Unbridled Success: How the Secret Lives of Horses Can Impact Your Leadership, Teamwork and Communication Skills
Unbridled Success: How the Secret Lives of Horses Can Impact Your Leadership, Teamwork and Communication Skills
Article Type: Bookshelf From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 45, Issue 4
Julia FeltonEcademy PressSt Albans, Herts2012207 pagesISBN: 978-1-908746-51-1
The topics of leadership, team working and communication are important ones for many trainers. The theories and best-practice models do not seem to have changed greatly in the last twenty years. Some additions and tinkering, but nothing radical. Likewise, helping individuals to develop skills in these topics is still regarded by many as best achieved on a face-to-face basis, perhaps in a classroom setting rather than through e-learning or web-based training. Sometimes a more experiential approach is taken, but this too is not a new technique. That is why I was attracted to a book that seemed to give a new take on the topics, and a new way of delivering them.
Julia Felton is a deliverer of Horse Assisted Coaching. In simple terms, this is a new field of action-based learning in which individuals develop their own style of leadership through a variety of interactive exercises with horses. All of the work is conducted on the ground, so no riding skills are required. Amongst other things, Felton accredits horses with teaching her how to be a leader that others will follow.
Felton, naturally, is a strong advocate of the technique, although the book is not simply an extended sales brochure. She had a successful corporate career,with spells at Andersen and Deloitte, and uses this experience to illustrate points she makes in the book. Her passion for horses was re-ignited in 2003. Since then, she has trained with world experts, and now helps others to apply the lessons gained from working with horses to their business lives. She describes herself as “The Business Horse Whisperer”.
So far so good. From here, it is either a book you will take to, or one that you won’t.
The first chapter sets the scene, in terms of explaining how experiential learning can have more of an impact on the learner than any other form of development. Felton liberally sprinkles this with facts, quotes and models to support her argument. She makes the case for the connection between animals and humans, and specifically for the link between horses and humans. Some of the facts and models, such as her use of the Mehrabian research about communication channels, are a little questionable.
Much of the rest of the book takes us through various lessons that horses can teach us. For example, in chapter two, we learn that there are three positions from which horses lead. One is at the front. This is most effective in an emergency situation where there is a need to take control. Another position is to the rear. This one is most often used by a stallion in a herd of horses,where he can keep an eye out for approaching danger and influence the direction of the herd by gently pushing them from behind. A position alongside a mare is sometimes also used – not one of authority but of partnership; one to balance the other two styles. And Felton uses these positions to suggest ways of leading in business.
In chapter three, we are invited to consider the masks that we unconsciously develop, and how we need to strive to remove these and get back to our authentic self. Horses, apparently, are very good at seeing behind the masks. Chapter four focuses on communication and how, as leaders, we need to listen more. Chapter five extols us to connect with people to be in a position to lead them. All messages are delivered with reference to horses and sprinkled with quotes,models and theories from more traditional sources.
So, there is much of merit in this book. However, for me it did not come together into a whole.
To be fair, having read the book, I do not think that it is one which is targeted at trainers. I got a little nervous when in the introduction I read“If you feel any resistance to reading this book then you might want to examine why and where else this behaviour is showing up in your life”. And a comment such as “Innovative, forward-thinking companies have realised that traditional training and coaching methods are no longer effective in helping develop systemic change in their team members,” is not really designed to get trainers on-board at the start of the book. Or at least not a trainer who still uses those ineffective traditional training and coaching methods (alongside other experiential learning methods).
Felton also introduces some fairly radical thoughts in terms of the connection of our brain and our heart, the Law of Attraction and “the molecules which carry emotional intelligence”.
So, if you want to read something a little different, or want to recommend a book that is a little more on the edge than most books on leadership, team working and communication skills, or have an interest in Horse Assisted Coaching, this may be the book for you.
Tony Barradelltony.barradell@insightpeople.com
