Sandja Brügmann contributes to Gurubogen, a new book on innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership

The new Danish book “Gurubogen” is a collection of articles from 100 leading business innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world. Sandja Brügmann contributes with an article on how investing in leadership and organizational consciousness is needed to drive both sustainability, social-good and thrivability.

“I fremtiden er det kun brands, som arbejder for at gøre livet bedre for menneskeheden, der vil overleve. De ledere, vi udpeger til at guide os, skal derfor også findes blandt dem, som er i stand til at skabe bedre liv.” – Sandja Brügmann, excerpt from her article Fremtidens leder er autentisk, passioneret, modig og formålsdrevet.

English translation: “In the future it is only brands that strive to make life better for humanity that will survive. The leaders we elect to guide us need to be found among those able to create better lives.” – Sandja Brügmann, excerpt from her article The Leader of the Future is authentic, passionate, courageous and purpose-driven.

The book was created to give inspiration and real action-oriented advice to entrepreneurs and organizations across all industries and markets. In these articles, the contributors talk about their ideas and experiences with innovation, entrepreneurship and authentic leadership.

You will learn:

• What corporate executives can learn from entrepreneurs and vice versa

• How you become more authentic as a leader & why this is important

• Why some ideas fail when others succeed

• The ‘often missing’ link between Business and Purpose

• How to listen in the right places, and how to use silence to create better relations

• How to turn innovation into your culture

• The importance of focusing on culture and the human aspect of business

The book contains so many exciting perspectives and learnings from a wide array of inspiring global and Danish leaders – a few of our favorites come from Chip Conley (Joie de Vivre), Brian Chesky (Airbnb), Peter Keriner (NOMA), Simon Sinek (Start with Why), Seth Godin (Social media guru), Tania Ellis (social business company), Robin Sharma, Johan Bülow (Lakrids), Pascal Finette (Singularity University), Otto Scharmer (Theory U) .. as I start to liste some, I just want to list all - a list of the gurus here.

The book released November 15, 2016. Order your copy in Danish only here. English translation coming in 2017!

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SANDJA BRÜGMANN is a sustainable communication & conscious business and leadership advisor, international speaker and serial-entrepreneur. She has worked with the global business community to create sustainable & social-good change for the past 15 years. She advocates for systemic solution thinking to drive business to be part of the solution, investing in personal and organizational consciousness, and a shift where success is measured in the 5P bottom line: Passion, purpose, people, planet and profit. In her business portfolio are respected companies like Sustainable Brands, Crocs, Spier, ITO EN, Kashi, Gaia, The Body Shop, Sustainia and University of Colorado Boulder.

Sandja is an external lecturer at University of Colorado Boulder’s Masters of the Environment program (MENV), where she is teaching conscious leadership and social entrepreneurship.

A regularly featured expert in leading international business and sustainable lifestyle media including Inc Magazine, Business Insider, Huffington Post, CBS, Markedsføring, Yoga Journal, Organic Spa Magazine, YFS Magazine, LOHAS Journal, Bureau Biz and spoken at leading conferences Sustainable Brands (Copenhagen), Natural products Expo West (USA), Natural Products Expo East (USA), Social Media Week (Copenhagen), Global Entrepreneurship Week Big Blab Event and Women’s Leadership Summit.

She is a certified shadow facilitator, a certified yoga teacher, former Danish national archery champion and Olympic hopeful. Founder/CEO of Refresh Agency and The Passion Institute. 

Connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Partnering with Sustainable Brands in Copenhagen

We are delighted to announce our partnership with Sustainable Brands. The leading global conference on sustainable business, innovation and leadership is coming to Copenhagen September 26.-28. 2016 bringing together the Northern European business community to collaborate, knowledge share, solution-drive how sustainability-led innovation can be an essential driver of business success and value creation.  Website here.

Refresh Agency's CEO, Sandja Brügmann, will lead a communication panel discussion and break-out workshop: Purpose-driven Storytelling through Mainstream Media

Refresh Agency's network receive benefits at SB'16 Copenhagen

You can now attend one the the world's most exciting and leading sustainability discussions and inserting your company and leadership in the middle of a highly collaborative and action oriented global conversation. You receive 20% off your registration fee at Sustainable Brands Copenhagen 2016. 

