I had the opportunity to spend the weekend in beautiful Woodstock, Vermont. While there, I visited the Billings Farm and Museum and enjoyed demonstrations of sheep sheering, wool carding, and sheep herding with border collies.

Sitting in the bleachers, eating sea salt caramel ice cream made by a local Vermont dairy, I watched these amazing dogs and their skilled handler herd in four sheep. As the handler explained the process, I pulled out my pen and began taking notes on the back of the playbill. I knew I had my blog topic for this week.

Walking away from this excellent and entertaining farm animal demonstration, I wondered how much better “work” would be if employees were more like border collies, and bosses were more like handlers (and customers were more like sheep?). So I will attempt to build a metaphorical bridge between the border collies and the workforce. Please allow me some creative license…

Hiring Employees

The handler explained that the border collies are working dogs and are bred for special qualities. Firstly, they are keen to work, and secondly, they are biddable, or willing to work with the Shepard.

Now, “biddable” is not a regular word in my vocabulary, so I asked the handler what he meant by it. He said that biddable means that the dog is willing to work with the Shepard or Handler. Not all dogs have this unique quality. The dictionary says that biddable means “readily giving in to the command or authority of another.” It offers related words such as amenable, compliant, conformable, law-abiding, submissive, tractable, acquiescent, agreeable, amiable, duteous, dutiful, etc.

Reading this list of adjectives and thinking of a new hire, one might think you’d be hiring a weak person lacking in confidence. We tend to favor the more strong willed, independent thinkers and doers, and self-starters. But perhaps we should include screening for a fair amount of biddability when interviewing candidates and selecting new members of our work teams?

Rewarding Employees

I was surprised to learn that the Handler does not offer dog biscuits to the border collies for a job well done. He told us that the reward is giving the dog more work. The dogs love to work so much that working is the reward they seek. They simply want more…work that is.

He also mentioned that the border collies have “The Eye Thing.” That is, they have powerful eye contact and a serious and intense look that is part of their success in their work.  “We don’t want them looking to us for reward. We want them looking at the job that needs to get done.”

The other reward that was so obvious to everyone and didn’t need to be verbalized, was the tremendous respect that the dogs and the Handler had for each other. The camaraderie, the friendship, the understanding, and the verbal praise. That adds to the dogs’ sense of accomplishment and success. It makes the work even more rewarding for them.

What would happen to employees if we shifted our thinking and viewed the work as the reward itself. What if the work itself brought us such joy, pride, thrill, and satisfaction, that all we ever wanted was more of it?

What if employers didn’t need to concoct elaborate employee reward systems just to keep people “engaged” in the work. Mugs, promotional goodies, days off, gift cards, “Employee of the Month” certificates,  bonuses, public recognition- all the things that we’ve come to expect whenever we do good work.

Maybe we are making too much of the biscuit, when really the work is the real reward?

Training and Communicating with Employees

The Handler explained how he trained his dogs.  It was obviously a huge commitment on his part. He works as hard as the dogs do. He started with the basic verbal commands including 1) Stop; 2) Walk Up; 3) the flanking commands including ‘go by’ – in which the dog moves clockwise in a wide sweep motion; and ‘away’ in which the dog moves counterclockwise. And finally (my favorite command of all), ‘That will do” – letting the dog know that we are done.

The verbal commands then move to whistle commands, which the Handler told us have the dual benefit of traveling farther and carrying less emotion. The dog responds to the emotion that you put into your voice, and this can unnecessarily confuse and distress the dog.

Okay bosses – think about the kind of verbal and nonverbal commands and instructions that you give to your direct reports? Is it obvious what you want them to do? Is it consistent? Is there unnecessary emotion in your communication that interferes with the message? And how much effort are you dedicating to training your troops? Or do you just expect them to figure it (and you) out all by themselves? Are you a good handler?

Boss as the Handler

In the Q&A session, the Handler explained that border collies are ‘gatherers’ – they bring things to you. They don’t drive things away.

“To rely on heavy handed methods is a weakness, in my mind.” – Nij Vyas

Perhaps your employees are the same. They will bring you good things to you if you handle, treat, train, and communicate with them well.

Watch this YouTube video about methods of training border collies with handler Nij Vyas from England. Listen to this video from the lens of what it takes to be a good coach/trainer/boss. It’s just as important to have a good relationship with those that you are training (dogs or people!).

P.S.   no animals were harmed during the writing of this blog