Eden Farms Now Offering Equine Assisted Strengths-Based Leadership Development
Eden Farms is now proud to offer new and exciting workshops offered at the center to help other companies and organizations advance their leadership skills. We’ve partnered with an organization called Leadership Adventures (www.myleadershipadventures.com) to become certified to provide these leadership courses.
Leadership Adventures partners with centers like ours to provide experiential, equine-based leadership training to develop more engaging, inspiring leaders. Not only do these trainings provide businesses with successful leaders, but in the process provides scholarships and sustainability for our non-profit therapeutic riding center.
We offer two leadership courses:
Strengths-Based Leadership This one-day course uses the CliftonStrengths® (formerly Clifton StrengthsFinder®) concepts to help you master proven leadership principles to know your own strengths, know the strengths of others, and empower effective teams. Participants will leave with tools, strategies, and application experience to effectively leverage their strengths and the strengths of others.
Trust-Based Leadership
A one-day course that uses Maister’s Trust Equation to help you master proven leadership principles to understand and build trusted relationships. Participants will leave with tools, strategies, and application experience to effectively increase their trustworthiness.
If you, or a business you know, could use the help of our equines to skyrocket leadership skills, please contact us!
Eden Farms is now proud to offer new and exciting workshops offered at the center to help other companies and organizations advance their leadership skills. We’ve partnered with an organization called Leadership Adventures (www.myleadershipadventures.com) to become certified to provide these leadership courses.
Leadership Adventures partners with centers like ours to provide experiential, equine-based leadership training to develop more engaging, inspiring leaders. Not only do these trainings provide businesses with successful leaders, but in the process provides scholarships and sustainability for our non-profit therapeutic riding center.
We offer two leadership courses:
Strengths-Based Leadership This one-day course uses the CliftonStrengths® (formerly Clifton StrengthsFinder®) concepts to help you master proven leadership principles to know your own strengths, know the strengths of others, and empower effective teams. Participants will leave with tools, strategies, and application experience to effectively leverage their strengths and the strengths of others.
Trust-Based Leadership
A one-day course that uses Maister’s Trust Equation to help you master proven leadership principles to understand and build trusted relationships. Participants will leave with tools, strategies, and application experience to effectively increase their trustworthiness.
If you, or a business you know, could use the help of our equines to skyrocket leadership skills, please contact us!
Helping Organizations Do Well While Doing Good!
On Tuesday, October 6, Happy Hooves hosted its first corporate client group to participate in one of our new, 1-day leadership development workshops. Through our partnership and licensing arrangement with Leadership Adventures, Inc., we are in the process of certifying some of our Happy Hooves Instructors and Board Members to become certified Instructors of these workshops. When an organization attends one of these workshops, the fees paid stay at Happy Hooves to fund our mission, less the cost of the workbooks. The workshop this group chose was "Unleash Your Strengths-Based Leadership Horsepower!", which leverages the CliftonStrengths assessment (formerly "StrengthsFinder") to help participants name, claim, and aim their natural talents and strengths.
Our workshop was conducted by two of our Board Members, Paige Sims and Dan Gillen, with support from a Leadership Adventures instructor and several volunteers. In the morning, which was mostly spent in the outdoor arena, the participants learned parallels between leading horses and leading people using a strengths-based leadership approach. In one activity, which involved saddling a horse, participants had to wear a "barrier label" that took away one of their top natural strengths. This way, they could learn what it feels like when people aren't able to use what they naturally bring to the table. As an example, one participant's top strength, "Achiever", focuses on his ability to be constantly productive. Therefore, his "barrier label" read "I must keep my hands in my pockets and not touch any of the equipment". After the frustration mounted within the groups, we allowed them to remove the barrier labels, blindfolds, and other inhibitors which are designed into the exercise, so they could work as a team to complete the exercise. The morning continued with activities designed to help participants understand and leverage the top 5 natural talents and strengths of a horse, viewed through their 5 senses.
In the afternoon, which was conducted in the classroom, the focus of the workshop transitioned into how those same concepts of strengths-based leadership apply to people. We began by looking inwardly, using our own strengths assessments for self-awareness to understand how to name and claim our top strengths. Then, we advanced to look outwardly at how to aim our top strengths in working with others to accomplish a task. The afternoon session involved individual and group workbook exercises and activities, videos, and even beach balls! The day culminated with each person leveraging what they had learned about their own talents and strengths to complete a form called "The Best of Us". On this form, each person identified the following: a.) You get the best of me when..., b.) You get the worst of me when..., c.) You can count on me to..., and d.) This is what I need from you.... Each person then shared their completed form with the group.
