Recently I was lucky enough to interview John Lyons, America’s Most Trusted Horseman. John has been a hero of mine since I discovered horses. He is very gentle, and develops willing partners in his horses. He follows the horseman’s rule and always puts the horse first. I have lots of his videos and books and I have learned a ton from him. In fact, because of him, I went from not knowing how to ride a horse at all to getting paid to “break” or better put “start” a horse for people. I can’t say enough good things about John. I have met him three or four times now. He is always willing to help by sharing advice. He has a wonderful family who often travel and work with him. He and his son Josh have a certification program and are now training leaders in the horse industry. To get the big picture, look up John Lyons online and learn more (you can start at www.JohnLyons.com).
When I interviewed John Lyons about what horses can teach us about leadership, what he said was a total surprise to me. The first thing that John told me was that horses can teach us that we must let go of our own life and let someone else take the reins. He said that this is unnatural for us, just as it is unnatural for the horse. What IS natural is to try and take the reins back. This is so true with many of us. When someone tells us how to do something, we push back and resist doing it “their way”. John says sometimes we must let go and try something in a different style, even if we don’t think it will be the best. To be a good leader we must first learn how to be a good follower.
Learning to be a good follower as a key leadership tool really makes a lot of sense to me, especially for stronger leadership personalities, like the Bear (if you don’t know your personality type take the Animal Leadership personality test at http://animalleadership.com/). Although, the wolf and eagle too can get set in their ways and find it hard to follow a leader. In the Animal Leadership System, the horse person is very much the non-self-promoter, the one who is most apt to follow the lead of others, and sometimes even the one who assumes they are not fit to lead. The Bear and the Wolf personalities often easily believe they are meant to lead or certainly not follow. In all reality, this actually hinders their ability to be a good leader. Whereas the Horse can lead by supporting those who need them, other leadership types have the personality where followers have to keep up, rather than get supported. What John is saying is that the horse can teach us to be strong, but not necessarily in control.
John goes on to explain that what a horse really wants is peace. Peace above all other things is what the horse lives for. In the book Animal Leadership: Leadership Learned from Wildlife for Leading Yourself and Others, we talk about how the Horse person finds pain in confrontation, that is, they seek peace. Some Horse people may start to think they are weak because of this, but of all the animals I’ve studied prior to writing the book, the horse is the largest, fastest, and perhaps strongest. It is a testament to their personality that they let themselves serve so selflessly, and for what? To have everyone share in their peace.
John Lyons goes on to say that it is not trust that makes a horse serve its rider, but courage to face any obstacle to then have the unity of peace. John explains that as a prey species, the horse doesn’t understand that it is safe to face its own fears, but it is courageous enough to face them in service of others. I have to say, I never thought of it that way, but it fits right in with my belief of the Horse personality and leadership type.
Once I had a coaching client who said she needed coaching because she had the horse personality, but that was not it. She needed coaching because she was stuck in a trap. The horse leader when free from it traps is perhaps the strongest of all. Just look at all the loyal followers horses have developed. I challenge all of you to think of those you serve and see if you can turn over the reins. Let me know how it goes.
Keep Leading,
Rad
Horses so powerful yet so graceful, and non-threatening that almost anyone can hardly help but admire them. Although capable of inflicting great damage, usually a horse is gentle and supportive. Horses allow themselves to be put into a service role, and in fact, have served humans more than any other species in the history of the world.
The first horse people were on the Mongolian steppe, where reindeer herders adapted into horsemen. These people collected wild horses, kept a band of mares and geldings, and used the still wild stallions for breeding. They ate horse meat, drank horse milk, and used the horses for travel. The services of the horse allowed the great Mongol leader, Genghis Khan, to establish the largest empire in history.
Now, horses are serving us in other ways. Recently NBC news just featured a story of inner-city kids in Philadelphia riding horses to keep them out of trouble. Thanks to a great community leader, Malik Divers, these unlikely equestrians are learning responsibility by taking care of horses as the horse shares its calming spirit and associated power with young riders who could otherwise be into gangs or other such nonsense. You can watch a clip from NBC below.
Often when we think of developing leadership skills we think about how to be in front and have others follow our will. However, true leadership is about service. It is not the next great idea that usually changes a situation, but rather the required support to see any one of a million existing ideas reach their full potential. Some of the best leaders are those who foster others through service and thereby build a tremendous base of grateful followers. We can all take a lesson from the horse by keeping ourselves in a powerful enough condition that we are ready to carry those who need us.
Leading on, until next time,
Rad Watkins
Leadership is such a strange concept. There are so many ways that one can be a leader. You can be a leader by being outstanding in your field and being the type of person others are trying to catch up to. You can be a leader by helping others succeed. You can be a leader by having followers and creating a movement. Stacey Westfall is a leader in all of those ways.
For those of you who don’t know Stacy Westfall, she is an outstanding horse trainer and accomplished horseback rider. She is also a people trainer. In 2006 Stacy won the Road to the Horse competition, where 3 amazing trainers have a short time (over 3 days) to take a horse that has never been handled by humans and start it under saddle. By the end of the 3rd day they are having the horses drag objects, handlers are standing on their backs, and doing things that many of us can’t do with our older, well trained horses. Some of the best trainers in the world compete at this competition and Stacy was the first woman to ever compete, and she won! In 2012 Stacy was also inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.
