by Julia Felton | Dec 13, 2015
In a recent Fastcompany article 6 Ways Work Will Change In 2016 the author examines the traits that leaders will need for 2016.Ā Specifically it cites:
“Leaders have traditionally been selected based on experience and company loyalty, but those leading todayās biggest organizations arenāt necessarily those who have spent the most time climbing the corporate latter. Thatās because the very nature of management has drastically changed in recent years, resulting in a new set of expectations for those at the top.”
Furthermore Josh Bersin of Deloitte notes thatĀ “Most companies, even big companies, are much less hierarchical and much less top-down in their execution than they used to be. Leaders are finding that they have to be more inspirational, they have to be more collaborative……. the gap that’s being created is, ‘Who are the right leaders?”
So how do companies develop leaders for the next year who are more inspiring and collaborative?
I address this issue in my book The Alchemy of Change and this is what I say:
“I do suggest that all my clients engage in learning leadership from horses. Now some of you might think that this sounds strange but as we have seen you canāt learn leadership in the classroom. It is an embodied process that can only be experienced through being. Partnering with horses allows people to experience first hand many of the qualities of how to lead with courageous impact. Horses teach us how to be authentic, trustworthy, present, pay attention and be respectful and responsible. Horses model for us how to collaborate and share leadership. They show us how to build relationships and live in harmony with a shared common purpose.
How specifically you be a leader and how you act is as unique and personal to you as your DNA. How I lead is not how you might lead. Our differing perspectives, experiences and frame of reference make learning how to lead a very personal experience. There is no manual to follow, no one formula to follow. The one thing I do know however is that horses will provide you with real honest feedback on how effective your leadership has been. If you are not compelling and inspiring they simple wonāt want to be with you, and unlike team members they will vote with their hooves and not engage. This is the power of learning leadership with horses as it allows you to explore what approaches work and which donāt and then to calibrate and try something new based on the feedback. Just like your team membersā horses are individuals and each one needs to be led differently. If you donāt believe me just try it and experience this for yourself.”
So what will you do differently to develop your leadership skills in 2016?Ā If you’d like to really step out of your comfort zone and trying something innovative and new that really yields results then I suggest that you connect with me so that we can explore what is the best option for you.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Nov 27, 2015
Just because you have the title of leader doesnāt make you are a leader. And just because you donāt have the title of leader doesnāt mean you arenāt a leader.Ā To my mind everyone in the organisation is a leader which is why in my new book The Alchemy Of Change: The Key To the Future Lies In The Past I explore the concept of Shared Leadership.
So what is Shared Leadership?
Shared Leadership is the concept that, given the rapidity of change, there is no way one person can know about everything in the business. For a business to be successful, leadership and decision making needs to be shared.
The old paradigm of command and control leadership simply won’t serve us in this The Big data era, where collaboration is a necessity. There is simply too much going on for one leader to be able to manage it all. This in itself creates blind spots for businesses, which is why a more flatter, more collaborative style of leadership, which is more responsive is required.
When Shared Leadership is adopted within the organisation then everyone looks out for the needs of the businesses, not in a self-serving ego way, but from a place of contribution to the community.Ā Everyone is focused on the goal and works as a team to achieve this.Ā It always surprises me that business has not taken a leaf from the world of sport.Ā In a sports team there is no place for individual performance. Success only comes from the collective performance of the team.
The famous basketball player Michael Jordan knew this when he said: “Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence wins championships”. Michael understood the power of collaboration and how only by all team members working together could the team win the game.
Interestingly, herds of wild horses also understand the power of Shared Leadership.Ā The herd is structured with two leaders – the lead mare and the stallion – and they work in collaboration to keep the herd safe. They seek out food, water and shelter for the herd but the herd members do not solely rely on the leaders to keep them safe. Every herd member has a responsibility to maintain the safety of the herd and so contribute to its survival.
