Everything I Know About Leadership, I Learned at a Rodeo

But here’s my secret – horsemanship and leadership have a lot in common. Lessons that I have learned in the rodeo arena are relevant at work, too.  Here are five examples: I am always part of a team. You need a good horse under you to barrel race – I’ve never won a nickel on foot. I’ve accomplished a lot here at Edoc, too, and every bit of it was with the help of colleagues and staff. Teamwork starts with communication.   A good horse responds to clear and consistent cues. He wants to learn and to be on your team. If you ask properly, he will respond willingly. The patience that I have learned from training horses help me with training people, too – I know that I must be very clear in what I am asking my team to do and I must listen to what they say and what they don’t say. Only when we understand each other will we be ready to move forward with our task. Be ready.  A barrel race lasts less than 20 seconds, from the time you run into the arena to the time you run out.  Planning, training and practice must take place long before the announcer calls your name. It’s the same when a team sets out to accomplish a task – make your plans, assemble your tools, and have a clear goal in mind before you get started. Failure sometimes is an option – but only temporarily. Everybody gets bucked off at some point. Get up, wave to the crowd, get back on and ride better this time. Everybody has tough times at work, too. You can let it get you down, or you can learn from it and do better next time. That’s all anybody can do, and it is enough. Your team will respect you for it. Trust builds your team. Merely sitting on a horse is an extraordinary demonstration of trust – for both parties. In the wild, horses are prey, and predators leap on their backs. Letting a rider sit there requires a considerable buildup of trust. From the human point of view, horses are huge, powerful and often very nervous animals, and there are a lot of ways to get hurt. So how do we ever get to the point where human and animal are a team? Well, we join each other’s herd. We demonstrate kindness and respect for each other.  We have fun together. Mostly, though, we learn to trust each other, and then we learn to work together. Oh, and that’s how human teams do it, too. I’ve always felt that I could see things better from horseback. Looking outward, this is certainly true – the horizon is half again as far away as it is from the ground. But looking inward, I can also see some things more clearly. Often, problems at work have a way of working out when I am consulting with my colleague with the iron shoes. READ MORE: If you liked this post, you might like “King of the Road” This blog was written by Sue Lawson, Edoc Transcription/Business Development Manager and Texas Cowgirl.  ]]>