The workshop received rave reviews from the participants, which included an entire Warehouse Support Team as well as Talent Development, Human Resources, and Learning & Development individuals from a regional supplier for a global organization. Even though most of the participants knew each other very well, they felt they gained new leadership insights throughout the day which were cemented through experiential exercises with horses. Many participants commented that the workshop enabled them to state their strengths to each other in their own words, and that made a huge impact on the value they received - as well as how they can put these new skills to work back in their offices. The organization is now considering future workshops for this and other groups in their company!
The Equine-Assisted Leadership Development workshops we now offer, focused on topics including Strengths-based leadership and Trust-based Leadership, continue to resonate with organizations. As organizations leverage our Happy Hooves leadership development workshops, they are helping their people to become better leaders ("Doing Well"), while helping to fund our Happy Hooves mission ("Doing Good"). The fees paid by the organization to Happy Hooves can help fund over 75 individual therapeutic equestrian sessions to children with special needs or at-risk youth here in the upstate.
We're thrilled with our first completed workshop, including the value received by the organization in their new leadership skills and the funding provided to Happy Hooves. If you know of groups that would like to attend one of these workshops, please email us at: [email protected] or call us at 864-898-0043 for more information.
Our workshop was conducted by two of our Board Members, Paige Sims and Dan Gillen, with support from a Leadership Adventures instructor and several volunteers. In the morning, which was mostly spent in the outdoor arena, the participants learned parallels between leading horses and leading people using a strengths-based leadership approach. In one activity, which involved saddling a horse, participants had to wear a "barrier label" that took away one of their top natural strengths. This way, they could learn what it feels like when people aren't able to use what they naturally bring to the table. As an example, one participant's top strength, "Achiever", focuses on his ability to be constantly productive. Therefore, his "barrier label" read "I must keep my hands in my pockets and not touch any of the equipment". After the frustration mounted within the groups, we allowed them to remove the barrier labels, blindfolds, and other inhibitors which are designed into the exercise, so they could work as a team to complete the exercise. The morning continued with activities designed to help participants understand and leverage the top 5 natural talents and strengths of a horse, viewed through their 5 senses.
In the afternoon, which was conducted in the classroom, the focus of the workshop transitioned into how those same concepts of strengths-based leadership apply to people. We began by looking inwardly, using our own strengths assessments for self-awareness to understand how to name and claim our top strengths. Then, we advanced to look outwardly at how to aim our top strengths in working with others to accomplish a task. The afternoon session involved individual and group workbook exercises and activities, videos, and even beach balls! The day culminated with each person leveraging what they had learned about their own talents and strengths to complete a form called "The Best of Us". On this form, each person identified the following: a.) You get the best of me when..., b.) You get the worst of me when..., c.) You can count on me to..., and d.) This is what I need from you.... Each person then shared their completed form with the group.
The workshop received rave reviews from the participants, which included an entire Warehouse Support Team as well as Talent Development, Human Resources, and Learning & Development individuals from a regional supplier for a global organization. Even though most of the participants knew each other very well, they felt they gained new leadership insights throughout the day which were cemented through experiential exercises with horses. Many participants commented that the workshop enabled them to state their strengths to each other in their own words, and that made a huge impact on the value they received - as well as how they can put these new skills to work back in their offices. The organization is now considering future workshops for this and other groups in their company!
The Equine-Assisted Leadership Development workshops we now offer, focused on topics including Strengths-based leadership and Trust-based Leadership, continue to resonate with organizations. As organizations leverage our Happy Hooves leadership development workshops, they are helping their people to become better leaders ("Doing Well"), while helping to fund our Happy Hooves mission ("Doing Good"). The fees paid by the organization to Happy Hooves can help fund over 75 individual therapeutic equestrian sessions to children with special needs or at-risk youth here in the upstate.
We're thrilled with our first completed workshop, including the value received by the organization in their new leadership skills and the funding provided to Happy Hooves. If you know of groups that would like to attend one of these workshops, please email us at: [email protected] or call us at 864-898-0043 for more information.