Conscientiousness!

A conscientious person is a manager's dream and conscientiousness is a personality trait that many interviewers look for in a candidate? What is it? Conscientiousness is the trait of being painstaking and careful, or the quality of acting according to the dictates of one's conscience. It includes such elements as self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization, deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting), and need for achievement. It is an aspect of what has traditionally been called character. Conscientious individuals are generally hard working and reliable. When taken to an extreme, they may also be workaholics, perfectionists, and compulsive in their behavior. People who are low on conscientiousness are not necessarily lazy or immoral, but they tend to be more laid back, less goal oriented, and less driven by success.
During my time I have seen, interacted and read about some amazingly conscientious people but to my mind, Ernst Shackleton would easily walk away with all the prizes. Shackleton was the explorers explorer & attempted to reach the final frontier, the South Pole by sea. The expedition was doomed and his ship the 'Endurance' was crushed between ice floes, but amidst desperately trying circumstances, Shackleton brought each of his 27 men back home alive, after being stranded on pack ice for over a couple of years. His men trusted him with their lives because they knew that he would never cut them loose to save his own skin.Shackleton's crew subsisted on penguin and seal blubber, for months together in biting cold but the team never lost its morale.
In 1914, Shackleton made his third trip to the Antarctic with the ship 'Endurance', planning to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. Early in 1915, 'Endurance' became trapped in the ice, and ten months later sank. Shackleton's crew had already abandoned the ship to live on the floating ice. In April 1916, they set off in three small boats, eventually reaching Elephant Island. Taking five crew members, Shackleton went to find help. In a small boat, the six men spent 16 days crossing 1,300 km of ocean to reach South Georgia and then trekked across the island to a whaling station. The remaining men from the 'Endurance' were rescued in August 1916. Not one member of the expedition died.
The story of Shackleton & his ship ( a wood hull one at that ) captured the collective imagination of the world and today Ernst Shackleton is celebrated as a great leader,and many a management school has run leadership courses on his expedition to the South Pole. Shackleton failed in his endeavour and lost his ship the Endurance, but in doing so became legend and to me remains the epitome of conscientiousness. In my book a conscientious person would stand taller than a brilliant one and I guess most HR Managers would agree!