Working with horses taught me Inspirational
Leadership—leadership that seeks to inspire others by who
you are as well as what you do. Large, powerful animals,
horses can easily overrule you if you attempt to dominate
and use force. To lead a horse you must convince the horse
that he wants to do what you, the leader, want him to do.
Leadership, when you strip away all the layers, is really
about your ability to inspire others to follow you:
Follow-ship. When you think of Leadership as being the
ability to inspire follow-ship, then the question you must
ask of yourself is, who do I need to be and what skills and
abilities do I need to inspire others to follow me? Skills
and abilities can be learned and being who you desire to be
is about personal self growth and development.
Leadership is You! Becoming a great leader is about
developing yourself and your skills. Before you can help
others grow, you must know yourself and take the time to
develop into the person that you yourself would want to
follow.
Leadership is a prevailing topic and an essential need. In
our increasingly smaller and more complicated world, we
need exceptional leaders more than ever. There have been
many great books written about leadership and I encourage
you to read, study, and experience them so you can be a
leader who makes a difference wherever you are. We have so
many books on the topic of leadership because the subject
is deep and wide, so deep and wide that not one book can
cover all the aspects of great leadership. Each of us who
writes about leadership writes from our own perspective and
in a way that is unique for us and therefore unique for you.
Each one of us draws on our own experiences and from who we
are to bring you many and various ways to view leadership
and leadership skills. We give of our beliefs and of
ourselves in our writing, so while some of the attributes
of leadership may be the same they are delivered
differently and you will hear them differently. You will
therefore learn in a new way, the way that is right for
you, the reader.
My book on leadership is written in the form of stories.
These stories are of simple interactions with horses. They
come from a variety of sources, my personal work with my
horses, observing my husband Cliff, and workshop
participants. In each of these stories I share leadership
insights observed from these interactions. I have included
the insights after each story so the flow of the story was
not interrupted. I wanted to share my insights on
leadership of self and others but I anticipate that you
will gain your own insights as you read the stories. That
is the wonderful thing about stories as metaphors: we each
come with our own set of life experiences and filters
therefore you may get something entirely different from the
stories than the insights I have shared. It is my hope that
you will enjoy and become more skilled in leadership of
yourself and others from this book.
----------------------------------------------------
Jean Starling holds an MBA in International Business and is
an Author, Business Strategist and Executive Coach. Go to
http://www.leaderstakingthereins.com to get your Free
Leadership Home Study Course and learn how to be the leader
that people want to follow. Contact Jean at
mailto:jean@leaderstakingthereins.com .
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