Creating more intentional Impact

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Susan Jordon, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.

In the Co-Active Leadership program, we dive deep into the realms of Impact and how unintentionally we can mess things up without sometimes even realizing we co-created the outcome. Usually we’re not happy about it or we find ourselves confused. The goal, is to expand our range and our muscles in creating more intentional impact; a skill that’s really important in our personal and professional lives and leadership in this world! Imagine raising awareness to your “responsibility for Impact” and understanding “what’s wanted or needed in the space”

I’m pretty powerful and my heart is generally always in the right place, yet at times I noticed I would fail miserably with my impact be it intended or unintended. Often this happened without feedback to help me understand how I could do things differently next time. I’ve felt frustrated and questioned myself in my capacity as a leader. Thanks now to my equine friends I’m practicing these skills on a regular basis, creating more intentional impact, and powerful outcomes, deeper connection and enrolling others like I never have before. Here’s a story I want to share that really stuck the landing of my unintended impact and has me creating more intentional impact as well in reading energetically what’s wanted or needed in the situation or relationship!

On this wet winter day outside Vancouver, BC, I found myself heading out to meet a new herd of horses I’d found to work with. I was enrolled in an Equine Leadership Facilitator program and have the requirement of weekly visits with horses to interact and observe their behaviors. I felt like I’d won the jackpot as this time of year it’s hard to find horses turned out in a natural herd setting. I’d also felt discouraged as the horses I normally worked with were snowbound and my visits discouraged as the horses were stall bound. Excited, bundled in gear to keep me dry, and mud boots so I could wade my way through the fields I headed out to meet and work with my new equine friends. I really hadn’t felt this excited in a long, long time and those inner doubts about “maybe this work wasn’t meant to be, for me" since I hadn’t seen a horse in over a month were melting away.

I knew the gateway entry to the field was pure mud therefore my first goal was to get myself into the field while keeping my boots on my feet. Forward I marched, step by step pulling each foot out of the mud, placing it in front of the other. Unlatching the gate, I trudged my way to higher ground where I decided I would assess my surroundings. Some context, you could not see into the field from outside the gateway due to huge bramble bushes surrounding the field’s entrance nor did I choose to stop and acquaint myself with what lay beyond the gate.

Here on dry ground I turned, feeling excited to see the horses. To my horror, thundering towards me were 5 powerful creatures, heads held high, on full alert to the intruder in their space! Immediately I felt my chest pounding with a blend of fear and anxiety. Should I turn and run, would they hurt me, stampede over me, was I safe…what the heck had I done!!! Never had I felt this level of anxiety in all my years sharing time and experiences with my equine friends. Breathe, breathe, I said to myself over and over again. Calm your energy Sue, regain your connection to your body, they can feel you and read you, and you know this. Get yourself energetically grounded in your intention, now!

Here’s the kicker; I never did set an intention other than my personal agenda of getting myself into the field. Whoa, this hit me like being bucked off a horses back, finding myself unsettled after the unintended dismount. It hit me again – This was a repeated pattern of mine. A blind spot that had landed me in situations, maybe not so pronounced, other times in my life. The difference here was about 6000 lbs. of horsepower galloping in my direction giving me instant feedback on my impact!

Once I regained my composure and grounded myself in my body, the energy (think chi) between the herd and I changed. The horses stopped, heads high, breathing heavily; I could see the air blowing from their nostrils, looking intently in my direction assessing me further for danger. Who was this predator in their mix? Could they trust me or instinctually should they protect themselves (being the ultimate prey animal) from me, the human (master) predator who smells like the meat we eat, and who looks like a wolf or lion cat rearing on its hind feet ready for attack.

Impacted by their presence and clearly reading their messages to me, I stayed in my place. I grounded myself in my intention that I brought no harm, while feeling remorse for my impact. Things slowly settled down, and the herd moved together to a fence line while keeping a safe distance from me. The lead horse, a powerful Thoroughbred Chestnut gelding never took his eyes off me, no matter the smallest movement I made. From a couple of hundred yards away, I was kept at bay and given no indication that they welcomed me coming any closer. We stayed like this for close to an hour.

This quiet, distant time alone gave me the opportunity to reflect, with sadness, at the fact that I scared these animals and presented myself as something they needed to fear. What were my intentions; I made none in relation to them. Energetically I never took the time to nonverbally communicate anything to the herd as I was in my head. Intellectually I know that 90% of all communication is non-verbal, yet I failed to practice this muscle I was growing and that our culture rarely uses. I was communicating only with myself in my own bubble.

I love horses, I’m a horsewoman. I love animals, and never in my wildest dreams would I want to bring them harm or concern for me. Yet, here in my passion, in my excitement of having a herd to work with, I never took the time to consider the impact and connection I wanted to make with these animals. I had a personal agenda, was fully left brain operating, and I failed to create authentic connection, until they were thundering down upon me in response to my behavior. I couldn’t help but ask myself where else I was having this kind of unintended impact in my life and relationships.

I felt tears come to my eyes, what a wonderful lesson I was being given. I came into this Equine Leadership Facilitator program knowing I would learn enhanced ways of being in relationship with myself and my world, learning from these masters of non-verbal communication and consensual leadership. You see horses have evolved to understand and respond to the flow of vital energy – chi – around them, using it in their body language to communicate with members of their herd, to express dominance, and to sense danger from nearby predators. Never did I expect to have such wisdom/learning played out for my sole benefit in understanding how I showed up and my growth edge in my personal leadership development.

I feel blessed to be on this journey with my equine partners, a journey of understanding and mastering relationships, opening the potential of my emotional, intuitive right brain, while growing our leadership, firstly starting, with the my Leader Within.

We create our World. Together. Everyday