Leaders Cause Results!

True problem solving isn’t about getting someone else to come up with a solution for us. It is about training ourselves to come up with answers.

We all have problems thrust on us at some time in our lives, whether it is at work or at home. Clients used to contact me, share a problem, ask for my help and wait for me to give them the solution. This method may or may not be successful, and seems to me to be like a child putting their hand up in class and asking teacher for the answer. Great if the teacher is the font of all knowledge! However, I find it leaves another issue; the client remains a victim. Next time a problem crops up, they are in no better a position to solve the issue for themselves.

Our job as leaders is to guide people towards solving their own problems and nowadays with guidance, I elicit clients’ own solutions to a problem. (If you know you have a problem, you also must know at least one solution to that problem!) Once the client crystalises their thoughts and focusses on the outcome they want, they usually realise there is a way to overcome the original obstacle. Along the way, they have learned how to tackle problem solving for themselves.

The assistance of horses can help us all to hone this skill really quickly. When we take a problem into the arena with the horses (even if the problem is just a thought in our head), and try to burden them with it, the immediate feedback causes us to stop and think about our communication and the impact it has on others.

The horses wait patiently for us to adapt our thinking and develop new strategies. They consistently give honest feedback on our efforts which causes us to make changes within ourselves, to achieve the outcome we want. In this unique environment we can rapidly develop new beliefs about ourselves, and become proactive overcoming challenges.

Leadership is about guiding and influencing the direction of others and horses are very effective leaders in showing us how we can stop being victims of a problem. Instead we can take ownership of dilemmas and take action to cause the result we want. Once enhanced, these new-found problem-solving skills can be employed to cause others in your team or business to solve their own problems.