The herd has a shared purpose and focus, which quite simply is to stay alive. As a prey animal the horses main challenge is how to avoid being someone else’s dinner!Ā It is this shared purpose and vision which enables the herd to become self regulating.Ā There is no space in the herd for self-serving members and in fact they are driven out of the herd.Ā This is the worst punishment ever because being evicted from the herd means that you are all alone, and this is not a safe place to be because its challenging to protect yourself when you are isolated from others.
So when isĀ business going to wake up to the need for Shared Leadership? I wonder how much more productive and profitable an organisation could be if everyone was working from the same page towards the same goals and where the result of the team was more important than that of the individual.
The 2010 Burston-Marsteller?IMD Corporate Purpose StudyĀ revealed that organisations that focused on havingĀ a strong well communicated corporate purpose that everyone in the business got behind delivered a 17% improvement in financial performance compared to those organisations that didn’t.Ā Wow, what a load of resources are being wasted in business simply because of the self serving stance that many people are taking.
Imagine the possibilities if everyone in business worked more effectively together as a high performing team.Ā I wonder what we all could achieve.
If you’d like to learn more about the principles of creating a high performance business with Shared Leadership then please connect with me for a complimentary consultation.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Nov 12, 2015
At a time when training budgets continue to be under pressure I am always amazed by the fact that few organisations are prepared to look out of the box for more innovative solutions to developing their talent.Ā In the 2015 Deloitte Human Capital Survey 78% of companies cited leadership development as their biggest challenge. And yet we continue toĀ teach leadership in the same way and wonder why we keep getting the same results.Ā How mad is that!
Einstein summed it up well when he said : “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result” and yet this is what many companies continue to do when it comes to training.
I would like to propose a different approach, one that is making a profound impact and generating significant ROI for its attendees.Ā It involves getting out the classroom and learning in a different way. Experiential learning is so effective because itās a process of learning by doing. What makes it unique is the opportunity to learn from your own experience, and no one elseās.
Letās take a quick look at some of the most important reasons why experiential learning is effective:
- Sense of equality ā All participants in an experiential learning program are equal in terms of their knowledge and skills with regard to the tasks at hand. This creates a sense of equality among the participants, which is favourable for effective learning.
- Collaborative environment ā Experiential learning programs help you learn how to quickly build a relationship. When resolving unfamiliar challenges collaboratively with a group of unfamiliar people, you quickly find ways to build relationships. This strengthens your communication, collaboration and interpersonal skills.
- Unfamiliar situations ā In experiential learning, you are taken out of your comfort zone. When handling unfamiliar challenges, you learn how to focus on task and process related themes, and how to organize yourself around a challenge. Learning becomes more effective because most of your prior experiences are irrelevant in the present context.
- Meta learning ā The ability to review your process of learning is referred to as Meta learning. When you participate in experiential learning programs, you get an opportunity to improve your Meta learning skills. With improved focus on your process of learning, you get the space and flexibility to review your leadership skills, problem solving skills, communication skills and so on.
- Crisis management in safe environment ā You learn how to manage crises in an environment that is safe and supportive. This enhances your crisis management skills in real life situations.
- Whole body learning ā Rather than only listening and viewing, whole body learning method requires a learner to perform physical movements. Experiential learning incorporates kinaesthetic learning methodology, thus ensuring holistic improvement of your mental, behavioural and physical strengths.
I think Confucius summed up the benefit of experiential learning when he said: āI hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.ā
There are many types of experiential learning programmes but to my mind the most cost effective and impactful leadership programmes are those with horses.Ā The horses provide unbiased feedback on how the delegates show up. Are they inspiring, compelling and energetic leaders who the horse (and other team members) would want to follow, or do they lack focus, direction and are generally unsure of themselves.
Since horses are masters at reading body language they challenge the delegates on how congruent and authentic they are.Ā Are their words and deeds aligned so that trust can be built? Do they feel empowered and listed to?Ā Through a series of exercises the horses show delegates how to BE a leader rather than DO leadership and thats something that can’t be learnt in the classroom.
