I was helping my Father in Law the other day on his farm in Northern Victoria and it really got me thinking about how we can learn from different experiences. My job was to get the sheep from one paddock to the shearing sheds about 10km away.
Armed with just a loud voice and 4 wheel motorbike I set out for the task. At first I was trying to hurry the sheep up and force them in the direction that I wanted them to go, but they had different ideas. They went in the direction that they wanted to go and I was helpless to do anything about it, You see by using force I would split the mob and I ended up with sheep in all directions.
After about 30 minutes of getting nowhere I ‘sheepishly’ (pardon the pun) called up my father-in-law for advice on how to best manage this mob. His words rang very true to me because it was the same message i’d herd many times before in managing people.
He said “You need to trust them and hold back far enough so that they will find their own way, but be close enough to offer guidance when they need it.”
From this advice I was able to drive the sheep with great ease over the distance in not much longer than I stood chasing a divided mob and making no progress.
This was a great example of two different approaches to leadership. Instead of working with the sheep letting them arrive at my goal I let my own needs and impatience dictate my behavior and tried to force them.
I began to think. If this change of tactics worked on sheep, then just maybe, guiding instead of forcing might justwork on your team as well.
