Leadership Team Building with Echo the Horse

Professional development is a crucial piece of the puzzle as we work to continuously improve our skills to better meet the needs of the youth and families we serve every day. 

Our leadership team recently had the opportunity to do some unique team building in a setting much different than what we’re used to within the walls of the Boys & Girls Club. This equine assisted training session was facilitated by professional executive coach Cindy Warner and her horse, Echo.

With the focus of the session being built around the idea of emotional intelligence, Cindy first explained that the human body actually has three brains; aside from the head brain (the one we’re all familiar with), we also have a heart brain and a gut brain. Each member of the team completed an assessment to determine which of the three brains is their dominant brain. After sharing the results with one another and having a few eye-opening “aha!” moments within the group discussion, Cindy introduced the team to Echo. She shared that horses are heart brain dominant, therefore, they help to provide the ultimate experiential learning to build self awareness and emotional intelligence. 

Horses give us instant objective, non-judgmental biofeedback on our leadership capability, intention, and motivation. Through this hands-on experience, our leadership team learned together how to have a stronger and more effective presence, make better decisions, and lead with compassion and clarity.

Thank you, Cindy, for taking the time to share your knowledge with us! And we would like to give a special shout out to photographer Patrick Flood for capturing some great moments during our time with Cindy and Echo. We look forward to taking what we have learned from this experience and applying it not only in our work with youth, but in our every day lives.