So if you are looking to develop your leadership skills, why not give us a call, and we can explore what is possible.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Oct 14, 2015
Almost a century after horses were the almost only source of transportation on our streets it is surprising that in this digital age, we still measure the power of a car engine in āhorsepowerā.Ā Ā Even today, when probably the only time most people will see a horse in on a Saturday afternoon at the races, horses still hold a fascination for everyone. For author and business consultant, Julia Felton she believes we can learn so much from them that every business should have one on its payroll.
Julia is the Herd Leader of Business Horsepower Ltd, a company that grew out of her realisation that the horses she keeps on her land in Yorkshire had become her best coaches in teaching her business and life lessons.
According to Julia ā I realised that my herd of horses live in a state of harmony. They act as a single unit and there is collaboration and shared leadership. A wild horse simply cannot afford to live alone, it is simply too dangerous and so the herd band together with a shared purpose of survival. To act in silo groups would be detrimental to the overall success of the herd, and yet, in the corporate world, that is what I witness in business day in day out.ā
Drawing from this, and her extensive corporate experience growing effective teams at Andersen and Deloitte, she has just published a new book āThe Alchemy of Change in which she reinvents ancient wisdom, and the forces of nature, to unlock the potential of leaders and teams.
in the same way that nothing happens in nature on its own, she has created the concept of the Joined-up business. Using an impressive array of tools, strategies and processes Julia helps the reader to unleash their powerful potential and āgrab the reinsā of their business and inspired everyone in it to work together with a singular purpose.
By each individual focusing on their unique natural strengths individuals, teams and organisations are able to become more engaged and motivated. Collaboration reigns and competition is banished. The result is increased productivity and profitability as twice as much is achieved with significantly less effort.
Her innovative coaching and development programmes, for individuals, teams and organisations, are inspired by nature and her herd of horses. She is committed to creating positive transformation and getting outstanding results through streamlining and systemising businesses so that all the aspects of the business are aligned and no resources are wasted.
During her 12 year career at Andersen and Deloitte she was responsible for developing a business from an idea on a piece of paper to creating and then building a million pound business unit, that became firmly established as the global market leader, providing business intelligence solutions to the hospitality industry.Ā Ā Her unique ability to work at both a strategic and tactical level means that she is sought after as a high performance consultant, mentor and coach.
Julia holds a degree in Hospitality Management and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Institute of Leadership. She is also a Fellow of the British Association of Hospitality Accountants. As a Master Coach and qualified NLP practitioner and trainer she enjoys mentoring young entrepreneurs and recently became a Young Enterprise Coach. She is also a Talent Dynamics Performance Consultant, a Trusted Sales Dynamics Coach and a Certified Money and Marketing Business Coach.
Juliaās passion is horses and as a natural horsemanship coach and a Licensed HorseDream Partner she often incorporates sessions working with the horses into her Business HorsePower leadership and team working programmes and Unbridled Success Retreats.
Julia is an accomplished international speaker and in addition to The Alchemy of Change: Ancient Wisdom Re-invented To Unleash The Potential of Leaders and Teams she is the author of Unbridled Success ā How the Secret Lives of Horses Can Impact Your Leadership, Teamwork and Communication Skills. Her keynote speech Straight From The Horses Mouth: Leadership Lessons From The Barn To The Boardroom is provocative and thought-provoking, making her a sought after speaker.
Julia will be holding a book launch and masterclass event tonight ā Wednesday 14th October ā from 7-9pm at Waterstoneās Leeds.
For press, media and general enquiries please connect with Julia via connect@businesshorsepower.com. We can’t wait to hear from you.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Oct 1, 2015
When you type the phrase āinspiring leadersā into Google, the results are most likely what youād expect ā images of Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. But have you ever stopped to consider why these usual suspects show up time and time again in conversations about inspiring leadership, and what they might have in common, in terms of the way they think, act and communicate?
One of the most popular TED talks of all time, given by leadership expert Simon Sinek, considers this very question. With almost 20 million views, there are clearly many people who want to understand what it takes to lead in a way that inspires others, and why it is that some organisations and some leaders are able to inspire where others arenāt?
In his talk, Sinek claims to have discovered a pattern between these leaders, which he has codified into an idea called the āgolden circleā.
