Besides “Mister Ed” from the old TV sitcom, horses aren’t very talkative—at least not verbally. They are, however, masters of non-verbal communication, a trait that has been confirmed through decades of research and direct observation. Now, this non-verbal equine “language” has become a powerful tool for helping humans learn how to communicate more effectively.
The benefits of working with horses for improving human communication goes beyond simply learning to appreciate non-verbal cues. Aside from not using language to justify or explain away behavior, horses are also known to be objective, non-judgmental, incredibly patient, and perceptive, making them excellent learning companions and teachers. By interacting with horses through controlled communication exercises, many people have gone on to improve key executive coaching communication skills and develop a newfound appreciation for non-verbal language and emotion.
Executive coaching with horses has been shown to help executives improve the way they build relationships, establish trust, and communicate with others—all at a relatively low cost compared to other executive training programs. Read on to find out more about how executive coaching with horses can help you or your organization improve communication and teamwork.
About Executive Coaching with Horses
Horses have become incredibly effective—albeit surprising—executive coaches for business owners, managers, and other executives. However, it’s not that the horses are necessarily doing the teaching: Instead, they act as “sounding boards” for honestly assessing an individual’s nonverbal communication skills, particularly body language, mood, and behavior.
While we can’t always pick up on these non-verbal cues, horses are very good at it. Between this skill and their patient, gentle nature, horses are extremely effective—and extremely understanding—when it comes to “reading” people. As a result, they’ve become a favored coach and teacher for executives to test just how exactly people might respond to their body language.
However, there’s more to coaching with horses than just having a horse “read” you. In most cases, executive coaching with horses usually involves a series of interactive exercises that not only hone body language but also help develop trust-building and teamwork skills.
Why Horses Make Great Teachers
Horses are prey animals in the wild. Like other forms of prey, a wild horse’s survival is based on a strong “fight or flight” instinct that relies on their perceptiveness and sensitivity to the body language and intentions of other animals, such as humans. Thus, building trust is the foundation of followership with horses, just as it is with humans.
While tame horses may not flee at the first sign of a “threatening” person, they will send distinct non-verbal cues that convey their instinctual reaction to the person—or any perceived threat. Horses will respond instantly to changes in mood, unusual behavior, and, of course, body language—after all, it’s how they communicate!
In addition to this sensitivity, objectivity, and nonverbal messaging, horses are also generally patient, understanding, and gentle with people—especially in a controlled coaching environment. Here, “students” run through several exercises with horses, such as guiding them through obstacle courses and other trust-based exercises based on non-verbal, intuitive communication.
Since “communicating” with a horse also requires more active listening and non-automatic reactions than most people are used to, executive coaching with horses also teaches people to assess their instinctual behaviors and communicate with confidence and power. For those in executive positions, learning to be confident, conscious, and proactive about automatic reactions is one of the most effective ways to improve communication.
Reasons to Improve Your Communication Skills at Work
Whether you’re a business owner, a manager, or any other kind of executive, you understand that effective communication is essential for meeting business goals and keeping everything running smoothly. Ineffective communicators, by contrast, have difficulty building and maintaining the relationships and trust necessary for an effective, productive workplace. Communication goes far beyond words.
Communication skills aren’t just important for keeping everyone productive, however; the benefits of good communication skills extend to everyone in the workplace. Here are just a few reasons why improving your communication skills can do so much to improve your work—and personal—dynamics:
Build Relationships
Everybody knows that good communication is key to building relationships, yet so many of us fall short—especially when we aren’t always in control of how our non-verbal communication rubs off on others. With full control over both your verbal and non-verbal communication skills, you’ll be able to build relationships on the foundations of transparency, honesty, and sincerity.
Resolve Conflicts
Communication skills aren’t just necessary for building relationships: They’re also necessary for repairing them. However, where many people allow their emotions to stop them from working through interpersonal issues objectively, effective communicators can put their emotions aside and focus on the relationship itself. This ability is crucial not only in the workplace but also for resolving conflicts among friends, family, and other loved ones.
Boost Trust and Reputation
While transparency and honesty are key components of trust, we often find ourselves in situations where we feel we can’t always be entirely honest without sacrificing our wants and needs. However, effective communicators don’t have this problem: Instead, they’re able to convey honesty while still meeting objectives, which builds trust and reputation with their peers as a result.
