It's fun to test one’s leadership skills in front of a horse. Can you get a horse to back up, run around you, come back to you, lift a leg and then follow you around like a big puppy dog?
All with communication and leadership skills based on mutual respect and partnership- not with aggressive dominance. No hitting or bribing, no coercing or scaring the horse into action. Just forming a partnership and communicating with the horse to reach a desired goal.
Good leadership is good leadership. This is true whether you are a stay at home parent, a CEO of a fortune 500 company, a middle manager at a retail chain or a manager of a small mom and pop restaurant.
A lot of people think they are good leaders, but then they get in front of a 1,000-pound horse and quickly see where the gaps in communication arise. A horse is a prey animal by nature, which makes the relationship between them and humans (predators) tricky. Humans tend to resort to aggression. We’re inclined to want to dominate and think that’s good leadership.
I thought I was a good communicator and leader, until I adopted an ex-racehorse 20 years ago. He was so mistrustful and nervous all the time that I could barely do anything with him. At that time, I blamed him and called him difficult, but the reality was that we did not understand each other, and I could not see that he needed my help, not my miscommunication.
In the many years (and many horses) since then, I’ve learned that they need clear, calm, organized and consistent instructions. People do too.
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