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About this Episode:

In this episode of the Transformative Leader Podcast, I’m happy to bring you a conversation with leadership consultant and former Outward Bound instructor, Mark Brown, about how braving the wilderness can help us to become better leaders by teaching us about courage, teamwork, empathy, human potential, and much more. In his new book, Outward Bound Lessons to Live a Life of Leadership: To Serve, to Strive, and Not To Yield, Mark takes his 10-year career as a consultant, and 20-year career as an Outward Bound instructor, and presents a holistic philosophy—originally used to prepare sailors for sea-rescue—to call forth the leader within, through exposure to physical and mental discomfort.

Mark provides business leaders with a philosophy of meaning. Not by trying to motivate others strictly through extrinsic factors, but by rooting a business model in a deep sense of purpose, providing employees a “mission” to go achieve, rather than just a “job,” and framing obstacles as challenges to be overcome through resilience, ingenuity, and courage of the human spirit. For 20 years, Mark worked for Outward Bound, and now he's using the lessons he learned in this role to help businesses utilize the human potential they have, and serve a higher business standard, one that has a positive impact on the community while also paying mind to creating profit.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, two of my greatest passions in life are leadership and communing with Nature, so when I say Mark is a kindred spirit, I mean it! This was a great conversation about how a holistic approach to humanness also entails a holistic understanding and application of our innate leadership and self-leadership capabilities. This is a fascinating and deep episode that listeners will not want to miss!

Some topics discussed in this episode include:

• How Mark found himself thrust into the world of an Outward Bound instructor, and the origins of the Outward Bound organization.

• Why wilderness experiences can teach people about so-called “soft skills“ that will make them better leaders and better people.

• How experienced such as Outward Bound cultivate a sense of empathy, compassion, and teamwork, and why that’s so important for organizations to be successful.

• What is Expeditionary Leadership and how organizations can implement their own leadership expeditions.

• And much more…

Mark Brown is the author of Outward Bound Lessons to Live a Life of Leadership: To Serve, to Strive, and Not To Yield. Originally a native of Northeastern Ohio, Mark moved to Naples, Florida where he worked as a writer and magazine editor. After taking a temporary job as a van driver for Outward Bound in Minnesota, he helped successfully search for and rescue a teenage boy that had become separated from the group. After this, Outward Bound asked him to become an instructor which began a 22-year working relationship with the organization, during which he accrued over 1,000 days in the wilderness. Mark earned a master’s degree in business/entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University and has since served as a transformational leadership consultant in a variety of industries. He has appeared in Forbes, Inc and The Adventure Sports Podcast.

Guest Links:

To learn more about Mark and his work, you can visit his website. You can connect with Mark on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

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