Leadership Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Clover Hill Diaries

Talking leadership

Tomorrow I am going to the doctor. What’s so unusual about that is that I am actually going

I am extremely disappointed (devastated might be a better word) that I am not free to attend the Australian Farm Institute’s launch of their research report tomorrow in Canberra

‘Opportunities to improve the effectiveness of Australian farmers advocacy groups – a comparative approach’

Are advocacy groups necessary? (the rationale for collective advocacy); Getting inspired: International and national case studies of advocacy groups; What do Australian farmers really think of agricultural advocacy groups?;

Workshop: Developing a preferred model for agricultural advocacy in Australia

So what’s all this got to do with going to the doctor? A lot actually

There has been a lot of talk about leadership (or lack of) in agriculture for as long as I can remember.

Whether leaders are born or made?

Is the advocacy model flawed?

Lots and lots of talk and I haven’t seen much change over the last 20 years. So when I was asked last year to be on the NSW Farmers Dairy Committee I was very reticent. I was reticent because I don’t necessarily believe leaders are born and I didn’t feel I had the required skills sets

I was eventually convinced that it wouldn’t involve any more time and that it might help fast track some of the initiatives that I was trying to achieve.

I also felt a bit guilty and that I had a responsibility to give it a go and maybe, just maybe with the right team around me (all those people who had the skill sets I didn’t) I could really help make a difference.

More time. You are joking. 24/7 just took on a whole new meaning.

Face to face meetings are twice a year. The first meeting is taken up with identifying the priorities of your industry, your committee members’ area of expertise and where each person can be most effective and then developing the action plan.

Then putting it all into action seriously becomes 365 days plus

This is because you find most of the priority issues have been around for a long time and if your committee is going to be the one to get action you have to do a lot of backgrounding to understand the politics, the barriers, the personalities (and trust me its normally the personalities) as to why your committee may just have what it takes to surmount what all the committees before you couldn’t

State level representation often means federal representation and that means you are dealing with people all over the country and Australia is a big place. So that of course means teleconferences. Endless teleconferences. Urgent teleconferences. Workshops, summits, industry briefings, industry breakfasts, briefing notes and yes cancelled doctor’s appointments.

So I have found in the majority of cases there are lot of well-meaning people who put their hands up to take on these roles who just like me are floundering around in the dark, frustrated they are putting in all this time getting no-where and putting the rest of their life on hold

Leaders may be born, so might doctors but they don’t give you a license to operate until you have knowledge and the skill sets and the mentors and the support networks in place so you can be the very best doctor you can be physically and emotionally

The world is complex, agriculture is complex and leadership requires many things and we have to do a lot more than talk about it

As always no matter how good the concept it’s the people who make it work

Lets not forget the world is run by those who turn up. How do we make sure the right people are in the room. The people with all the skills sets required to make an effective team

For me we don’t have near enough people talking about how we can best help and support our people who put their hands up.

I look forward to reading the Australian Farm Institute’s report. I look forward to talking to some of the people I know who are going

Mick Keogh and his team are definitely world class leaders in their space. Let’s hope we take on board the learnings and the insights and so we can get on with the doing

Courage does not always roar

The end of 2013 is nigh and its time for reflection. This year I put my hand up to officially enter the world of agri-politics and as 2014 fast approaches I am seriously asking myself is this the best use of my time, energy and expertise? Very importantly is it the right thing for my emotional well-being?. As I listen and learn and process I am constantly being reminded of the Edmund Burke quote

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men and women do nothing.

I am also constantly buoyed by the great men and women I meet and last Monday saw me in Brisbane at the invitation of Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) at their Climate Adaptation Producer Workshop. I was quite excited to be attending this workshop because MLA has a collaborative mindset and producers from a number of industries were attending and I love these cross industry think tanks.

I also saw it as a great opportunity to grow my Bring a Friend campaign and take the dynamo that is Target 100’s Beef Young Farming Champion Bronwyn Roberts with me

The group was tasked with answering the following questions (considering all elements of the enterprise – animals, plants, people and the overall system)

1. What are the key research needs for climate for our farming systems?

2. What are the human skills and capacity needs for climate for our farming systems?

3. What do we already know about climate, and is that information (& decision support tools) sufficiently available to livestock producers?

4. What would an ideal farming system look like for your business in 2030? What resources or tools would you require to be more profitable in the future?

Now anybody who has spent even the smallest amount of time with me will know that to me agriculture in this country won’t have a viable future until we start genuinely investing in our people. See previous post here

To me it is imperative that we identify, engage, nurture and support our young people in an environment that allows each individual to build and enhance existing knowledge and skills and pivotally provides ongoing training and development to help them become more effective, and take on bigger and more significant challenges. This also requires us to establish conditions that will allow individuals to engage in the process of learning and adapting to change.

