Crisis Leadership Lessons from Polar Explorer Ernest Shackleton

In early 1915, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship became trapped in ice, north of Antarctica. For almost two years, he and his crew braved those frozen expanses. Then, in December 1916, Shackleton led them all to safety. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor and historian Nancy Koehn analyzes Shackleton’s leadership during those two fateful years that he and his men struggled to survive — including how he assembled a team capable of weathering a crisis and the important role that empathy played in his day-to-day leadership.