Effective Leaders Do Three Things Well
Today I attended a session with Jumpshift and Salta Horses on Equine and Leadership Facilitation. Together, we explored how connecting with horses can have a positive impact on your leadership style, and the way you show up for your direct reports. Here’s what I learnt.
This article includes:
What is an Equine and Leadership Experience?
Image credit: Pexels
Today’s busy lifestyle and fast-paced work environments can leave little room for us to focus on the present moment. Spending time with horses, can encourage us to focus on the here and now - their sheer size and presence cannot be ignored. This state of mindfulness creates the space for reflection, creativity and change.
Interactions with the horses can sometimes reflect what is happening in the workplace, allowing for safe and solutions-focused conversations. You will discover new ways of working with colleagues and learn how to think outside the square in order to problem-solve together.Interacting with horses through simple, goal-oriented activities will help you to learn more about yourself and others in a way that is easy to apply to your personal and professional life.
What I Took Away From the Session
When working with horses, you need to let go of the need to be in control and instead you must find comfort in the unknown. You need to get curious, be observant, and use your agility and flexibility to support the needs and wants of the horse - much like leadership and the way we need to show up for our teams. My key insights from this session was that effective leaders need to do these three things well:
Lead with Clarity: Our teams need to be clear about what is expected of them, and the direction the team is heading, including the role they play in that vision. Clarity and vision need to be frequently discussed and shared, with a rigid yet flexible approach to follow-through.
Be Consistent: This means there are no surprises in the way you show up as a leader. Your team know you, trust you, and have safety in what they can expect from you. The language you use, the way you share information, and the consistency and frequency of your structured team and 1:1 meetings all matter. Together, these elements can build a consistent level of trust.
Create Safety: The ability to create a safe working environment was highlighted in the session as an essential characteristic of a strong leader. This means you lead in a way that fosters psychologically safe environment -one where your team feels safe to test and innovate with new ideas - it’s safe to fail as long as you learn something from it .
Following this session, I took some space to reflect and get curious. What’s one simple tool a leader could use that would support them to do these three things well, consistently?
Here’s How an Effective Professional Development Plan Can Help
Professional Development Plans are an opportunity to support individuals to focus on who they want to be in their professional line of work. They help define what you want from your career and how you're going to get it (in real terms). As a people leader, they support you to provide clarity, a consistent framework to refer back to, and an opportunity to set an environment that is safe to test, trial and innovate. For your people and teams, Professional Development Plans help to:
Focus, evaluate and prioritise professional development goals and activities.
Help target energy and focus on the areas that matter.
Define growth through a human lens rather than solely through an employee lens.
Provide a roadmap and conversation starter for development reviews.
Need Help Initiating the Discussion?
If you like the sound of an effective Personal Development Plan that will support you and your team with clarity, consistency, and an opportunity to lead a safe environment, then check out our done-for-you toolkit which includes:
Resource Guide: Instructions on how to use the template.
Editable Template (Microsoft Word): Professional Development Plan template, easy to use and ready to add your brand.
Coaching Questions: For coaches, facilitators and people leaders to help guide coachees or employees through the process.
Reflection Questions (Microsoft Word): Simply add your brand and send to your coachee to complete.
Lean into the learnings from our Equine friends and commit to more clarity, consistency, and safety in your leadership.
