Strengthen Your Team

Dramatic changes in farm business management mean decision-making is more complex, a team is needed to make decisions, and personal growth and development opportunities both within and outside of agriculture are needed.

I just returned from an absolutely fantastic two week vacation in Italy (with Road Scholar educational programs). It has been an embarrassingly long time since I took a true vacation - no work, no emails, no phone calls. 

Although I certainly did not come home rested after a busy two weeks and a 7 hour time change, I do feel refreshed, reinvigorated and able to take a fresh look at what I am doing. 

I realize that not everyone can or should take a two week vacation; however, All of us need to periodically ask the question: Are we working too much? That is the topic of this article.

We begin by considering why we work "too" much.  Four possible reasons emerge:

1. The farm or agribusiness financial status does not enable hiring sufficient labor to enable the manager to work reasonable hours
2. No one else is capable of doing the work I do
3. Time working on the farm is more urgent even though not more important
4. There is nothing important to do in non-work time

The fourth is rare but for those it fits, my response is very simple:"get a life."  The first is a real challenge if true, but more commonly is at least partially an easier justification to oneself and others for reasons 2 and 3.

Those of us who work too much do so because we believe -- consciously or subconsciously; intentionally or unintentionally -- that we must be present for the necessary work to get done satisfactorily.  We all are trying to work less; unfortunately TRYING is not sufficient.  One informal definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting the results to be different. 

Consider the following four suggestions:

1. Make Life Balance a Priority
Stephen Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Successful People) popularized a focus on Quadrant II (see diagram).  Quadrant II includes everything that is important but not currently urgent.  This quadrant includes many of the work activities of leadership, management, training, coaching and professional development.  It ALSO includes much of your personal and family time. 

Success as a leader/manager/supervisor requires expanding the time available for Quadrant II activities.  This is accomplished by making these activities a priority and establishing personal operating rules and structures that ensure sufficient Quadrant II time.  Remember time management is not about time; it is about priorities.

2. Plan for Life Balance
Bill is struggling with life balance issues resulting from the birth of a first child.  He has consistently expressed the need to finish work no later than 5:00 PM several nights a week.  Although his supervisor is supportive, Bill almost never leaves work before 6:00 or 6:30.  Why?  Bill's answer is that there are always uncompleted tasks remaining that only that can do.

Many of us are like Bill.  We work too much because we do not have a plan to do otherwise.  Here are my ideas:

• Outline what needs to be done
   
• Determine what can reasonably be completed in the time available
   
• Complete high priority tasks that only you can do first even if they are tasks you tend to avoid
   
• Delegate tasks to others
   
• Become more efficient with your work time
   

The final two items are our last two suggestions to improve life balance.

3. Train Others to Complete some of Your Tasks
Several years ago I listened to a very successful farm manager talk about his success in managing employees.  He stated "90 % of the difficulties with employee performance are a result of something I did or didn't do."  Failing to recognize this possibility, managers frequently underestimate the capabilities of their employees. 

Let's try the following.  Close your eyes.  Stop focusing on the weaknesses of your employees.  When you open your eyes, look for the strengths and potential in each of your employees.  Based on these strengths and potential:

• Select one task you currently do that one or more of your employees could complete successfully
• Develop a plan to:
  o   Create an excitement for the new task in the employee(s)
  o   Provide the training required
  o   Establish performance expectations
  o   Coach and provide feedback including comparing actual and expected performance expectations
  ·         When this employee(s) is well on his or her way to success, select another task to transfer from your task list
   

Not only are you making time for more quadrant II activates including personal time, you are enhancing the productivity and most assuredly the job satisfaction of your employees.

4. Enhanced Personal Efficiency
The demands of graduate study present significant life balance challenges.  When I was completing my Ph.D. course work, many in my class had a policy of getting away from our studies on Friday night.  Our hope, usually achieved, was to return refreshed bright and early (well not early by farm standards) Saturday morning.  One member of our class, Ron, would invariably be at the office on Friday night.  As we were getting back into our studies on Saturday morning; Ron would drag in, tell us how frustrated he was that he "had to study" on Friday night, how little he had accomplished, and how little motivation he had to study today.

Do you have "Ron time"?  Time when you are burnt out and inefficient; time when you get an "F" in life balance because you are accomplishing little or nothing at work but YOU ARE AT WORK.  Take some time and identify your "Ron time".  Now reschedule your work so you have sufficient personal and family time to avoid being inefficient at work ("Ron time").

