#vulnerability Archives - Leading Edge Professional Development

Leadership, Horses, and the Courage to Be Seen

Jane Hemingway Mohr — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 04:46:16 +0000

Patrick Lencioni once said, “The absence of vulnerability… that’s where it starts. Everything else—the lack of conflict, the false harmony, the slow decisions—flows from that.”

When I read this quote, it hit me as an “aha” moment—not because it was surprising, but because it was so familiar. I’ve seen it play out again and again in executive teams: smart, experienced leaders who’ve forgotten that leadership is meant to be noble, not cool; grounded, not guarded; responsible, not rewarded. And when that sense of responsibility fades, the first thing to evaporate is vulnerability.

And that’s exactly where the horses come in. Horses simply don’t buy your leadership persona.

In equine assisted leadership development, we always brief our clients with: to learn from horses, you need to be both brave and vulnerable. Horses respond to the real you, not the version you’ve polished for boardrooms and strategy off-sites.

There’s no hiding, no spin, no “I’ll deal with that later.”

A horse can tell immediately whether you’re congruent, whether you’re present, whether your energy matches your intention. And if it doesn’t? They’ll show you. Gently, honestly, and without judgement—but unmistakably.

It’s confronting. Sometimes you won’t like what you see.

But it’s real. And that makes it a turning point.

Lencioni is right: vulnerability is the starting point. Without it, teams fall into false harmony. They avoid the real conversations. They make slower, safer decisions because no one’s willing to risk honesty. They lose their spark, their edge, their courage.

When leaders step into the arena with a horse, they’re often surprised by how quickly those patterns surface.

A leader reluctant to ask for help struggles to ask a horse to move.
A leader who overcontrols finds the horse resisting.
A leader who avoids conflict freezes the moment the horse pushes a boundary.

The behaviour is different, but the pattern is the same. The arena becomes a mirror—one that can’t be negotiated with.

Sounds scary – but it’s not. It’s empowering!

Working with horses reminds us that vulnerability isn’t weakness. It’s clarity. It’s coherence. It’s the willingness to be seen, rather than to perform.

And it takes bravery.

Not the big heroic kind—just the everyday courage to drop the armour for a moment and let your team, your horse, and yourself see what’s actually going on.

Because once vulnerability is on the table, everything else becomes possible:

real conflict
real commitment
real accountability
real results

The gift horses give leaders is a clean slate – a real chance to change. They don’t hold grudges. They don’t judge your past decisions. They don’t care about your KPIs.

They simply respond.

That immediate, honest feedback gives leaders something rare: the chance to change in real time. The chance to try again. To shift a behaviour, an intention, an approach—and to see instantly what difference it makes.

And when leaders take those lessons back to the office, teams feel it.

That newfound congruence.
That willingness to be open.
That sense of responsibility returning to its rightful place.

When vulnerability returns, leadership stops being about protecting yourself and becomes about serving others again. It becomes noble. It becomes human. And, as Lencioni says, everything else flows from that.

Horses accelerate that shift because they demand authenticity. They make vulnerability practical, embodied, and unforgettable.

And in a world full of constant distractions and uncertainty, that might be the most powerful leadership development tool we have.

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Self-confident leadership: Are you being authentic or putting on a front?

Jane Hemingway Mohr — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 23:52:53 +0000

In this first of a new series looking at three core pillars of leadership, I examine self-confidence in a leader and how to think about your strengths and weaknesses in this area.

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.”

General Douglas McArthur

Confidence. Consciousness. Compassion.

As you may know, for the past few years I’ve been regularly publishing a blog so I can share all the insights on leadership and lessons I’ve learnt from horses.

Now, the next stage is to gather them together into a guide to help people think about their leadership strengths and weakness and where they can improve (I’ll publish this as a weekly blog, then as an e-book at the end).

Naturally, I’m going to base these around three pillars that I think are absolutely essential, (and which regular readers might have heard me mention before): confidence, consciousness and compassion.

I’ll look at each of these in detail and how they relate to the self, to others and to our environment. A natural place to start this series is confidence – it’s one of my favourite topics and something we work on a lot in our training courses. And the first area where confidence is critically important is the self. I’m sure we’ve all worked with leaders who were both full of self-confidence and also lacking, and it’s had a big impact on those around them.

What does self-confident leadership mean?

Self-confidence is an attribute we associate with great leaders, but do we ever stop and think about what it really means and how to develop it as a skill?

