Bringing the Horses into the Boardroom
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Horses have been successfully living in herds for longer than man has been on the planet! In a herd,
each horse has a role to play and each is respected for what they bring to the whole,
and so it should be in corporations regardless of size, diversity or multiple locations.
each horse has a role to play and each is respected for what they bring to the whole,
and so it should be in corporations regardless of size, diversity or multiple locations.
Horses have been successfully living in herds for longer than man has been on the planet! In a herd, each horse has a role to play and each is respected for what they bring to the whole, and so it should be in corporations regardless of size, diversity or multiple locations. Throughout history the horse has stood by and supported humans in a variety of ways, and now they act as teachers to show us better ways to be authentic with ourselves and others.
Think of the manager that dictates marching orders to staff, expecting everyone to fall into place and proceed to a finish line regardless of individual needs or desires. This would be much like a person on the back of a horse dictating and demanding what the horse should do, where to go, and even what to think. This can also be the manager that walks into a 9 o’clock meeting, late, not present, with a misplaced agenda and barking orders demanding actions from tired and fearful staff. If he was to walk into a herd the horses would scatter, responding to his/her energy as being threatening, self serving, and non congruent.
The horses are always looking for a leader to support and keep them safe. Managers, who are working with horses on the ground, can see how the horses respond when they are in different frames of mind and operating from an open or closed heart. As they change their behaviour, their frame of mind, and personal stance, the horses respond immediately acting as a living biofeedback mechanism. The difference with working with the horses is its non judgmental, trusting, and no invested interest in providing the feedback. There is no “let’s analyze and review this later” as everything happens in the moment and it’s all experiential, meaning it’s up to the individual to see it with their own eyes and feel it in their body. After all, it is their experience and it is about them!
Different horses require different leadership style and good leaders can vary their style of leadership depending on the people or situation that they are facing in the moment. Managers working with the horses doing simple leading exercises on lead and off lead, or at liberty, can hone their skills as a leader by varying their intent, body posture and approach.
In the most simplistic of views, a group is a number of individuals all working, behaving and acting together towards one goal - meeting quota, producing a widget, finding an answer or the cure - as one body and hopefully one mind and one heart. And there lies the dichotomy and the challenge of every CEO, President, Director, and owner “How do I get all these individuals to be and act as one singular unit, a unified group?” The horses can help.
Teams working with the horses have found ways to support and respect each other while doing simple horse and herd exercises. Imagine an individual taking a horse on a lead rope and walking it from point A to point B. Simple. But if the person is not congruent, or is operating strictly from a mind set, or perhaps is so worried about what others will think and what’s on the agenda tomorrow, then the horse may decide “This isn’t the leader for me, and I ain’t going!” Now imagine a group, maybe your number 1 team, walking up to a horse, no halter, no lead, fully at liberty, and walking it from point A to point B (of their choosing) without talking, touching and certainly no acts of intimidation or bribery. How do you successfully move a 1000 lb animal? The horse in this scenario can represent a co-worker, a friend or foe, a competitor or maybe your next new major client. The horse wants to be in a safe herd and is willing to follow if everyone’s on the same page, same frequency and being congruent! The horses can quickly show the team’s strengths and weaknesses. More importantly they’ll respond to any changes the team makes on the fly until success is reached.
Every team should have a visionary, a leader, a driver and support – sounds like the beginning of a herd! In specially designed team exercises with the horses, individuals can experience the various roles to find their naturalness, their inner strength, and have it witnessed by the team. When we honour each other for what we bring to the team and the project, we open the door to work cohesively, collectively and in unison towards a goal.
Goal setting and/or adherence is another team function where the horses can assist. Too often when teams gather to goal set, it becomes a mental exercise of rationales, projections, objections, and mostly expectations. We humans have become masters at mind justification either for or against anything we can focus our minds upon. Horses don’t really care for that as they live in the moment, from a physical, emotional, and soul space.
The cross over occurs when the team symbolizes their goal and challenges by placing objects as material expressions of the goal and challenges, strategically in the arena, creating an obstacle course. In the same fashion that the team would “walk” an executive through their plan, the team is invited to lead a horse, at liberty, through the obstacle course, their plan, to their goal.
The horses are master readers of energies. I’m convinced they smell doubt, hesitation, and inconsistency. They feel fear, aggression, and manipulation. They repulse or walk away from false beliefs, too much mental chatter and lies. But they welcome, support, and follow authenticity, honesty, heart felt connection, and consensual leadership. In other words, if the team’s heart and soul is reflected in their actions, the horse will follow with ease, and provide valuable insights to attain the team’s goal. Or the team may struggle persuading and leading the horse through the maze and the horse, true to his/her nature, will still provide valuable insights and reflections to help the team strengthen itself and its actions. Either way, it’s a win for the team - an affirmation that they’ve got it right or a helping hand to make it better.
I’ve been fortunate to facilitate and participate with (corporate) individuals, teams and groups that came to Horse Spirit Connections to work with our horses. They typically arrive with an air of curiosity and depart with a renewed sense of who they are (individuals and/or teams) and a glitter in their eye that lets us know that the horses have done their magic. All the work is done on the ground and supports self-discovery through experiential learning. The horses impact individual body knowing, so at the end of the day that individual walks away with a deep felt feeling of what is possible and how to fully engage with self and others, including how best to participate, support and strengthen his/her herd.
Think of the manager that dictates marching orders to staff, expecting everyone to fall into place and proceed to a finish line regardless of individual needs or desires. This would be much like a person on the back of a horse dictating and demanding what the horse should do, where to go, and even what to think. This can also be the manager that walks into a 9 o’clock meeting, late, not present, with a misplaced agenda and barking orders demanding actions from tired and fearful staff. If he was to walk into a herd the horses would scatter, responding to his/her energy as being threatening, self serving, and non congruent.