So it goes without saying that I would firmly ensconce myself at the table that was focusing on question 2.

It would not be a discussion without leadership or rather lack of rearing its ugly head and this brings me to the reason why I am finding myself emotionally drained at the end of 2013

In my role as a national dairy industry councillor I attended a number of dairy industry events last month. The hot topic behind the scenes was how was Dairy Australia taking the Horizon 2020 project forward?. No matter how you look at it this is a brilliant document – Horizon 2020

This project explored possible future scenarios for the Australian dairy industry in 2020 and described a desirable outcome.

In the words of the working group it was about ‘looking long and thinking differently’ and creating

the necessary farm business “fitness”
a positive and proactive culture;
(dairy) industry leadership to succeed in achieving a desired future in 2020.

The working group said

These imperatives will require industry to do a number of fundamentally new things and to address existing agendas differently compared to today.

Excitingly Horizon 2020 was to be the start of a process to

stimulate the Australian dairy industry to focus on the future – the opportunities that this future presents and what it will demand of our industry.

There were a number of young farmers on this working group who got the opportunity of a lifetime to travel the world and meet the first movers and the innovators and the champions in dairy right across the supply chain from the US to Europe

Fundamentally for these young farmers leadership growth they were promised by Dairy Australia that

“this process should create an ongoing process of insights and thought leadership to guide industry decision-making in future,

and they would be part of the team

‘to monitor progress on follow-up to this initiative”.

Now we all know there is nothing more motivating that being part of success story

Sadly for this group of young farmers the promise from the powers that be that they would continue to be part of the journey were hollow. I can tell you having been there done that a ‘thank you very much don’t call us we will call you (and don’t hold your breath)’ outcome is pretty demoralising and I was devastated speaking to some of the young farmers and hearing their disappointment .

Now these young farmers do have choices and they can challenge the process and I know a few very passionate people are already in their court ready to stand beside them to help them do it. I am telling this story because I want more great men and women in dairy to join this team to fight the good fight

I am reminded of the Theodore Roosevelt quote

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,

The man who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings;

The man who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.

So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Yes Agriculture is full of timid souls but I can assure you it is also full of leaders. Leaders who need more than token a ‘leadership alumni” they need support, ongoing training, access to bright minds and people with blue sky visions who discuss the big ideas. Sometimes they even need their hands held.

I know it can be done Art4Agriculture’s Young Farming Champions prove this to me everyday and they inspire me to keep going and excitingly they have inspired the corporate sector to invest in them.

I will give it a couple of weeks to see if I have the strength to help drive change at Dairy Australia. I am not alone in this endeavour but more farmers need to put their hands up. I look forward to them stepping up to the challenge. Its time to look long and think differently and that starts with challenging the process

Taking the leap

It’s almost 10 years since I stood up and said I want to be part of the team that drives change for agriculture and I must admit I have been overwhelmed by the people who have nurtured and inspired me as part of my journey.

It’s never too late to be who you could have been. – It’s a matter of switching gears, never looking back, and BECOMING the person today that you always knew you were capable of being. Entertain every thought, say every word, and make every decision from their point of view.

What’s even better is the people who were determined to drag me down form part of a small group who just don’t matter anymore.

Now it’s my chance to give back and support the next generation of people who want to engage as agents of change in their world and make a difference and it’s quite exciting the number of pathways and programs available in agriculture to help nurture them or provide a vehicle to give them the profile to attract and learn from likeminded spirits.

Closing shortly are applications for the Australian Rural Leadership program and the NAB Agribusiness Rising Beef Champion Initiative

The Australian Rural Leadership program is a personal and professional growth training and development program of which part of the process is often called “transformative learning”, which is changing the way that you look at things, including yourself. It also has a reputation (and please correct me if I am wrong) of increasing the divorce rate as participants become aware that successful people have partners who either support them or share their vision or are divorced.

The program is viewed as the elite amongst rural leadership programs and many of the alumni are often almost evangelistic in encouraging others to join their journey.

For me the Kimberley experience and the trip to India are my excuse for not applying but I certainly admire and am extremely happy to support applications from young people that are gutsy enough to take them both on

The Rising Beef Champion Initiative commenced in 2010. The aim of the initiative is to inspire, empower and support young people, who are passionate about the Australian beef industry and to provide them with an opportunity to be directly involved. 2011 Young Farming Champion Alison McIntosh was the inaugural winner

There is no doubt that if agriculture is going to attract forward and future thinking young people who have the potential to grasp the issues, complexities and range of perspectives across the supply chain as well as understand the importance of the big picture and its broader ramifications and implications we must identify those people, engage them, invest in and nurture them

Critically (and sadly where we too often fall down) is agriculture needs to be proactive in determining the pathways and support structures required to retain these young fabulous people