Not long ago, Leadership with Horses recently welcomed Kim Heuss, VP of Marketing at Faithlife. As a horsewoman and someone who had previously experienced equine facilitated learning, Kim was enthusiastic for her marketing team to have a similar opportunity.
This training was one of the most valuable programs I’ve been through. I learned how to stop and scan my team, listen to and observe nuance, and engage with grounded intention. Our team walked away with a new appreciation of horses and the value they bring as a teacher and mirror to us. My team also has a new grounding in their own personal leadership skills. I highly recommend this program for leaders, managers, teams and or individuals who are committed to self development. – Kim Heuss
After talking with Kim about her team, who they were as a group, what their challenges and opportunities were, we settled on a learning theme: Building Connection for Effective Collaboration. Core concepts included:
- To establish connection with others, first you need to be connected to yourself.
- Connected to yourself means activating leadership from your head, heart, and gut.
- Connection to others is physical, energetic, and emotional.
- Authentic, empathetic connection within a team leads to excellent execution.

Kim Heuss makes a connection with Coach Cato. Photo by Jessica Farren.
I always enjoy working with Catherine Bachy, who joined me to incorporate somatic coaching techniques to introduce Kim’s team to embodied leadership principles. These principles help ground and center leaders in a physical experience of leadership, which is essential to establishing connection with others.
Connection: When you’ve got it, you know it. You feel it. You breathe it. You sense it.
- When was the last time you experienced connection with your team?
- How well do you understand the power of connection
- How flexible are you, for real?