Concluding suggestions
We end with suggested habits to relieve the stress of work and create quality time for yourself, your family and your friends.  Try some of the following:

• Schedule time during the day when all family members are together. Talk about the day. Ask each person to share one or two positives from their day - a new friend, an accomplishment, something learned, an exciting experience with an old friend.
• Go for a walk. Don't look for weeds in the corn. Listen to a bird sing, watch a butterfly flit by, marvel at a beautiful flower or the quiet of the countryside. 
• Read something you enjoy. You need not spend a long time. A chapter or a few pages a day really adds up. A short period of reading or reflection is very important to many very successful people.

Four key responsibilities are necessities, including requiring excellence in operations, and establishing and implementing a winning business direction and strategy.

Recently, in discussing “Strategy in Turbulent Times,” I introduced: Embrace Change + True Urgency = Opportunity.

While teaching and reflecting on these ideas, I have thought about the broader issue of what must the owner of a farm business do to successfully lead a farm business in these turbulent times.  That is this month’s topic.

We look at four key responsibilities of those who own, lead and manage a farm or other family business. They are:

1. Require excellence in operations.
2. Establish and implement a winning business direction and strategy.
3. Nurture and change the business culture as needed.
4. Attract, develop and retain an exceptional workforce.

Require excellence in operations
As the other responsibilities increase in priority emphasis, the importance of excellence in day-to-day operations becomes no less critical. For a dairy farm, this means staying abreast of research and technology to ensure exceptional dairy and crop efficiency and productivity. Emphasis on implementing the best practices/processes, quality assurance to ensure consistency, and proactive problem solving continue to be essential. 

For any other business, the processes are different but excellence in those processes must be maintained. This responsibility has been the primary focus of most owners/leaders/managers in the past. In the future, its importance will not diminish; however, the leader or leaders may have to delegate more of this responsibility to enable the required time be spent on the other key responsibilities.

Establish and implement a winning business direction and strategy
A great strategy is the synergistic intersection of:
•  The unique and specific business direction of the business
•  The resources – physical and human – available to the business
•  The available markets for the business’ products and services

This description generates three key points about direction and strategy:

1. The strategy must emerge from the direction of the farm business -- the mission and vision. This is one of the key linkages between the family and the business. The business strategy emerges from the vision and mission of the family or families that own the business. Unfortunately, we have often treated the farm as a way of life and the farm as a business as in conflict. They need not be in conflict when the strategy emerges from the vision and mission of the owners and their families.
2. Each of the three synergistic components of strategy is becoming increasingly diverse.  This trend means that more than ever before, each farm business must have its own unique strategy.
3. The strategist must increasingly be aware of the external world and how it impacts the business. It is becoming increasingly important for farm business owners to expand their knowledge of the local, national and global world around them and expand their network of acquaintances, mentors, teachers and trusted advisors.

Nurture and change as needed the farm business culture
Organizational culture is comprised of the norms and values of the business. Have you noticed characteristics of successful agribusinesses, restaurants and other businesses you frequent? These characteristics – friendliness, attentiveness, optimism, promptness -- represent the culture of those businesses. This is another key area of interaction between the family and the farm business.

I had cousins who lived only a couple miles from us when I was growing up. Every time I visited them, I heard their father complaining about how bad farming was. That was a part of the culture of that family and that farm business. It is no surprise that neither of my cousins chose careers in agriculture.

In a recent article, we talked about the importance today of a true urgency culture: a culture where the focus is on what is important (as determined by the direction and the strategy) and continuous improvement.

Your farm has a culture. Your challenge is to nurture the parts of that culture that support success in turbulent times and to change, consistent with your values, those parts that do not support success in turbulent times. To succeed in our turbulent times, you must alter your farm business culture to be more consistent with the true urgency we discussed last month and to embrace change.

Attract, develop and retain an exceptional workforce
The outstanding research by Jim Collins as reported in Good to Great has popularized the phrase “get the right people on the bus and in the right seats in the bus.” This is just as important for your family business as it was for the good-to-great companies Like Walgreens, Kroger and Wells Fargo Bank.  You must attract and hire the right people – partners, family members, employees. As or even more important are the responsibilities of each member of the business workforce including owners and family members. They each must be assigned responsibilities consistent with their strengths, interests and career goals.

Conclusion

Owning, leading and managing a farm or any other family business presents great challenges, opportunities and rewards. Success begins by clearly identifying your role in the success of your farm in these turbulent times. Next month we will address several key attitudes and perspectives required to excel in these responsibilities.

Bob Milligan, with Dairy Strategies, Inc., provides fool-proof techniques to optimize employee performance, satisfaction and longevity. Contact him at 651 647-0495 or rmilligan@trsmith.com.

Three years ago, none of us could have imagined what would transpire over the next three years in our dairy and agricultural industry or in the general economy. I have been referring to this as TURBULENCE X TURBULENCE.

Praise motivates employees and builds confidence. What if you provided high-quality positive feedback at least once a day for the next 21 days?