Robyn graduated UW Nursing School with a Bachelors Degree in Nursing. While practicing in acute care hospitals as a traveling nurse, she continued her education by taking courses and classes in Leadership and Team psychology. Earning a Knowledge Management Certificate in 2000, Robyn pursued a career in corporate leadership, teambuilding and knowledge management in the medical arena. Traveling the country for 15 years as a consultant has had a positive impact on Robyn’s experience and education.
Robyn left the corporate world in 2006 to pursue her passion: to teach the same leadership and team building skills to teens and young adults. Subsequently, she developed an outstanding curriculum for teens and young adults based on the same successful principles of corporate leadership and teambuilding. Over the years, Robyn has been teaching individual leaders and their teams to become highly successful communicators.
ELS Horsemanship-to-Leadership Program for Teens
“Pairing the program with horses in a farm setting has been the most successful platform to teach future leaders. Teens learn compassion, awareness, unselfishness, self-control, communication, teamwork, and other soft skills needed to become a productive member of society.” Robyn Smith
As parents began to see remarkable changes in their teens attending the ELS Horsemanship-to-Leadership Courses, they started to request classes for themselves. These parents are teachers, coaches, business owners, corporate executives, and more. Since 2006, there has been as many youth as adults who have participated and completed a variety of courses, classes and workshops. Many of these adults are still actively volunteering, taking riding lessons, or attending our workshops and classes.
Corporate Coaching:
Robyn’s primary focus is Leadership Training & Team Development.
Robyn’s current and past clients include individuals and teams from Microsoft, Expedia, Comcast, Hatton Marine, Montessori Schools, to name a few.
Here are some of the areas Robyn teaches and coaches. She offers individual leadership courses, classes, and team building workshops (with and without horses) on a regular basis:
- Effective Communication: A.L.I.G.N. to Connect with Anyone
- Motivational Insights into Behavior: Beyond Personality Profiles
- The Relationship Matrix: How to Relate to Anyone
- Authority is Power: Use it Wisely
- Teambuilding Workshops with horses (non-riding experiential learning): Leadership Pitfalls and Solutions
- The Power of Focus: Commit to the Outcome!
- Fear vs. Love Motivation: The Blocks to Success
Why horses?
“Research shows that animals, particularly horses, have a healing and life changing effect on humans. As our world becomes more tech savvy, we seem to be losing our interpersonal savvy. After working with dozens of company leaders and employees, one of the most common complaints is the lack of trust in leadership. Employees tend to express their distress in undesirable behaviors that negatively affect relationships in the office. Miscommunication is the most common problem that leads to poor productivity, relationships and ineffective teams.
Horses are no different. If they do not trust their leader due to miscommunication of the task expected from the horse, their behaviors are amplified by sheer size and energy. They buck, bolt, bite, kick, strike or rear when leadership is lacking. Like humans, horses do not respond well to bullying: force, fear and intimidation. They respond to calm, assertive energy from the leader to direct them and keep them safe.” Robyn Smith
“Working with horses at Equine Life Solutions I learned that humans and horses share the same fears. This knowledge has helped me to empathize with and better understand people-in all areas of my life. The skills I learned with horses were immediately transferrable to my career as a school teacher and a colleague.” Emily Nagel, Montessori School Teacher
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