I am Wilderness
Rediscovering Leadership Excellence through Nature

As they emerged from the ocean’s depths, a feeling of rejuvenation and calmness spread across the people in the boat, imitating the serene and peaceful stretches of water surrounding them. Every individual who participated in the unique leadership development program organized by I am Wilderness was in awe and transcended into a state of higher connection with themselves, their peers, and nature. They all had but one question in mind, “How did this transpire?”

Dr. Andrea Sibylle Claussen, founder and CEO of I am Wilderness took a moment and traced her steps to the time she first encountered a humpback whale in the South Pacific while freediving. She deeply connected with the ocean, the whale, and everything alive around her and realized how it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. This was an epiphany for her, which ultimately led her to establish I am Wilderness in 2019.

I am Wilderness is a leading executive coaching and leadership development service provider offering ecological coaching and climate-conscious leadership development programs that deliver the “I am Wilderness Leadership Experience.” The company creates unique team events for clients that provide a perfect concoction of resilience training, relaxation and body self-awareness, team alignment and reconnection with nature, and sustainability and ecosystem knowledge.

At the core of I am Wilderness is its structured and science-based process that enables leaders to develop a deeper and authentic connection with the five natural elements— water, earth, fire, metal, and wood. Its services leverage the natural environment to rearchitect and strike the right balance between a leader’s mind and resolution for change.

“I combine my diverse expertise as a medical doctor, executive coach, and entrepreneur to move away from facilitating leadership development in meeting rooms to organizing intense and adventurous workshops in nature,” states Dr. Claussen. “We ensure every experience is tailored for executives, founders, entrepreneurs, and business individuals from Fortune 500 firms, medium-sized companies, start-ups, and consulting firms, enabling them to think, act, and lead differently.”
The company is founded on five critical pillars—element-based holistic diagnostic for instilling systemic thinking (element water), nature skills and ecological knowledge for systemic processes (element earth), self-reflection for conscious communication (element metal), climate action for courageous leadership (wood), and mental strength for igniting passion (fire). By leveraging these into systemic organizational assessment and holistic leadership, I am Wilderness infuses in clients the knowledge and experiences to maintain balance in a system or an organization.

This methodology is also crucial to empowering leaders to go beyond the scope of their business operations and invest time and effort into reflecting on themselves, their purpose, and how that aligns with organizational goals. It allows them to leverage nature as a co-moderator to trigger decision-making processes that ultimately impact personal, leadership, and organizational development.

I am Wilderness’s unique workshops and programs help individuals to be mentally and physically prepared and conduct detailed planning, risk assessments, and realistic evaluations of their abilities to adapt to change. In addition, the company’s Ecological Executive Coaching, as a part of the Wilderness programs, helps transform clients into climate conscious leaders who imbue mental strength and clarity in their decision-making processes.

In every client engagement, the I am Wilderness team takes proactive measures to define the goals that the clients are trying to achieve. It pays keen attention to every detail about the organization’s operations, which it terms the ‘small signs’ to prioritize and take the next best measures to achieve organizational cohesiveness and development. The company goes beyond the scope of linear thinking to a level of nuanced understanding to determine aspects that are important to the client, to train them holistically. Its customized coaching programs are designed on multiple criteria, such as possibilities, observations, and thinking patterns.

I am Wilderness has successfully transformed leadership development training by allowing clients to experience the principles of executive coaching in a natural ecosystem to create sustainable, healthy teams, organizations, and societies at large. It continues to create a space of reflection for leaders and is already conducting workshops and programs in different nature settings in Germany, Greece, South Africa, Mozambique, and Zambia. The company is also looking to explore and expand to more ‘healthy’ ecosystems to help clients achieve a higher level of connection and excellence.