How do businesses inspire their employees so deeply that they will grow beyond themselves to achieve mutual success? Sebastian Purps-Pardigol has figured it out. Based on insights from brain research, psychology, behavioral economics, and 150 interviews with employees and CEOs, he has devised a new, innovative approach to the meaning of leadership today and what makes businesses unbeatable. He presents seven factors business leaders should utilize to make their workforce feel more satisfied and increase the overall health and wellbeing of staff. In every business, there are hidden energies leaders cannot force their employees to use, but they can unleash these energies by leading in a human-centered way. Leading with the Brain is a fascinating and informative symbiosis of science and management. "Neuroscience has caused quite a stir in recent years. In popular science books, however, you will rarely find descriptive examples of companies which systematically made use of these findings. Organisational consultant, Sebastian Purps-Pardigol, wrote a book which closes this gap." Ingmar Höhmann, Harvard Business Manager "The descriptive examples are turning this abstract topic into something tangible." Thorsten Giersch, Handelsblatt

Sebastian Purps-Pardigol is a leadership coach and organizational consultant. Renowned neurobiologist Professor Gerald Hüther encouraged him to combine the insights of brain research with management training methods. Together they founded the non-profit project The Culture Change Code' (www.the-culture-change-code.com).

Foreword by Gerald Hüther It has now spread: In the course of their lives, everyone has acquired specific skills, collected certain experiences, and acquired specific knowledge in certain fields. All that makes a person who he is. But during his or her life, he or she still has the possibility to learn something new, to acquire new knowledge and new skills, and to make new experiences. So it's possible throughout a lifetime to evolve and to grow beyond oneself. This potential is created in the internal organization of the brain from the outset. No one can fully develop all of his potential, but everyone has, no matter how old he or she is, the possibility to use this potential to acquire new knowledge and to acquire new skills. Nobody can force him, but only invite, encourage, and inspire him. However, many leaders have a problem with this, not only at school, during training, or at the university, but also in businesses and organisations. That is why so much of what students, apprentices, or employees know, and therefore can apply, stays far below the possibilities. The teachers in the schools, the instructors in the companies, and the professors at the universities can live with this. The continued existence of their institutions is not jeopardised. However, businesses and companies work differently. They cannot survive in the market, and they can go bankrupt if their employees do not want to evolve. It is no longer sufficient if, every now and then, someone will tackle issues, think along, and take responsibility. Companies today, especially in our culture, need employees who want to get involved and for whom it is a pleasure to explore what else could be improved. In principle, companies and organisations do not work much differently than a brain. They also have a potential that is greater than expressed in their balance sheets. In principle, a lot more can be achieved, however, not by applying more pressure or even better control. With these measures, short-term successes can be reached. In the long term, this strategy undermines the commitment and willingness of the staff to develop their potential they possess within. As a result, they will only do what they need to and what they are paid for, and that's not enough for the long-term success of a company. So the question is whether and how it could be better. It is this question I have been exploring with Sebastian Purps-Pardigol for several years. Not in theory, but in practice. We have been looking specifically for companies that, somehow, managed to do it, in which leaders successfully invited their employees, encouraged and inspired them to unfold the scale of their potential. Where employees have found their pleasure for thinking independently, rediscovered their joy for joint creation, and cheerfully participated in a much different way, growing beyond themselves. We both had experienced how hard it was to describe the important elements of implementing new findings in lectures and workshops. All these theoretical considerations don't gain sufficient persuasive power, until they can be made verifiable, tangible, and comprehensible through practical examples. That's why we have been searching for such practical examples of successful cultural change processes in organisations and companies for several years. We did not want to use the organisations advised by us as case studies to avoid a subjective coloration and distortion. So we had to be attentive and to find companies that appeared to be appropriate to us. Sebastian Purps-Pardigol has spent a lot of time with the companies in question to talk to business leaders, managers, and employees. On the homepage, www.the-culture-change-code.com, we presented a selection of practical examples, and I am happy and grateful that Sebastian has put together the findings and insights of recent years and provided them to our dear readers in this book. In this book, he describes the mystery of how such a change of previous management and relationship culture in companies and organisations can succeed. Even though the chosen ways and strategies might be different in each company, it becomes clear everywhere that one thing is especially important: Employees feel they are no longer used as objects of ratings, arrangements, measures, or the interests of their executives. They want to be seen as subjects, who are trusted. There are no special methods or techniques used in these companies by the executives. It is rather a different, special mind-set that allows these executives in different ways to invite, encourage, and inspire their employees to develop their own potential. This is where the secret of success can be found: You cannot do it, you first must find out by trial and error how to do it, how to do it better than before, and that it primarily depends on the improvement of relationships between all parties. Wherever a relationship culture is based on appreciation and care of each other, where all employees of a company pull together and pursue a common goal, the economic success will sooner or later result from this collaborative effort. System theorists call it "Self-optimisation of living systems." They are currently trying to understand the phenomenon underlying this general principle: In every living system, the involved subsystems (in a business these are the employees) organise their relationships in such a way that the required energy expenditure for the preservation of the relevant system is as low as possible. However, in many companies, this principle becomes evident in its negative expression: Because the relationships between managers and their employees, and often among the entire workforce, are so problematic, a lot of energy is used in these companies to compensate for these friction losses that result from these disturbed relationships to some extent. This may work for some time; however, such a relationship culture is not sustainable. For several years, economists have been searching for new strategies that bring back momentum to the economic development. Their search is directed to the identification of the next innovation base to bring the desired upswing. By this, they mean pioneering inventions that determine the main direction of economic development for decades. The Russian economist Nikolai Kondratieff discovered the long waves that such innovations have on the global economy. Since the late eighteenth century, he was able to prove 5 such cycles supported by innovation bases, so-called Kondratieff cycles. The first cycle began with constructing the steam engine, the second with the production of steel and the invention of the railway. Developing electrical engineering and chemistry initiated the third; the fourth was borne by the invention of the automobile and petrochemicals. In the 50s of the last century came the driving force for the fifth cycle from Information Technology. Since then, economic growth was determined by the increase in the information sector. This cycle ended with the global recession at the beginning of this millennium. Since then, the economic policy makers have been looking for the next innovation base. Meanwhile, they have identified the health sector. The sixth Kondratieff cycle will now be supported by improved productivity in dealing with health and illness. This area now sees a lot of vigorous investment in medical technology, molecular biology, wellness, and everything investors perceive as being relevant for health. Perhaps, more health, more comfort, and increased productivity cannot be obtained through more diagnostics, medical technology, fitness equipment, and health clinics. Maybe to help people stay healthy, feel good, learn for a lifetime, and stay productive, something is needed that cannot be achieved with such policies and procedures. For example, employees in companies do not lose their pleasure in their own thinking and the joint creation. In this case, it would...