āEvery single person, every single organisation on the planet knows what they do, 100%. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organisations know why they do what they doā¦By āwhy,ā I mean: Whatās your purpose? Whatās your cause? Whatās your belief? Why does your organisation exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?ā
Core to Sinekās āgolden circleā principle is the idea that āpeople donāt buy what you do; they buy why you do it.ā
Apple
Citing Apple as a shining example, Sinek attributes the brandās success to its ability to get people to believe in what it does by communicating why they do things the way they do. So rather than saying āwe make great computers ā want to buy one?ā, Apple has always placed emphasis on communicating from the inside out, clarifying why it builds the products it does.
According to Sinek, Apple says: āEverything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?ā
The science
Sinek bases his theory upon scientific fact, and specifically, the biological make-up of the brain, which he says corresponds directly to his āgolden circleā rule.
A cross-section of the brain has three major components. The neocortex (on the outside) is responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language. Our limbic brains (the middle two sections) are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. They are also responsible for all human behaviour, all decision-making, and have no capacity for language.
So, according to Sinek, āwhen we can communicate from the inside out, weāre talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behaviour, and then we allow people to rationalise it with the tangible things we say and do. This is where gut decisions come from.ā
For a business having a clear purpose, a clear Why, is essential to give the business direction. The business Why acts like a true north compass steering the business towards success, Without knowing where you are going the business can end up stalling and at best going round in a circle.Ā Being busy but achieving little.
A clear business Why is also of paramount importance as it helps engage the mind and soul of team members who want to innately contribute to a bigger purpose. When everyone is on the same page then as the organisation is able to start unlocking some of its hidden potential. Why? because team members give more of themselves when they acknowledge they are committed to a vision bigger than themselves. In the words of Sinek, āWhether theyāre individuals or organisations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.ā
So if you havenāt already, ask yourself why you do what you do every day. Once you can answer that with conviction, youāll be more likely to hire team members who share your beliefs and win the trust and loyalty of those whom you lead, whilstĀ sprinkling a bit of inspiration along the way.
Creating a solid Business Promise (Why) is a key facet of one of the three cornerstones of creating a Joined Up Business and that is explained in my book the Alchemy Of Change: Ancient Wisdom Re-invented to Unleash the Potential Of Leaders and Team. You can get a copy here.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Sep 22, 2015
Your flow comes from following your natural path. Your team momentum comes from each team member following their natural path. Each frequency and each profile has a different role within the team where they can be most effective. Often the best team selection is not the person who can be most effective, but the person who enables the existing team to become more effective.
Here are the 8 profiles, and the role within the team that allows them to be in their greatest flow:
Creator: The initiator
Creators are the best initiators, and although they can be quick to create chaos, they can also be surprisingly innovative at finding ways out of chaos. Always put them in charge of new projects, but move them on to the next creation once their job is done.
Star: The promoter
Stars are the best promoters, but need to lead from the front. Give them the chance to shine, and give them the space to deliver results without tying them down. Give them the systems and support to enable them to focus on building new business.
Supporter: The leader
Supporters are the best leaders, but donāt expect them to come up with the plan. Build a plan and set the goals with a Supporter, and then let them lead the team towards the plan. Let them set their own management style, and their own agenda.
Deal Maker: The peace maker
Deal Makers are the best peacemakers, and will leave everyone feeling good. Donāt expect them to go out cold calling, as they thrive on building the relationships they have. Work with Deal Makers to nurture the customer and relationships you have.
Trader: The negotiator
Traders are your best negotiators. They will always get you the best price, in both what you buy and what you sell. They want to be given the parameters in which to work. Traders will have their ear to the ground in your market and your team.
Accumulator: The ambassador
Accumulators are your best ambassadors. They are reliable, get things done on time, and are not prone to making rash decisions. Accumulators make the best project managers, when a specific task needs to be delivered reliably.
Lord: The analyst
Lords are your best analysts. Give them the space to study the detail, and to deliver the data. Donāt ask them to go out and network, as they are strongest when focused behind the scenes.
