Next time you really want to listen…use your eyes!

In our increasingly digital age it’s easy to forget that face-to-face communication is still hugely important in running a business. Whether you are dealing with internal issues or selling your services, excellent communication is vital. Excellent communicators are aware of not only their own, but others’ non-verbal communication.

Improving non-verbal communication was a key focus at a recent Executive Horse Power workshop we held. It was designed to give local businesses a taste of our alternative and highly effective corporate training tool which uses horses to help people understand and hone their own communication skills. This approach known as Equine Assisted Development is just as effective in business as it is with helping those with personal communication issues.

Our experiential training programmes are based on a proven approach in which you interact with our horses in a controlled environment to improve your interpersonal skills. Your interaction with our horses, 'experts in their field' in intuitive and non-verbal communication, will lead you to challenge yourself in powerful and memorable ways.

After an introduction to the principles of equine assisted development, each workshop participant was asked to identify a communications objective they wanted to achieve, which they then worked towards in a facilitated session with the horses, myself and my team of facilitators.

This was followed by a presentation on ‘micro expressions’ by colleague, Steve Adams, another expert in non-verbal communications. There has been much research carried out into facial gestures and it is generally accepted that there is a basic set of seven facial gestures that are cross-cultural. They can be seen in all of humankind, from tribes located in the middle of the Amazon to city dwellers in the UK.

The micro expressions shown by people in everyday conversations can provide some subtle clues as to what the person is really experiencing at an emotional level. For anyone wishing to improve their communication skills, learning to decipher these clues is essential.

Steve Adams

“What makes them really interesting is that micro expressions are, for the most part, very difficult to control at a conscious level,” said Steve at the workshop. “It's like when someone tells you they will give you all the support you need, whilst shaking their head from side-to-side at the same time. Their real message comes from the non-verbal signs, not the words used.”

This brief introduction of some of the theory and applications of non-verbal communication, coupled with reinforcing this learning with the horses, left the workshop participants eager to apply what they’ve learnt the next time they communicate at work and at home.

And of course if you want to know more, please feel free to contact me!

How life is evolving at Clyro Hill Farm

Clyro Hill Farm

I thought I would update you with news of what we are up to on top of Clyro Hill. Firstly, as you’ll guess we didn’t quite get blown away! And I think, from watching the news, we got off lightly, with just a few trees down and relatively little damage compared to those on the flood plains. The last few days have really felt like spring has sprung; we have had our first three lambs, and even the daffodils have picked themselves up and decided they’ll start flowering. We have been busy spring-cleaning the lodges ready for our guests and hope we’ll be seeing you again this year.

The horses have been doing their bit too and we are getting busy and booked up with a variety of people coming to do our Equine Assisted Development workshops and days, as well as retreat courses. If you have been following our journey for a few years now you will be interested to take a look at our new websites and what they offer. Please check in to www.emotionalhorsepower.co.uk and www.executivehorsepower.co.uk and feel free to subscribe to this blog. When you want to see it for yourself, please make sure you let us know that you’re an existing customer with the horses, the farm or the lodges and we will give you a special rate!

We are launching our Executive Training on Thursday, 27 March. It is a free event and you are invited to come along and see what it’s all about. We only ask that you will go home and spread the word please! Places are limited so please get in touch asap to reserve your place.

If you have any ideas or thoughts about the limitless applications of this sensory experience, please get in touch.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and dry spring for us all.

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.

Executive Horse Power - Optimising Your Leadership

We are holding a free, half-day event on Thursday 27 March for business leaders at the Kings Equestrian Centre in Bromyard.

Our keynote speaker is Floyd Woodrow, author of “ELITE!: The Secret to Exceptional Leadership”, followed by Debs and Steve Adams, from Life Change Connection, who will run a Team Leadership Goal Setting Session. In the practical part of the morning you will experience Equine Assisted Development for yourself and understand how it can improve your leadership, communication and team building skills.

9.00am – 9.30am - Registration and refreshments

• Welcome and Introduction
• Optimising Performance and Leadership Skills
• Team Leadership Goal Setting
• Practical Session
• Discussion

1pm – Close

I hope that you can join us at this unique event.  Please RSVP as soon as possible, either by email to enquiries@executivehorsepower.co.uk or call me on 01497 820 520 to confirm your place.

How Equine Assisted Development Works

This short video shows how we use equine assisted development at Emotional Horse Power. For more information please contact Sally Herdman

7.1 Ways to Apply Equine Lessons Learnt in the Workplace

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