since their historic race to the South Pole to help today’s leaders learn valuable lessons about the meaning of true success.

About this title

Book Description:

For the 100th anniversary of the Race to the South Pole, a fresh look at what Shackleton's legendary Antarctic adventure can teach us about true leadership.

Stranded in the frozen Antarctic sea for nearly two years, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of 27 polar explorers endured extreme temperatures, hazardous ice, dwindling food, and complete isolation. Despite these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the group remained cohesive, congenial, and mercifully alive—a fact that speaks not just to luck but to an unparalleled feat of leadership.

Drawing on this amazing story, Leading at The Edge demonstrates the importance of a strong leader in times of adversity, uncertainty, and change. The book reveals 10 timeless leadership lessons that show readers how to:

· Instill optimism while staying grounded in reality

· Have the courage to step up to risks worth taking

· Consistently reinforce the team message

· Set a personal example

· Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about

· Never give up

Part adventure tale, part leadership guide, the second edition features additional lessons, new case studies of the strategies in action, tools to uncover and resolve conflicts, and expanded resources. An updated epilogue compares the leadership styles of the famous polar explorers Shackleton, Amundsen, and Scott.

Today’s leaders have much to learn from this gripping account of survival against all odds. Leading at The Edge will help them bring order to chaos—and achieve success in the face of adversity.

From the Inside Flap:

At the age of 26, Bo Parfet seemed like just another ordinary guy working as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan when he arranged his first major mountain climb—of Mt.Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest and fiercest mountain. He was no professional climber, nor was he in any kind of shape to be tackling any major peak. To the trained mountaineer, Parfet would have seemed foolhardy. But in just four years, with perseverance and unbelievable courage, he managed to successfully complete his quest to scale all Seven Summits, including Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Denali, Vinson Massif, Elbrus, Carstenz Pyramid, Kosciusko, and Everest—the highest peaks on the seven continents—defying all odds and cheating death at every turn.

Combining the gripping narrative of Into Thin Air with the adrenaline-fueled drama of Vertical Limit, Die Trying is the incredible story of one man’s battle against his own limitations. From dodging avalanches to crossing a ladder over a seemingly bottomless crevasse, to making his way through the Khumbu Icefall and burying a dead teammate at 27, 000 feet, we experience all of the author’s exhilarating, often terrifying climbs first-hand. We share the terror of his confrontations with corrupt army officials, cannibalistic tribesmen, and local militia groups, and we follow this ultimate everyman blessed with the opportunity to undertake an extraordinary journey of exploration and self-discovery as he survives on a diet of fried bats and rats in New Guinea and nearly dies after falling into a crevasse when the ground beneath him gave way on Mt. Cook. Recounting such life-on-the-line experiences as almost drowning in crocodile-infested rapids during a canoe race in Belize to pushing himself to the brink of starvation and complete physical exhaustion, Die Trying is a compilation of extraordinary experiences—each one a totally unique, self-contained story—that illustrate not only the complexity of Bo’s amazing vision and ability to extract the possible from the seemingly impossible, but also the all-too-human struggles that we all share. Enlightening and gripping, Die Trying is the compelling story of man’s quest to conquer nature—and his own fears.

 

Bo Parfet was a postgraduate research fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and an investment banking analyst for J.P. Morgan. He summited Kilimanjaro in 2003 and has been climbing ever since. He established the Seven Summits Awards Program as a specialized research grant for The Explorers Club’s Youth Activities Grant Program funded by both his personal contributions and various capital campaigns. This program awards students grants to perform health-care-related field research. He has also established a partnership between The Explorers Club and The Kellogg School of Management, where seasoned explorers lecture on campus about leadership lessons learned from exploration. He lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

 

Richard Buskin is a New York Times bestselling author whose books include the biographies Sheryl Crow: No Fool to This Game and Princess Diana. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

 

 

About this edition

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0814431941
• ISBN 13: 9780814431948
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 288