Mechanic: The completer
Mechanics are your best completers. They will wrap up the process and find smart ways to do it better next time. Donāt ask a mechanic to start from scratch, but do give them an existing process or product to improve on.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Sep 16, 2015
Have you noticed how for some people, no matter how much money they get, it just disappears? Whereas for many wealthy people, you can take all their money away and it comes right back again. This is best explained by the “Wealth Paradox”, which states:
“The more money you have, the more opportunities you have to lose it.”
Without true wealth, all the money that flows through you will disappear. So how do we define wealth? Roger James Hamilton defines wealth like this:
“Wealth isnāt how much money you have. Wealth is what youāre left with if you lose all your money.”
Wealth creators focus at chasing water upstream. Instead, they create a river of flow. There is trillions of dollars flowing around our planet every day, so you donāt need to make money, you simply need to direct it. As Roger says,
“Wealth isnāt about making money. Itās simply about good plumbing.”
We each have a natural way to create our river, and this is how the Wealth Dynamics square is formed. This becomes easier to understand when we see the wealth equation:
WEALTH = VALUE x LEVERAGE
Water always flows from high ground to low ground. Money always flows from high value to low value. Whoever values something more will be happy to pay for it, and whoever values the money more will happily take the money. Value determines the speed of money flow (the more value, the steeper the river and the faster the money will flow).
Leverage is the width of the river, and so determines the volume of money flow. If I had a widget that I sell for $100, I can double money flow by increasing value (a widget worth $200) or increasing leverage (two widgets worth $100 each). All Wealth Creators intuitively understand how to grow their river through these two variables.
Opposites of value and leverage
What few of us are taught is that there are two opposites to value and two opposites to leverage, and we are each more natural at one that the other.
Intuitive thinkers create value through innovation (create new things), while Sensory thinkers create value through good timing (trade the markets). Introverts leverage value through multiplying (making it simple and make many). Extroverts leverage value through magnifying (making it complex, and only one). These four make up the sides of our square.
The Wealth Dynamics Square
The Wealth Dynamics Square gives us the relationship between the eight Wealth Profiles. Think of it like an eight-sided mountain, where there are different rivers flowing down each side. Each of us has our own flow, which naturally links our dreams to our reality.
If’ you’d like to find out more about how I can help you accelerate your business by being in flow please register for a complimentary strategy session here.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Sep 9, 2015
“Focus at your strengths, not your weaknesses, and follow your flow!”
The two biggest challenges that companies face today is in navigating the paths of both sustainability and growth.
Within Talent Dynamics, we see a company as a living system. In the same way that the health of a complex living structure like the human body can be reduced to the sustainability and growth of the many cells within the body, each sharing the same DNA, the health of a company can also be measured and transformed through these two components.
Growth, leverage & flow
Within the Talent Dynamics Square, their are two opposites of how value is created. There are also two opposites of leverage. Leverage is the driver of profitable growth, and comes from an understanding of how to always achieve more with less.
Within Talent Dynamics, growth is achieved through leverage, and leverage is measured through flow.
Every Talent Dynamics profile has a different area in which we provide flow to others, and in which we are most in danger of blocking flow. For example, a Creator will add flow to the creative process, but is the most likely to cause a block in the flow of timely execution.
Too often, teams and companies have paths of flow to get things done that are far from optimal, as they navigate around individuals or even entire departments that others have found to block flow. With Talent Dynamics, these paths can be unblocked and realigned with radical changes in efficiencies, productivity and measurable growth in revenue and profit.
The Talent Dynamics Square
The Talent Dynamics Square gives us the relationship between the eight Wealth Profiles. Think of it like an eight-sided mountain, where there are different rivers flowing down each side. Each of us has our own flow, which naturally links our dreams to our reality.
The square shows the two opposites in the way we think and the way we act. Some of us think more with our āhead in the cloudsā, where create value through innovation. This is the āDynamoā energy on the top of the square. Some of us think more with our āear to the groundā, and are more āsensoryā, creating value through timing. This is the āTempoā energy at the bottom of the square.
