Part 1: Three Engines of Motivation. Leadership Lessons from Horses Part 1 of 3.

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Welcome to the Leadership & Business Lessons from Horses Series where I share valuable MBA-worthy lessons that these fascinating animals can teach us.

HORSES ’ WORLDVIEW &

THE THREE ENGINES OF MOTIVATION

Strong, powerful, majestic, yet intuitive, highly adaptive, and fragile – horses are uniquely equipped to share innate wisdom on leadership and enterprise because strong leadership is central to their very survival as a species. So why don’t we go for a ride and explore what horses might teach us about how to deal with fellow humans?

To understand horses, we need to try to adopt their worldview by first understanding their basic innate wiring. Horses are prey animals and thus their worldview is shaped by one most basic instinct – survival. You probably think – well, isn’t survival everybody’s main priority? You’d be right, but the main difference is, for us – survival is a top priority, but we have other priorities; besides, we fluctuate from risk-seeking to loss-aversion. But survival for horses is not just a priority – it is their only objective. They very much stick with the loss aversion mentality and are more than happy with the status quo that we, humans, so love to challenge.

What’s the big deal and how is this relevant? Well, when your only objective is to stay alive, and the only effective way to do it is by being constantly aware and being able to run away at the slightest sign of danger, you evaluate things differently, and three distinct things become important:

This mindset sets the stage for watching natural laws of leadership in action, and if we pay attention – there is plenty to learn and plenty of parallels to draw into our “human” world.

People have this ability to justify or explain away anything and everything, according to their preferences. In contrast, horses don’t lie, which makes them an invaluable resource for learning the truth about leadership. “Horses Never Lie, The Heart Of Passive Leadership” is also the title of the book by a renowned horse whisperer, Mark Rashid. This book inspired me to write these posts, and I will quote from it throughout this series.

Mark Rashid is known for his uncanny ability to see things from the horse’s point of reference and use that insight to effectively build a partnership, rather than dictatorship relationships between humans and horses.

The world from a horse’s point of reference

As far as horses are concerned, everything in the world (objects and live creatures of any kind – people, horses, other animals) is divided into three categories: Dangerous –to be terrified/fearful/apprehensive about (depending on the degree of perceived danger); Neutral –to be ignored as completely irrelevant, for the sake of preserving energy; and Helpful/possibly life-saving – which means something or someone to seek out/stay close to/follow.

Understanding which engine is engaged in motivating any given behavior - is an invaluable tool not only for dealing with horses but with our fellow humans as well!

Fear of danger as the FIRST ENGINE OF MOTIVATION

A traditional view of many trainers working with horses has long been (and for many still is), that a trainer has to act as the “alpha” horse of the herd, which means basically showing the horse that you’re the boss. To accomplish this, it is quite common to employ anything from a loud voice and a heavy hand to whips and spurs. Such “alpha” leadership ranges from “total domination” at all times, whether riding or working on the ground, to “partial domination,” where physical force is only used as a punitive measure when called for. While this sure gets the job done: he, who has physical control – wins, it is no surprise that under this type of leadership, horses respond out of fear, not willingness, and they frequently develop negative traits that quickly get them labeled as difficult or even dangerous. I am sure everyone can draw a parallel to this “because I said so” style of leadership in our “human” world, whether we look at dictatorship in some countries, workplaces, or even many families, as unfortunate as that is.

In his “Horses Never Lie,” Mark Rashid shares that the idea of this kind of “alpha leadership” training style didn’t sit well with him from the very first time he was exposed to it, and, in trying to make sense of this, he realized that he had been looking at this situation from a perspective of a person looking at a horse, whereas, in order to see it from the horse’s perspective, he needed to understand how the horse sees his relationship with the alpha of the herd - whether that was a good relationship, whether the alpha was the horse in the herd that others looked up to, respected and followed willingly, or whether such leader was just feared and much rather avoided.

It doesn’t take much to see that the “alpha” is perceived as “danger” and that fear and apprehension will be the motivating engine for all dealings with him. As soon as the danger can be escaped, it will be. Parallel to our much evolved “human” world? Sure! This is a terrifying workplace/or a toxic relationship or an abusive family member – any relationship that is categorized by one main objective – fear - “don’t piss him/her off and do whatever it takes to not get hurt/fired/ridiculed.” With several possible levels of severity of this perceived danger, this is the ultimate psychological UN-safety – an environment where no one takes chances of speaking up, warning of a workplace or product issue, suggesting innovations, or voicing their opinions. “Stay quiet, be safe, look for an escape first chance you get” kind of attitude.

Retention of Status Quo/Neutrality as the SECOND ENGINE OF MOTIVATION a.k.a. Motivation for Inaction

Let’s move on to the next engine of motivation for action or inaction – retaining the status quo/neutrality. This engine kicks in when dealing with things/situations/people/other creatures that are neutral and insignificant – meaning that they do not pose a threat, nor present any benefit. It is important here to reiterate just how crucial it is for horses to conserve energy – it is a matter of survival and it is so innate to them that, incredibly enough, horses all around the world create universal “life hacks” for dealing with discomforts in most subtle and efficient ways, and they don’t get those ideas from someone’s Facebook “how to” videos! Mark Rashid describes one of the examples that will be all too familiar to horse trainers and riders all around the world - horses universally “learned” to expand their chest cavity when you are tightening a cinch (a strap that holds a saddle on a horse, going around its belly), and then they exhale, essentially making it less tight.