You may know Stacy from a video of her 2006 win at the World Quarter Horse Congress reigning event. For that win she rode a black horse without a bridle (no reins or other means of control) and no saddle. She moved the horse through high speed technical maneuvers as she performed to the song Live Like You Were Dying, by Tim McGraw. She dedicated the ride to her father that passed away just a month before, and the video went totally viral on Facebook (I have posted a link on our FB page https://www.facebook.com/AnimalLeadership/).
You may remember the video that was circulated because it claimed Stacy was deaf and mute and used ancient Indian training methods to train her horse in just days. Now in the Road to the Horse, riders do train their horses to do amazing things, but not things like the riding in the video we saw of Stacy at the World Congress. If you have not seen it, check it out. By the way, Stacy was thoughtful enough to take the time to explain the untruths said about her and use it as a teaching moment (https://westfallhorsemanship.com/2011/09/22/stacy-westfall-deaf-mute/).
So, in the world of horses, Stacy Westfall is a leader. She could even be called a Rock Star! She’s awesome. Stacy was nice enough to agree to let me interview her for a new book I am working on, and although there is a lot about horses and leadership I plan to share with you later, I really just want to share with you a couple more things about Stacy Westfall that impressed me with her leadership.
Stacy has a BIG online presence. She made a video series that is on YouTube where she trains this horse, Jac, from an unbroken colt to a nice riding horse. She records the process over a series of videos and it is so educational for those of us who train horses. Stacy is amazing teacher, and really an expert animal behaviorist. She makes sure her human students understand what her horse students are thinking as she works with them. She could have packaged this series and sold it for $200+, but she chose to put it out there for free online. I asked Stacy why, and her reasoning was that she remembered starting out and wishing she had resources to help. Stacy does have videos for sale (see https://westfallhorsemanship.com/ to learn more) but this series, one of the best I have seen on starting a colt, she is giving away to help anyone who wanted it. To me that says something about her character.
In the time I was able to spend with Stacy we talked about other important aspects of life like parenting, careers, future goals, and of course, horses. Stacy previously lived in a RV with her family for two years traveling the country and then settled down at the request of one of her sons, who, although he thought the experience was awesome, wanted a normal life. Stacy quickly agreed and they settled down, again saying something about her character and sacrifices she was willing to make for those she led.
Another non-typical thing that Stacy has done that exemplifies her leadership skills, is putting together a conference for those wanting a career with horses. This is sort of a big dream for many people but they don’t know where to start. Stacy decided to help folks out by putting together this resource event and sharing her knowledge and connections (learn more at http://mmrm.org/retreats-and-events/equine-career-conference/).
So, I will bring you more from Stacy in the months to come, but I would like you to think about Stacy’s example and see what you can do to be more of a leader. Think about how you would like to be outstanding in your career. Think about what you can do to give back to others. Think about how you can make sacrifices to support family and those around you. I hope a glimpse into the accomplishments of Stacy Westfall motivates you to get out there and push yourself to do good things. Leadership, after all, is about setting goals and accomplishing them, and being the sort of person who can help those around you accomplish their goals too.
]]>Being a keynote speaker in Chicago doesn’t necessarily make my life easier, because I want to visit and explore while I am there, as things change so much over the years. I guess I try to do it all on my trips. Having the wolf personality, I am kind of partial to having a good time (if you don’t know what I mean about the wolf personality, go take the Animal Leadership personality test at www.AnimalLeadership.com). I like to explore and turn everything into a playful experience. This time, there was a lot to pack in my experience of being a leadership speaker in Chicago. This time I was able to attend ReptileFest!
ReptileFest was a pretty cool experience and something I had actually scheduled into the trip. One of the wolf person’s traps are that they sometimes don’t do what they say they are going to do because they run around nipping at too many heels. One of the ways to counteract that is to use a calendar and schedule what is really important.
ReptileFest was important because I got to see, learn about, and hold all these amazing creatures. I also got to hook up with an old friend whom I met when I was giving wolf talks for the Timber Wolf Alliance during the time he was giving talks on reptiles. We were able to reconnect and even found time to talk about scheduling future gigs. Secondarily, I was also assessing the reptiles and seeing what insights we can get from them, and I shot you a quick video on one insight I think fit pretty well with the weekend.
In the video above, I am holding a python, which is a constrictor. Constrictors wrap around their prey and as it breaths out they contract, after several panicked breaths, the prey has no room left to inhale and the snake literally squeezes the life out of the prey, either by suffocating it or sometimes even bursting the heart. I figure, just like this big snake, sometimes we need to really push ourselves to squeeze the life out of our day. Don’t sit back and click on the TV, but rather see what you can fit in your day. See what you can explore, learn, and discover!
For me, this opportunity to keynote as a leadership speaker in Chicago was an opportunity to squeeze the life out of another day; to have fun, learn, network, and live life to its fullest! What are you going to do today to squeeze all the life out? Let me know because I can’t wait to hear about your adventures!
Squeeze the day,
Rad