Use code RAsb16cph and register here.

Avoid common pitfalls and grow your business faster

Being a successful leader and entrepreneur of a business - be it small start-up or large international in scope - requires a series of specific, inner-personality skills, the majority of which are not commonly taught in our standard education system, or even through direct business experience in a company.

These skills include resiliency, the ability to work consciously with courage and fear, high emotional intelligence, boundary setting that respects all people involved, assertiveness, communication, vulnerability, morality, authenticity – and the list goes on. Since these types of skills aren’t often readily available, we see many upstart and small businesses fail, primarily due to founder conflict – conflicts that could’ve been successfully resolved (or avoided all together) had those business leaders possessed the inner-skills required to do so.

Our foundational belief at The Passion Institute is that in order to do this successfully, leaders need to embrace the continued growth process of awakening both their inner and outer business skills – some of which are mentioned above.

           

In order to be a successful business leader and maintain continued growth and prosperity for your business, focusing on and expanding your understanding of a 5 P bottom line – Passion, People, Purpose, Planet, and Profit – is of the utmost importance. This is especially true when it comes to running a financially sustainable business in a global economy where customers are placing increased importance on a business’ attitude towards both people and the planet.        

What sets The Passion Institute apart from other leadership training programs – and why you should care

1. The Passion Institute is focused on building and leading businesses with a focus on the 5 P bottom line – Passion, People, Purpose, Planet, and Profit

We support and guide leadership in a multi-pronged, world-view context, where success is measured on a few distinct levels:

• The individual’s inner-passion and purpose and how this connects to the overall purpose of the company
• How people who come into contact with the business – employees, subcontractors, freelancers, customers – are treated, and how they each connect on a values and purpose level
• And how the company makes decisions regarding the sustainability of the planet overall including near and far community, materials usage, transportation and energy usage and so forth.
• Of course, none of this is possible if a healthy, sustainable and profitable business isn’t present, so this is always a healthy focal point of our work.

Doing all of the above AND finding a healthy balance in all facets of their life (both inside and outside of work) is a big task to take on for any leader. This is why, at The Passion Institute, we work with visionary leaders from the inside out – supporting them on their path to building their conscious leadership process, and helping ensure the best possible outcome, according to each leader’s unique vision of success.

2. Unlike the general perspective on millennials (which is quite doomsday-like if you ask me), I believe Gen Y’s approach to work and business is the perfect storm

The vast majority of the millennial workforce 77% (according to a recent Deloitte Survey) wants to work for a company with a sense of purpose, where people matter, and where products and profits are not the only end goal. This pressure will force old school, profit-driven businesses to change, simply due to workforce and consumer demand. In life we tend to either learn by free will or through pain. I think a lot of traditional business leaders need to get themselves into gear and learn the skills of conscious business and leadership before their financial bottom line is forcing them to rethink it all.

3. The Passion Institute has a wide international business scope

We serves business leaders in the United States, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, Japan, India, Sweden, Ghana, Vietnam, Colombia and Cambodia.

4. We are international lifestyle and conscious business trend spotters

We are often hired to speak, write and inspire at leading lifestyle and business magazines, business and lifestyle conferences, as well as internally at companies.

5. We work with the whole person and see ourselves as part of the movement that’s bringing humanity back into business

We believe business happens at the person-to-person level, and this requires embracing your passion, creativity and emotions.  Each person has a unique set of skills, feelings, needs, passions and so forth, and we believe it is each person’s birthright to claim themselves as whole, full beings – and take ownership of the kind of business life that will best suit who they are and the goals and dreams they have for themselves.

We feel tremendous gratitude and privileged to support others who see business as something that has an incredible power to be a force for good in the world. Those are the people we support.

6. The Passion Institute is action-focused 

There is a time to learn new skills, and this period is often an introspective process that takes time. Only after this important period can you effectively implement these newly-learned skills and create a new outcome. Or as we like to say in one of our ten key principles, ‘Don’t wish for it more than you are willing to work for it.’ 

The Passion Institute is a conscious leadership training and advisory to global executives and entrepreneurs, and a sister co to Refresh Agency. 

Enrollment for the Passion Warrior Conscious Leadership training is open through Feb 8, 2016. For more information visit The Passion Institute.