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Horses, depending on who you talk to, need to be broke, trained, loved and a myriad of other adjectives. There are many different strategies to take a horse that knows nothing to one that knows how to accept the weight of it's rider and maneuver naturally at the direction of the rider. Training employees and breaking horses are not that different.
Breaking Horses
A horse trainer are of two main breeds. One is a taskmaster that will be sure the horse does what he wants using any and all means necessary to accomplish that goal. It does not matter the abilities, intelligence or disposition of the horse. This trainer will use bridles that are designed to cause pain if the horse misbehaves or does something that displeases the 'master'. Whips are used unsparingly as the will of the trainer is imposed upon the horse as if it is a slave or property.
The other type of trainer is one that knows how a horse thinks and uses the horse's own attributes to develop an individual program to teach the horse how to accept directions and encourages with rewards. Bumps in the road are met with patience and a whip cannot be found in his repertoire of tools he uses to teach his horses.
Training New Employees
The two main breeds of managers are similar in nature to the horse trainers mentioned above. Though, task masters in the work place don't bring out any whips or cruel bits and bridles, they do bridle the employee with the fear of losing their job as a way to keep them in line. Be late for work and you will be met with a stern warning combined with having to sign a form saying you have broken the rules. Get three of those and you will find yourself looking for a new job.
These mangers don't work care to work with the strengths of the employee or care to know why you are late.
Compare that management style to the boss who gets to know his new employees and wants each and every one of his employees to have the best chance of success. He knows that a happy employee brings about better productivity and loyalty. The forms that he places before his employees are because he has found them doing good things around the office without being directed to. Sign three of those forms and a reward awaits.
Training employees and breaking horses are so similar that there are clinics which use horses to help teach managers how to become more effective.
Very interesting analogy between training horses and training people. Pretty creative thoughts, Mac. I'm very attracted to the "cowboy" life ... have read just about everything Louis L'amour has written. Anyway, I enjoyed the article.
Awesome author, there! Love L'Amour books. Have read them since I was young. Thanks for checking in, my friend. Yeah these articles are some of my fodder for one of the books I am working on. This one will be in the book titled Managing with Horse Sense. A book about what horses have to teach us about being better managers.
Good post, my friend. It's a shame civil programs aren't more designed in this manner; namely, actively enticing people to look for the best in themselves instead of glorifying bad behaviour, then punishing them for it.
Hey Michael, Thanks for the kudos and it is a shame that more managers cannot be of the zen-master mold rather than from the slave driver. Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
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