Overcoming Leadership Crimes: Motivating Your Horse Toward Its Best Performance

As a human resources manager and a horse trainer, I value this quote by Marian Anderson: “Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.” It resonates with me because I think clear expectations make for happy, willing employees in the work place and happy, willing horses in and out of the show ring.

At work, I’m concerned about how to keep employees happy and productive. My job is to listen to the things employees say are important to them and provide them to the extent that my resources allow. This is called answering the employee’s What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) question. Employees have certain things that motivate them. Motivators might be money, flexible hours, autonomy, clear expectations or many other things. As a leader, if I can identify what motivates them and provide it, then I will get better performance from them.

I was looking at articles on employee retention the other day and came across a survey of the top five things employees say cause a reduction in their performance. Here are the top three:

• Leader’s lack of clarity about expectations
• Leader’s lack of feedback about performance
• Leader’s failure to provide a framework within which the employee perceives he can succeed

As a horse trainer, I’ve often wished I could survey a group of horses and ask them what causes a reduction in their performance. I bet they’d say exactly the same things those employees did.

As an employee, maybe you’ve experienced one or more of the three things that cause performance reduction. You might understand how frustrating those situations can be. If you never get any feedback, or if you get inconsistent feedback from the leader, then it’s hard to tell if you’re doing the right things or not. You also never feel rewarded or that you’ve done a good job. If the leader never tells you what the expectations are, then it’s hard to measure your performance. Sometimes you can’t even tell when you’ve completed a project because you were never sure what the end expectation was. Poor leadership has set you up to feel like a failure.

Our horses can relate to these frustrations. Many times as trainers, we show poor leadership and leave our horses feeling that they can’t win. As a trainer, have you ever failed to give your horse clear, consistent feedback about his performance? Have you punished him for the same behavior that you previously rewarded him for? Have you ever punished or rewarded your horse without even realizing it? How are you at setting clear expectations for your horse? Do you know what your expectations are, and do you expect your horse to live up to them? Or are you inconsistent in your expectations and on some days expect your horse’s performance to be perfect while on other days you settle for “good enough?” As a trainer, do you set your horse up to succeed? Or do you place him in situations where he can’t possibly succeed, whether from his lack of ability, lack of training or lack of experience? If you have committed these leadership crimes, don’t despair. Every trainer at one time or another has committed one of these offenses.

Just as an HR manager needs to identify what motivates employees, so trainers need to identify what motivates their horses. Answering the horse’s question, WIIFM, helps you identify your horse’s motivations and opens the door to an improved level of performance. It also helps you identify areas in which you can improve your leadership and training skills.

So, what does your horse need? Just like humans, the horse needs clear expectations. Clear expectations mean setting the rules the horse will live by whenever he is with you. Horses understand clear expectations very well because they experience them from the time they are born. In a herd, other horses set the expectations, and they maintain them very clearly and consistently. For example, if the herd is going for a drink and the #2 horse in the pecking order tries to crowd ahead of the #1 horse, you can be sure there will be some swift and clear retribution for the #2 horse. The #1 horse will reinforce his expectations of the #2 horse’s behavior every time the #2 horse steps out of line. If the #1 horse doesn’t enforce his expectations, the #2 horse will quickly begin to test the rules. Horses are incredibly aware of body language, and the first time the #1 lets the #2 horse step away from the set expectations, the #2 horse is going to start pushing toward the #1 spot. Horse #2 will challenge horse #1 in small ways, then in bigger ways until horse #1 reestablishes his expectations or until the #2 horse becomes #1 in the pecking order.

As a trainer, you must set your expectations very early in your relationship with the horse. That’s why underground, or round pen, training is so important. We must establish a herd that consists of us and our horse, and we must consistently communicate to the horse that we are #1 in the herd. A horse that understands what is expected of it will try to please you.

Secondly, your horse needs to have clear, consistent and fair feedback about his performance. When you’re in the round pen, your body language needs to send an obvious message of what you’re asking the horse to do. Be fair to the horse by limiting the amount of body language you give him to just what’s needed for the horse to “get it.” When the horse responds correctly, be fair in rewarding him immediately with a removal of pressure, a softening of your body language and a verbal reward. When the horse shows an incorrect response, be fair by correcting him immediately so he understands exactly what the expectations are. Reward him every time he’s right and correct him every time he’s wrong. Soon the horse will know exactly what your expectations are and will relax and respond. The horse will feel assured in his actions and confident that he’s doing what he’s supposed to do. He won’t worry about having to guess and then being punished for guessing incorrectly. Instead he’ll follow your expectations willingly. And, a willing horse’s performance is always better than a worried horse’s performance.

Lastly, you need to set your horse up for success. You’ve probably seen the horse that’s been set up for failure. He’s the one in the trail class that is trying to respond to side pass cues when he’s never been taught to side pass. The “trainer” first nudges him in the side, then bumps him, then gives a mighty kick, all to no avail. The horse has not the slightest idea what the rider is asking. He tries to respond in several ways but is punished for every response. The horse feels frustrated and resentful and quits trying or even aggressively attempts to escape punishment. The rider has broken trust with the horse, set the horse up for failure and failed to be a leader.

In contrast, a horse that is set up for success has a willing attitude. The horse knows that he can succeed, and he trusts his rider to be fair in correcting and rewarding his attempts.

The following are answers you need to give your horse when he asks WIIFM:

• I promise to give you clear expectations of what I want.
• I promise to give you consistent feedback (rewards and corrections) about your performance.
• I promise to set you up for success and keep you out of situations where you will fail.

A horse that knows What’s In It For Him has a willing heart and a high performance level. Trainers that can consistently and positively motivate their horses are true leaders that will always get the most from their horse. Building that kind of relationship is what connection is all about.