Improve Teamwork
There’s more to communication than a two-person conversation: Those in leadership and executive roles are responsible for the communication between members of entire teams and organizations. Through leading by example and establishing effective communication as a company standard, effective communication can help improve teamwork just about everywhere.
The Importance of Nonverbal Communication
Though many people think that communication is limited to written and spoken words, research has shown that 93% of interpersonal communication is done non-verbally; in other words, no matter what we’re saying, our bodies and facial expressions ultimately do most of the talking! Many people notice this behavior when they observe someone saying something they don’t mean: While that someone’s words may be saying one thing, their tone, body language, and expression usually say something quite different—and often much louder.
As mentioned, horses are great at picking up on these non-verbal cues and other key aspects of communication, including behavior and mood. Read on to find out how exactly working with horses can help improve nearly every facet of your ability to communicate.
How Working with Horses Improves Communication Skills
Horses are objective, non-judgmental, perceptive, patient, and understanding—all the hallmarks of a great teacher. However, the horse itself won’t teach you to communicate; rather, working with them will help you better understand how exactly you communicate in general. By taking part in various coaching exercises with your horse, you’ll begin to understand and improve your ability to listen, build trust, and communicate more confidently, clearly, and effectively in ways you may not have expected.
Listening
Listening is more than just staying quiet: It’s understanding not only what a person is saying, but how they’re saying it and in what context. This holistic approach, sometimes known as “active listening,” is one of the many key skills you’ll learn by working with horses.
While horses are excellent non-verbal communicators, learning to “listen” to them will require you to build awareness of emotional cues and behaviors. With many coaching activities requiring you to understand how your horse is feeling in a particular moment, executive coaching with horses will stretch—and eventually improve—your ability to truly listen and therefore respond more effectively.
Nonverbal Communication
By paying attention to their nonverbal cues, horses can teach you to be more self aware of your own body language and nonverbal communication. As a result, working with horses teaches you to pay attention to your nonverbal cues, which you’ll need to hone to meet many objectives during coaching. By working with horses, you’ll learn firsthand just how much you can communicate without using words!
Consistency
Despite their perceptiveness and understanding, horses are still animals that, like any other animal, require clarity, courage, repetition, and consistency to work with them effectively. Since working with horses will require you to be strong, clear, and consistent in your communication skills—especially body language and non-verbal cues—you’ll gain newfound control over your reactions and develop a new sense of consistency in communication.
Calmness, Empathy, and Patience
Just like people, horses won’t always do what you tell them to—no matter how well you think you’re communicating. Their prey instincts require us to be calm, and to recognize and respond to their emotions such as fear, confusion, anxiousness, or impatience. While working with horses, your empathy, confidence, clarity, and patience will be put to the test, allowing you to identify where exactly these areas need improvement.
Boundaries and Connections
Like us, horses have boundaries that demand our respect and acknowledgment. To develop and maintain a connection between you and your horse, you’ll learn the value of setting and respecting boundaries as a basic method of establishing respect, connection, and trust. You will be able to apply what you learn to friends, family, and coworkers.
Key Benefits of Coaching with Horses for Teams
In addition to improving several key executive coaching communication skills, coaching with horses can also achieve the following benefits for you and your team:
Boosted Interpersonal Skills
By providing clear and unequivocal feedback, horses can make individuals and teams aware of behaviors and communication skills that are effective or ineffective.
Improved Bottom Line
Simply put, clear, confident communication leads to less miscommunication—and less miscommunication leads to fewer mishaps and profit-reducing mistakes. While there are many ways to improve communication skills, coaching with horses has become one of the fastest and most effective ways to provide self awareness, build empathy, and improve interpersonal skills that could be harming your bottom line.
Strengthened Teamwork
Teamwork not only requires good communication: It also requires patience, clarity, confidence, and active listening to be done successfully. Whether working individually or in a team with a horse, coaching with horses will help strengthen the skills you need to work effectively on any team.
Increased Confidence
Though horses can be safe and gentle, working with any 800- to 2,200-pound animal takes courage and confidence. After your coaching session, you’ll gain a newfound appreciation not only for one of nature’s gentle giants, but you will be more confident of your own ability to lead.
Is Executive Coaching with Horses Right for You?
If you’re an executive looking to improve self awareness, empathy, and important aspects of your communication skills in a fun, unique environment, coaching with horses may be right for you. Contact our executive career coach to learn more about how our executive coaching services can benefit you and your team. We’d love to hear from you!