Some of us act more through people, and are more extrovert. The natural way to leverage is to magnify. Some of us act more through data, and are more introvert. Their natural way to leverage is to multiply.
The eight profiles fit around the square, each with a different balance of how they most naturally think and act. You will find that everyone has a profile and a natural path to success. These four energies are also related to the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter.
If you’d like to get into flow and learn where you add most value to a team or business take the Talent Dynamics test here.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Aug 30, 2015
As the speed of change continues to dominate our lives, and the news is littered by stories of trouble and turmoil it is easy to forget that each of us has the ability to decide how we respond to these events.
Emotions peak and ebb constantly amid a bombardment of choices. Uncertainty is growing about our direction and the future.
Despite the stress and chaos caused by climate change, economic instability and global insecurity, people are coming together. Hope and a positive momentum are building among the future caretakers of humanity and our planet. These people are what I call the Joined Up Leaders of the future
Hope is driven by the qualities of the heart: appreciation, happiness, care, compassion, etc. These qualities are strengthened by:
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Spiritual practices like meditation, prayer and coherence-building techniques.
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Heart connections with others and caring relationships within and outside our families.
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Frequent gathering with friends and loved ones
Great leaders are masters at demonstrating the traits of being Joined Up and living from the heart. Some the practices they adopt include:
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Genuinely appreciating everything and increasing heartfelt positive emotions.
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Generating positive feelings before, during and after activities and encounters to increase the texture and richness of life experiences.
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Practice care for yourself and others.
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Guard against negative projections about themselves, someone else or the future.
ā¢Ā Ā Ā Be objective about issues that arise, as if they are someone elseās. Focus on the heart area and breathe in a positive feeling or attitude. Listen to their heart for solutions.
Interestingly, practising these activities also leads to coherence. Among the characteristics of psycho-physiological coherence are smooth heart-rhythm patterns, greater heart-brain synchronization for improved cognitive ability, and efficient, harmonious functioning of cardiovascular, nervous, hormonal and immune systems.
So what is Coherence?. The Institute of HeartMath define coherence as: 
“Feelings of genuine hope, appreciation, care and compassion signal your heart to send harmonious and coherent signals to the brain/mind, replacing feelings of separation with connection. The heart and brain align, and your electromagnetic field sends out a coherence wave, locally and globally. Higher cortical functions are enhanced, enabling greater objectivity and intuitive perception”
as opposed to incoherence which is:
“Stress, overwhelm, anxiety, uncertainty and fear send chaotic and incoherent signals to the brain/mind, inhibiting higher cortical functions and trigger stressful responses. The heart and brain are no longer in sync and solutions to personal and global problems elude us. Negative emotions register in your magnetic field, generating an incoherence wave”
And guess what, I always notice that my clients become more coherent in the presence of the horses. (And to prove this I have recently started using the HeartMath emWave and Inner Balance applications to help confirm this). There is just something about the energy of the horses and the connection that people experience that unlocks their heart and makes them open to these emotions of hope and possibility. This is why it is not unusual for people to cry during the experience, as they get deeply connected to their true authentic self. The part of us that often, especially in a corporate environment, we hide and leave at the door.Ā And yet this is the part of us that others want to see and that effortlessly enables us to develop connection and relationship to build our business.
So if you’d like to get connected and find your true authentic self, then give me a call and I’ll book you in for an appointment with the horses.
PS.Ā Want to learn more about how to Build Relationships To Build Your Business?. Then come and hear me speak at the THRIVE conference on 24th September
(Article inspired by the Institute of Heart Math, Tips for Heart Based Living)
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Aug 12, 2015
My coach recently introduced me to the concept of systems not goals and it is making such a difference in my life that I wanted to share this article with you which has been inspired by James Clear.
We all have things that we want to achieve in our lives ā getting into the better shape, building a successful business, raising a wonderful family, writing a best-selling book, winning a championship, and so on.
