344: Mark Brown: Leadership From the Wilderness to the Workplace

Subscribe: RSS

How Should We Lead In An Uncertain World?

Mark Brown

For more than 20 years, Mark M. Brown worked as a field instructor and program manager for Outward Bound. He developed some of the first leadership development programs that utilized Outward Bound principles inside organizations.

Mark has worked with companies such as the Home Depot, Charlotte Pipe and Foundry, and Cox Enterprises. He later joined the leadership team of a New England company using Expeditionary Leadership principles to transform its culture.

Mark is the author of Outward Bound Lessons to Live a Life of Leadership: To Serve, to Strive, and Not to Yield. It explores the concept of Expeditionary Leadership through the stories of people who went on to make a positive difference in the world.

Mark currently works as a master organizational guide, executive coach and consultant, leading people and organizations to thrive through change. He also serves on the advisory board of several organizations, including two technology start-ups and the University of New Hampshire and Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.

What We Discuss With Mark Brown In This Episode

Mark’s journey
What is Outward Bound
Observing different behavior dynamics in the wilderness
“Soft skills” as the nuts and bolts of effective leadership
How do you captain a ship of leaders?
How to instill expeditionary leadership qualities in the workplace

Transcript Highlights

Leadership in the Wilderness

Expeditionary leadership is far more transformational than having a discussion in a meeting room.

Outward Bound is the oldest outdoor education adventure education program in the world. It was started during World War II in Great Britain to give young merchant seamen powerful experience so they could survive the adversity of their ships being sunk in the North Sea.

Mark has led wilderness trips all over North America, through whitewater trips, backpacking, canyoneering trips before he got into management, and ran a program for Outward Bound for a couple of years. He also opened a sales department, having sold programs to companies, schools, private schools, universities across the upper Midwest.

In designing leadership programs, he saw the crossover between what Outward Bound does in the wilderness and what it could do inside an organization and how these things fit together.

What People Get from Expeditionary Leadership Training

The training is not about turning people into rock climbers or paddlers, but it’s to help people learn about themselves as they overcome doubts and fears.

There’s also an element of community experience being with a group of people. Sometimes, it’s not about overcoming your fears, but also finding a sense of belonging with a group of people.

Typically, people face those moments where they’re pushed to the edge of their abilities.

“Soft Skills” as The Nuts and Bolts of Effective Leadership

Our world is changing so quickly right now that we can’t even keep up with the pace. All this machine learning or AI in the workplace is bringing this huge change.

The things we used to do as managers can and will continue to be done more and more by machines. At that point, what’s left are machines that can never understand the intricate interactions between people.

Understand that a certain style of operating principle will make someone more or less than effective in a certain environment. Recognize that if you want to motivate people inside an organization, there are certain things that really matter and they tend to be around a shared purpose.

It’s More Than Just Money

If you want to hire the right kind of people, people who are aligned with the values of your company, and if you have a clearly articulated, compelling purpose for why you exist as a company, that’s about more than just making money.

It doesn’t mean making money is bad. But when making money is the byproduct, not the intention and you create a place where people can grow and learn and feel supported, you’ll be rewarded by loyalty and hard work. That is the next target area of human performance that leaders need.

Being the Captain in a Ship of Leaders

We’re all crew and not passengers. You never know who’s going to be that person who rises until you get into a place where you create an environment where they all have the opportunity. That happens by design within our experience, but it can happen in any environment.

How to Instill Expeditionary Leadership Qualities in the Workplace

There’s a specific evolutionary process that a leader, a team, or an organization goes through. It’s a journey. This is a process that will happen over many months for a leader to make this kind of change. And that requires good self-inventory.

Assessment work covenant structure – getting a clear definition of where are you as a leader (inventory of your strengths and areas of growth)
Setting developmental goals – bringing in your team and looking at the same things
Team growth – identifying the organizational change that’s going on

Episode Resources

Free Guide: Expeditionary Leadership Guide to Team Alignment
Book: Outward Bound Lessons to Live a Life of Leadership

Connect With Mark Brown and Outward Bound

Did You Enjoy The Podcast?

If you enjoyed this episode please let us know! 5-star reviews for the Leaders Of Transformation podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora or Stitcher are greatly appreciated. This helps us reach more purpose-driven entrepreneurs seeking to make a positive impact in the world. Thank you. Together, we make a difference!

Additional Episodes You May Like

Tags:

How Should We Lead In An Uncertain World?