Mark shares:

“Nobody taught them how to expand their chests to relieve the discomfort. They figured it out on their own. Thousands, perhaps millions, of horses have independently come to the same solution on how to ‘fix’ a cinch that is too tight… They seem to want nothing more than to get through the day with the least amount of conflict and strife possible, while doing everything in their power to keep themselves safe from harm.”

Anyone who has trained horses or, if you are a beginner, - felt that the horse is training them, knows that a horse will not follow your lead if your lead is vague, if you don’t have confidence, or if your direction is not clear.

Ever tried to move a horse as a rider, by sitting in the saddle like a potato bag, banging it with your feet, as if having a convulsion to try to “force” the horse to as much as shift its weight, and staring at its indifferent head, realizing it doesn’t even “hear” you? Then, you should know exactly what I am talking about!

Many are prone to start pushing harder, using force, and showing who is the boss, while, in reality, there are two things in play here

1. The level of importance of what you want the horse to do from the horse’s perspective;

2. The precision of direction, meaning whether what you are asking the horse to do is even clear enough for the horse to understand.

The most frustrating part is when you know the horse knows what you are doing, it just chooses to ignore you! Why? Are they just bad-natured like that? Here, I, once again, want to refer to an example from Mark’s “Horses Never Lie,” where he shares a story of how he was trying to teach a mare a new maneuver, while she was completely ignoring him. At that time, a man, to whom Mark was an apprentice, said something very wise:

“Their only real job in this world is to stay alive from one day to the next. Nothing else really matters. … [the reason they] had survived as a species was because they’re smart enough to know when to expend energy and when not to…. For this horse to want to work with for you, the work has to be important to her. If it isn’t important to her, you’re just making her use energy she doesn’t think she should be using. She might need that energy later to get away from a lion or wolf or bear….What we need to do is find a way to make what you want to do important enough so that she wants to do it with you.”

Mark describes this as eye-opening at the time, having realized, in his own words:

“I was riding without purpose or direction. Up to that point I had been demanding that she go, but not giving her any place to go.”

I absolutely love that last sentence! How many of us have felt that in the workplace, in teams, in relationships?

Inspiring performance in others is a crucial ability of a strong visionary, strong leader. I’d like to quote Stephen R. Covey from his “7 Habits of Highly Effective People:”

“You can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart; his heart is where his enthusiasm is. You can buy his back, but you can't buy his brain. That's where his creativity is. Treat employees as volunteers just as you treat customers as volunteers, because that's what they are. They volunteer the best parts - their hearts and minds.”

Part Three of this series will elaborate more on the subject of Leading with Purpose & Direction.

Aid to Survival as the THIRD ENGINE OF MOTIVATION

As mentioned earlier, the third engine of motivation for horses is seeking help and recognizing what/who can aid their survival. This very engine drives horses to follow a very specific type of leader- what Mark Rashid refers to as a “passive leader.” Mark emphasizes that the term “passive leader” doesn’t illustrate the style of leadership, but rather defines how the leader is chosen in the first place. The question then is, how do we get our followers (or in the context of horse training – horses) to want to choose us as a leader?

Mark observed how within a herd, horses divided into several bands and each band somehow chose to follow one horse as a leader. Interestingly, all of such chosen leaders were similar in demeanor and temperament – being quiet and unassuming and very consistent in their behavior. Mark shares:

“It was becoming clear that horses actually give some thought as to how they choose to conserve that energy throughout the day. Primarily they conserve energy in a herd situation by willingly following a leader that they know won’t cause them unnecessary stress or aggravation. In the herds that I had a chance to work with, it was evident that seldom, if ever, was the chosen leader the alpha horse. Rather, it was a horse that had proven its leadership qualities in a quiet and consistent manner from one day to the next. In other words, it was a horse that led by example, not by force.”

He then was able to test how the difference in consistency in his day-to-day training behavior with horses influenced their obedience and trust in him, and the correlation was undoubtful. The opposite had proven true as well - the less consistency he exhibited when working with horses, the more problems the horses seemed to develop.

The second component of passive leadership is the ability to retain trust. When it comes to trusting a human, horses tend to be a bit hesitant, especially in situations when it really matters. See, turns out that humans have a bit of a dependability issue, which makes it more likely for a horse to choose another horse, rather than a human, to look up to.

According to Mark:

“Seems like as far as a horse is concerned, even a strange horse is likely to be trustworthy; if nothing else, at least it will act like a horse. People, on the other hand, sometimes have a little trouble being consistent in their behavior from one day to the next. Because of that, a horse may have trouble trusting our judgment when it really counts.”

Mark’s remarkable ability allowed him to observe and single out the ultimate qualities exhibited by the leaders that horses choose to follow, leaders, whose ultimate role is to:

“guide when necessary, and rest when needed… [thus allowing] the horses in the herd [to] stay in balance emotionally, and allow them the stabilization they need to ultimately be able to function properly.”

Those qualities are: QUIET CONFIDENCE, DEPENDABILITY, CONSISTENCY AND A WILLINGNESS NOT TO USE FORCE.

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Also, check out Parts Two and Three from this series on "Leadership Lessons from Horses".

In Part Two of this series – “The Four Qualities Of The Chosen ‘Passive’ Leader,” we discuss the correlation between the ultimate traits of the “passive leader” horses choose to follow and the ultimate leadership qualities emphasized in classic business literature.

In Part Three of this series – “Leading With Purpose & Direction,” we discuss how great leaders inspire exceptional performance 🤩