And for most of us, the path to those things starts by setting a specific, measurable actionable goal.Ā For example I would set goals on how much income I wanted to make a month, how many times I wanted to work out, how much food I wanted to eat. But there was a problem.Ā When I failed to meet this goal I became disillusioned and rather than the goal motivating me it was infact putting me into inaction. I never wanted to set goals in case I did not achieve them. I started avoiding goal setting and planning as it was too painful to see the results. And as a result my business lost focus, direction and momentum.
What Iām starting to realize, however, is that when it comes to actually getting things done and making progress in the areas that are important to you, there is a much better way to do things.
It all comes down to the difference between goals and systems.
Let me explain.
The Difference Between Goals and Systems
Whatās the difference between goals and systems?
- If youāre a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.
- If youāre a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
- If youāre a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.
- If youāre an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.
Now for the really interesting question:
If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results?
For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?
I think you would.
For example, if you committed to write two blogs per week over the course of a year you would have written over 100,000 words. The typical book is about 50,000 to 60,000 words, so by this habit of writing twice a week within a year you would have completed enough content for two books.
All of this is such a surprise because goal was never set for the writing. Progress wasn’t measured in relation to some benchmark. What there was a focus on was writing two articles every week. And after sticking to that schedule for a year the result was 100,000 words. If you focus on the system and the process of doing the work, in the end, you might experience better results results.
Letās talk about three more reasons why you should focus on systems instead of goals.
1. Goals reduce your current happiness.
When youāre working toward a goal, you are essentially saying, āIām not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal.ā
The problem with this mindset is that youāre teaching yourself to always put happiness and success off until the next milestone is achieved. āOnce I reach my goal, then Iāll be happy. Once I achieve my goal, then Iāll be successful.ā
SOLUTION: Commit to a process, not a goal.
Choosing a goal puts a huge burden on your shoulders. Can you imagine if I had made it my goal to write two books this year? Just writing that sentence stresses me out.
But we do this to ourselves all the time. We place unnecessary stress on ourselves to lose weight or to succeed in business or to write a best-selling novel. Instead, you can keep things simple and reduce stress by focusing on the daily process and sticking to your schedule, rather than worrying about the big, life-changing goals.
When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.
2. Goals are strangely at odds with long-term progress.
You might think your goal will keep you motivated over the long-term, but thatās not always true.
Consider someone training for a half-marathon. Many people will work hard for months, but as soon as they finish the race, they stop training. Their goal was to finish the half-marathon and now that they have completed it, that goal is no longer there to motivate them. When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it?
This can create a type of āyo-yo effectā where people go back and forth from working on a goal to not working on one. This type of cycle makes it difficult to build upon your progress for the long-term.
SOLUTION: Release the need for immediate results.
I was training at the gym last week and I was doing my second-to-last set of clean and jerks. When I hit that rep, I felt a small twinge in my leg. It wasnāt painful or an injury, just a sign of fatigue near the end of my workout. For a minute or two, I thought about doing my final set. Then, I reminded myself that I plan to do this for the rest of my life and decided to call it a day.
In a situation like the one above, a goal-based mentality will tell you to finish the workout and reach your goal. After all, if you set a goal and you donāt reach it, then you feel like a failure.
But with a systems-based mentality, I had no trouble moving on. Systems-based thinking is never about hitting a particular number, itās about sticking to the process and not missing workouts.
Of course, I know that if I never miss a workout, then I will lift bigger weights in the long-run. And thatās why systems are more valuable than goals. Goals are about the short-term result. Systems are about the long-term process. In the end, process always wins.
3. Goals suggest that you can control things that you have no control over.
You canāt predict the future. (I know, shocking.)
But every time we set a goal, we try to do it. We try to plan out where we will be and when we will make it there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even though we have no idea what circumstances or situations will arise along the way.
SOLUTION: Build feedback loops.
Business intelligence dash boards give you great feedback on how you are doing. They can create continual feedback loops enabling you to course correct. They help you know if you are staying on track and let you know if the system is working. If we are to keep our business on track it is imperative that we measure the key business indicators and then use this information to help us course correct.
So I encourage you to Fall In Love With Systems
Goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.
Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
