Interview with Anita Morris of Holden
Morris Consulting
Topic : The High Flyers Programme
A unique and innovative workshop incorporating falconry to enhance leadership
understanding and performance.
Why are you using birds of prey as part of
a management training course?
If you look at the over 4000 year history of falconry,
it was used to develop leadership skills in different
cultures around the world. Often royalty were trained
in falconry not only because it was considered a sport
of Kings, but also because Kings and Princes were leaders
of armies as well as countries and needed to develop
leadership skills. A human being cannot impose his/her
wishes on birds of prey and the birds have no instinct
to follow a human. It is therefore only through the skills
of the falconer and his/her understanding of his/her
charge that the desired results can be achieved. No two
individual birds of prey, even those of the same species,
will have the same temperament and react in the same
way. This means that the falconer has to understand every
individual bird he/she might work with. This has strong
links with leadership. Falconry is noted as being the
most difficult and challenging of all the hunting sports.
If you talk to those in leadership positions in industry,
and in other areas such as politics, you will hear similar
comments to those of the falconer. Management is a skill,
but leadership is an art.
Why are you working with Steve Birchall and
Cheshire Falconry?
When
I first met Steve I sat and talked to him about the
birds he works with and the
falconers who work at
Cheshire Falconry. It became very clear that Steve actually
applies his understanding of falconry to running a successful
business. I was amazed at his level of knowledge and
expertise in working with birds of prey. He truly understands
every aspect of the birds, from practical aspects like
feeding and housing to a detailed psychological understanding.
He is able to tell you about how a particular species
might act and react, but he also understands the temperament
of each individual bird. When we talked about the falconers
who work for him, he clearly has the same detailed understanding
of them as individuals too. He recommended some books
to me and in one of them Nick Fox, a well known falconry
expert, states that ‘Falconry teaches humility
and fortitude, it enhances the spirit, it improves fine
judgement and gives the falconer a sense of oneness with
nature’. When you meet Steve and have the opportunity
to talk to him at length about his work, it becomes obvious
that this is a man who embraces the lessons he has learned
in his many years of working with birds of prey.
The facilities at Cheshire Falconry
are excellent and Steve has been incredibly supportive
in helping me with
the practicalities of organising the leadership development
programmes, as well as providing a lot of the content.
The site is very accessible even though it’s in
a rural setting, which is great for my business clients.
The facilities such as catering and parking are really
good too.
What makes YOU able to run leadership development programmes, what is
your level of expertise?
Like
many psychologists I’m uncomfortable with
the term ‘expert’. There is an implication
that it means I know more than you and therefore creates
a power situation. I prefer the term ‘specialist’,
really. From an academic perspective I have been interested
in and have researched the whole area of leadership for
some time. I have a background in industry. My first
degree is in business and after graduating I worked firstly
as a management accountant before moving into sales and
marketing, mainly in manufacturing industry. I did have
a brief sojourn as marketing manager for an executive
coaching company, which first introduced me to leadership
development. It highlighted to me that I wanted to work
in this area, but wanted to do it ‘properly’ and
with integrity. I found out what I needed to do to work
at the level I currently work at and planned my future
development. I knew I needed the credibility of working
at a senior management level and so went back into industry
to get management experience and work myself up to the
level of director in a large manufacturing group. I then
left, did a further degree in applied psychology, then
a Masters in occupational psychology, and also some specific
training and qualifications in coaching and related topics.
I set up my company and have developed an impressive
client base. I suppose that my unique selling point is
that I have both business and psychology qualifications,
plus both business and psychology experience. There are
very few people in my field who can say that.
I run a number of leadership development programmes,
as well as coaching senior managers. I continue to have
links to academic institutions and am a visiting lecturer
at LJMU. This helps me to keep up to date in the research
and development of leadership theories and development
approaches. I liaise with academics on a regular basis,
but prefer to work in an applied setting. My links to
industry and my work with organisational leaders is as
important as my links with academia. This combination
allows me to facilitate the desired results for my clients.
Isn’t the falconry link
just a gimmick?
Perhaps
some people might think that. However, read almost
any book on the psychology
of birds of prey and
any book on leadership, and you can’t help but
see the links. One of my specialist areas is emotional
intelligence and I remember laughing when attending a ‘meet
the birds’ event Steve was running. The falconer,
Rob, said that we couldn’t work with the Eagles
that day, because they were in a ‘narky mood, and
you don’t want to work with a narky Eagle’.
Falconry is about communicating in very difficult circumstances
and to communicate effectively you need to understand
the impact of emotion as well as what is being communicated.
Rob obviously has an in-depth understanding of the emotional
states of the birds he works with. Again falconry is
a perfect way to get these messages across.
There is a lot of research that
supports the effectiveness of what is termed experiential
learning. By seeing and
experiencing new ways of working, new approaches and
ways of behaving, it’s often easier to learn. If
people also enjoy the learning experience, it has a greater
impact. It’s often easy to get stuck in a comfort
zone, so handling a wild animal can help to take you
out of your comfort zone and see things from a different
perspective. Falconry is a fantastic way of doing this.
The programmes we have designed that incorporate hunting
take things even further. The hunting aspect really helps
to impact on communication skills and on the strategic
perspective of leadership, plus it enhances teamwork.
For me as a leadership development specialist, this
is some of the most exciting and enjoyable work I do.
I get to work with people who really are experts, as
in the area of falconry their knowledge is arguably unrivalled.
The delegates who attend always add to the events, bring
something new to every workshop. If you attended the
same workshop twice, you would learn something new and
different at each event. I also get to work with some
remarkable wild animals too, and am always somewhat awestruck
and honoured to have one of these magnificent creatures
on my arm.
Further Info
For further information about the High Flyers programmes or to book a
place on a course call: 0151 257 9480 or click onto: www.holdenmorrisconsulting.co.uk.
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