Self-confidence means being brave, not putting on a front, being arrogant or thinking you have nothing left to learn. So rather than having a ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ attitude, self-confident leadership is about being vulnerable and being yourself.

You can’t hide who you are from horses, because they are intuitive enough to know when you aren’t genuine. While it’s not as obvious as with a horse, humans have instincts too which will eventually allow them to detect who is really confident and who is not.

Once, we had a training course here with a corporate team from a large bank. I had not told my facilitators who was who in the client’s team. So after the session, I challenged the facilitators to guess who was the team manager. They all picked the same person. Then, on checking the background information – we deliberately don’t read this before the course so as not to influence us – we found that someone else was the manager and this person we thought was the leader was in fact more junior. It really struck me that while they weren’t the leader on paper, the humans and horses alike were drawn to their quiet confidence.

How do you stack up?

So, how do we know if we’re a self-confident leader? To assess your own confidence in leadership, try asking yourself the following questions:

· Do you understand who you are and what you stand for?

· Do you have the confidence to accept you are enough?

· Do you know your strengths and the value you provide?

· Do you accept your weaknesses and take steps to address them?

· Are you confident enough to rely on others for support where needed?

To dig even deeper, you can also start trying some simple exercises. For example, list one or two things that you are scared of people knowing about you, or one or two fears that you have. Where does this fear come from? How does it impact your work?

Once you start to build you awareness of the areas of self-confident leadership that need improving, then you can take steps to improve. It’s a journey that will help you throughout your leadership career.

All this and more will be covered in my upcoming eBook. If you’re interested in more information or receiving a copy when it’s released, follow me on here for further updates or email info@leadingedgelifeskills.com.au to be added to our mailing list.

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Thought of the Week…NURTURING NATURE

Jane Hemingway Mohr — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 19:58:19 +0000

The natural world certainly is our greatest teacher. I’ve been reading a fascinating book called, “Wild Leadership: What Wild Animals Teach Us About Leadership”, by Erin Walraven. It looks at the various systems of leadership that animal groups live by to survive and thrive.

Animal groups have evolved effective ways of navigating their way through theuncertainty of every single day. It is selfless, collaborative and appropriate for theenvironment in which they live.

When we humans take examples from nature and adopt them it’s called ‘biomimicry’. Biomimicry “aims to take inspiration from the natural solutions adopted by nature and translate the principles to human engineering.” (youmatter.world)

This approach takes systems tested by nature that have worked over millions of years and adapt/adopt them for our benefit. It makes sense, right? Why reinvent the wheel?

I feel so privileged in my work that I can actually experience – and can share with others – an ancient form of leadership that has served one species (yes, the horse) for millions of years. And the beauty of working with horses – as distinct from elephants, lions and baboons – is that is they are accessible to us.

Our domestic horses retain the instincts of their wild cousins. This means we can experience their collaborative system of shared leadership. We can actually feel what it is like to be an accepted part of the group. We can play with what is working and what is not. And – most importantly – we can relate this back to our interactions with people in our everyday lives in the office, at home, anywhere.

But there is a catch. We need to be prepared to be exposed for who we truly are. There is no hiding. No corporate persona. And this vulnerability takes courage. Horses show us up for all we are. The beauty is that there is no judgement. If we leave our egos aside and take in what they are telling us, the personal growth potential is huge.

Are you brave enough to listen to a horse?

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Word of the Week…VULNERABILITY

Jane Hemingway Mohr — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 21:37:58 +0000

“There is no courage without vulnerability.”

Brené Brown

💯 Brené Brown’s research and writing really resonates with me. In this case, I love the way she relates courage to vulnerability.

The participants in our programs go through this process. Often, they start with their guard up –who knows why? Perhaps this comes from wanting to impress their colleagues but are outside their comfort zone when face-to-face with a 500kg animal. But as we know, growth begins at the edge of your comfort zone.

The BEAUTIFUL part of working with horses is there is no judgement. They provide instant and honest feedback simply on how we make them feel (basically, safe or not). And after all, isn’t that how we all want to feel?

You see, the POWERFUL part of working with horses is they make the invisible visible. They see through the ‘corporate persona’ to our true selves.

But there is a catch. You actually have to be brave enough to listen. Vulnerability takes courage and sometimes we don’t like what we see. Especially in a leadership position, vulnerability can feel very uncomfortable.