The horses are always looking for a leader to support and keep them safe. Managers, who are working with horses on the ground, can see how the horses respond when they are in different frames of mind and operating from an open or closed heart. As they change their behaviour, their frame of mind, and personal stance, the horses respond immediately acting as a living biofeedback mechanism. The difference with working with the horses is its non judgmental, trusting, and no invested interest in providing the feedback. There is no “let’s analyze and review this later” as everything happens in the moment and it’s all experiential, meaning it’s up to the individual to see it with their own eyes and feel it in their body. After all, it is their experience and it is about them!
Different horses require different leadership style and good leaders can vary their style of leadership depending on the people or situation that they are facing in the moment. Managers working with the horses doing simple leading exercises on lead and off lead, or at liberty, can hone their skills as a leader by varying their intent, body posture and approach.
In the most simplistic of views, a group is a number of individuals all working, behaving and acting together towards one goal - meeting quota, producing a widget, finding an answer or the cure - as one body and hopefully one mind and one heart. And there lies the dichotomy and the challenge of every CEO, President, Director, and owner “How do I get all these individuals to be and act as one singular unit, a unified group?” The horses can help.
Teams working with the horses have found ways to support and respect each other while doing simple horse and herd exercises. Imagine an individual taking a horse on a lead rope and walking it from point A to point B. Simple. But if the person is not congruent, or is operating strictly from a mind set, or perhaps is so worried about what others will think and what’s on the agenda tomorrow, then the horse may decide “This isn’t the leader for me, and I ain’t going!” Now imagine a group, maybe your number 1 team, walking up to a horse, no halter, no lead, fully at liberty, and walking it from point A to point B (of their choosing) without talking, touching and certainly no acts of intimidation or bribery. How do you successfully move a 1000 lb animal? The horse in this scenario can represent a co-worker, a friend or foe, a competitor or maybe your next new major client. The horse wants to be in a safe herd and is willing to follow if everyone’s on the same page, same frequency and being congruent! The horses can quickly show the team’s strengths and weaknesses. More importantly they’ll respond to any changes the team makes on the fly until success is reached.
Every team should have a visionary, a leader, a driver and support – sounds like the beginning of a herd! In specially designed team exercises with the horses, individuals can experience the various roles to find their naturalness, their inner strength, and have it witnessed by the team. When we honour each other for what we bring to the team and the project, we open the door to work cohesively, collectively and in unison towards a goal.
Goal setting and/or adherence is another team function where the horses can assist. Too often when teams gather to goal set, it becomes a mental exercise of rationales, projections, objections, and mostly expectations. We humans have become masters at mind justification either for or against anything we can focus our minds upon. Horses don’t really care for that as they live in the moment, from a physical, emotional, and soul space.
The cross over occurs when the team symbolizes their goal and challenges by placing objects as material expressions of the goal and challenges, strategically in the arena, creating an obstacle course. In the same fashion that the team would “walk” an executive through their plan, the team is invited to lead a horse, at liberty, through the obstacle course, their plan, to their goal.
The horses are master readers of energies. I’m convinced they smell doubt, hesitation, and inconsistency. They feel fear, aggression, and manipulation. They repulse or walk away from false beliefs, too much mental chatter and lies. But they welcome, support, and follow authenticity, honesty, heart felt connection, and consensual leadership. In other words, if the team’s heart and soul is reflected in their actions, the horse will follow with ease, and provide valuable insights to attain the team’s goal. Or the team may struggle persuading and leading the horse through the maze and the horse, true to his/her nature, will still provide valuable insights and reflections to help the team strengthen itself and its actions. Either way, it’s a win for the team - an affirmation that they’ve got it right or a helping hand to make it better.
I’ve been fortunate to facilitate and participate with (corporate) individuals, teams and groups that came to Horse Spirit Connections to work with our horses. They typically arrive with an air of curiosity and depart with a renewed sense of who they are (individuals and/or teams) and a glitter in their eye that lets us know that the horses have done their magic. All the work is done on the ground and supports self-discovery through experiential learning. The horses impact individual body knowing, so at the end of the day that individual walks away with a deep felt feeling of what is possible and how to fully engage with self and others, including how best to participate, support and strengthen his/her herd.
Either way, it’s a win for the team - an affirmation that they’ve got it right or a helping hand to make it better.
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Andre Leclipteux Bio
Andre Leclipteux is a facilitator and director at Horse Spirit Connections. A graduate of the Epona Partners Program, he works with horses on the ground helping others achieve self-empowerment and emotional growth. A graduate of Sheridan College, his first endeavors were in film, audio visual projects and photography. This led him into advertising, marketing and promotions. Andre has been involved with the communications field for over 25 years in various capacities, working in small and large agencies while servicing local, regional and national clients. His portfolio covers the gamut of Federal and Provincial Government to Canadian and International brands like Dr Pepper, Xerox, Microsoft and Lotus. Andre has always had business and entrepreneurial flair – he left the agency business in 1986 to start his own consulting business - which gave him experience on the client side. In 1994, he started Wings & Ink, which grew steadily into a multimillion-dollar corporation with clients on both sides of the border, and received national and international recognition for its creative work. After the successful sale of Wings & Ink in 2010, Andre now devotes his time to the growth of Horse Spirit Connections. Andre has a passion for horses, sound business acumen, and a desire to see people heal and lead heart-filled lives. Andre can be contacted at: andre@HorseSpiritConnections.com www.HorseSpiritConnections.com |