A while ago I had an opportunity to attend a horse-assisted leadership coaching session where the focus of the session was to motivate, communicate and listen to someone that has no hidden motivation or choice of using verbal language = get the horse on-board what you want to do.
Talking about the future is often associated with short or long-term changes. What will happen in the future? How to deal with the uncertainty? How do you lead people towards the required change, convince people to follow, and take those all-important steps to take action?
Know your future where to lead?
In the area of strategic leadership, the skills for strategic foresight are on the rise. More capabilities are needed to monitor and understand market-changing trends, observe change and above all the ability to utilize this knowledge in designing and implementing strategies.
Collaboration, communication and time for open reflection are needed. An open mind and understanding why it's important to talk about something that may seem totally unrelated, or even absurd when it comes to your own business... often those very things may become the factors that change the base of an entire industry (platform economy, blockchain, sharing economy)...
Still, all we can do is to guess - and to take as enlighten guess as possible and do plans based on that. The future is created together, it is discussed together - it is met together. But someone usually has to ignite the spark.
The future is created together, it is discussed together - it is met together.
How does this have anything to do with horses?
With horses, you literally get what you ask - you will get a response that so silent but loud tells you one thing = "I won't follow you. You are not convincing enough, or you are sending mixed messages. I'll rather look at this piece of grass here." Or “I’ll follow you anywhere.”
For a horse that with you especially communicate with body language, you need to be quick, give feedback and motivate again. Then you may find the relaxed tune and start working together.
The same does apply to us as human species, we all need some form of "motivation", "reasoning" and feedback on what we do and how we act or we distracted. Right?
This may be a ridiculously loose bridge to leadership and futures thinking, but if your work has anything to do with futures, innovation or building new - we can think of those signals what we give or do not give, out.
1) inspire (the need for talking about certain trends)
2) offer direction (give direction for the futures talk, set it against strategic questions)
3) motivate (nurture the spark of discovery with feedback)
Big innovations often start from small ideas, encouraging everyone to share their own findings and perceptions of encounters. With horses, the top equestrians all seem to have the same in common - be a good and inspiring leader. That way you'll have a common future together.
Thank you for Tiina Lehti-Lehtonen and Max Potential for the horse-assisted leadership coaching.