Once we allow ourselves to become vulnerable enough to admit our challenges, however, we can then gather the courage to lead with the courage to be our authentic selves. There’s no stopping us!

Give it a try. YOU ARE WORTH IT!

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Four important life (and leadership) lessons I’ve learnt from horses. Yes – horses!

Jane Hemingway Mohr — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 23:02:14 +0000

Four important life (and leadership) lessons I’ve learnt from horses

Working with horses has taught me so much about leadership and life in general. Here’s how I discovered the four Ps: passion, patience, perseverance and purpose.

‘Wow, you’re really passionate about this!’ people say to me when I tell them about my work.

I always take this as a compliment (unless it’s my kids, rolling their eyes because I am telling my horse tales again). I am proud to be passionate about what I do and want to share the insights I’ve picked up along the way.

In the course of my leadership coaching, I’ve seen countless people have ‘aha’ moments. And, I’ve had so, so many myself. For this, I’m grateful to the horses. Their help has been invaluable not just in leadership but in life! Here are just a few of the lessons they have taught me. I call them the four Ps:

Presence
Patience
Perseverance
Purpose

Practice presence

We’ve all been here. You’re in a meeting with a client and suddenly you remember that your child has ballet/football/music practice that afternoon and what can you make for dinner that’s quick and easy? Then, you realise you haven’t heard a client’s question.

Or, you’re doing homework with the kids and your mind starts wandering to the meeting you have in the morning. They realise you are not fully present and start to act out, bored and distracted.

We do this all the time, but presence is so important – not just when you’re with clients – but in all aspects of life.

How have I learnt this lesson from my horses?

Horses live in the ‘now’. They are not dreaming about the future or dwelling on the past. As such, they do not understand when we are not present with them and it makes them feel unsafe. They sense that incongruence between our actions and intentions that leads to a lack of psychological safety. We feel this too, right? It just becomes so obvious when a half tonne animal plants his feet and refuses to co-operate. Ever tried to make a horse do something they didn’t want to do? Hint: it’s virtually impossible. Just ask our stockhorse, Bart.

If you’re having trouble remaining present, and there’s no horse available (haha) then try looking up some techniques such as these from Headspace.

Pause for patience

As well as being in the moment, horses remind you to slow down, step back and not rush.

Again, our equine friends will sense impatience and not react favourably. I’ve learnt this over the years through experience! We have a saying when working with horses, “Act like you have five minutes, it will take all day but act like you have all day and it will take five minutes.” No amount of pulling will make them move faster unless they can see a good reason.

Horses not only reflect my own impatience, they have a calming effect on me, showing signs of physical affection which help me when I’m feeling stressed out or rushed.

If you’ve ever been impatient (I think we all have!) then you probably know it often gets you nowhere. And, some studies have linked patience to better mental health, achieving your goals and better health in general.

Who or what helps you slow down? Is it your cat? Partner? Kids? Friends? Being in nature? Hiking? Swimming?

Push that perseverance

This is a big one!

Having resilience and not giving up is something I’ve had to learn working with horses over the years. You have to see them as a team member and because they’re so large, if what you’re doing doesn’t work for them, then you have to find a new way.

I think this is particularly relevant for these COVID times, with nearly half of Australian businesses surveyed in Julyreporting a decrease in revenue. Many have had to ‘pivot’ (including us!). Yet, I’ve heard so many inspiring stories of people finding new ways forward.

Passion and purpose

A few months ago, I was asked to give a presentation about finding your passion to WoManly, a business networking group on the Northern Beaches.

I really love this group. We relate as a group of women experiencing the same highs and lows that come with starting and running your own business, while juggling other responsibilities and commitments such as parenting. I decided it was a wonderful forum to share my personal growth through my work with horses.

To do this, I used stories that showed how my career had grown my own sense of purpose. I even shared a poem I had written, called One Life, about my journey. Talk about feeling vulnerable! But it really resonated with my audience, and before long they too were sharing their own experiences.

What does this mean?

In everything we do, we have to try to embrace the true essence of who we are. I said at the beginning that horses tap into my passion, and I think it is important to tap into yours as well. And I mean in your life in general, not necessarily just in your work.

Finding purpose give you a new energy. That’s how you achieve authentic leadership and explore new possibilities.

If you’d like to learn more about us and our life-changing leadership training with horses, visit Leading Edge Professional Development

www.leadingedgeprofessionaldevelopment.com.au

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