I would say the highlight was being on the polar ice cap, somewhere so remote, where so few people go, and just looking for miles and seeing ice, beautiful cracks and ridges. Being somewhere special so far away, even though you know you are not welcome because of the elements.

When you do these kind of things you take time out from everything and it’s quite nice to have a reset and a refresh and you come back energised and your mind’s strong and you’ve missed your family and your work, everything. I think it’s the benefit of having a good break, where you can’t get a cell- phone call, you can’t get anything, that would be my highlight.

What did you learn about leadership and teamwork from the trip?

I think humour, and then keeping your wits about you are very important things. We were fortunate that during the entire trip there was not a single incident of negativity between the team members.

We had been warned by people who had been on Polar expeditions that because of the severity of the conditions and the hard physical demand on your body and the mental challenges, best of friends could actually hate each other after a few days. We really didn’t have that. When one of the team started battling a bit people took some of his load, and that made it humorous, rather than making him feel judged. The team stuck together.

From a leadership point of view, what Sean did well was selecting people who can cope well in such an environment. It only takes one or two team members to not be like-minded, to have someone who is moaning and being negative, someone who is critical of others. That would have changed the whole dynamics of the team.

Sean spent a lot of effort choosing who comes on this trip. He only chose people whom he knew well.

The lesson as a leader is to select your team very carefully as with the right team you can conquer anything. A 90% correct team can suffer, as the other 10% will pull the rest down.

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