Doug Stark worked for Farm Credit Services of America for 37 years, eventually becoming the organization’s CEO until his recent retirement.
He joins the Ag Inspo podcast with hosts Ron Rabo and Rena Striegel to share the best ways to enhance your leadership skills.
“Leadership is learned, so you can teach leadership to other people,” Stark says. “I was in leadership roles before I knew what leadership was. I was a terrible leader, and I recognized that. I changed the way I was approaching things.”
He says attending conferences can be helpful, but are admittedly not his first pick.
“You can go to some good conferences and pick up some things on leadership. I pick more up from individual presenters or speakers here and there,” he says.
Stark’s favorite leadership development resource is more easily accessible: books.
“There’s tons of leadership books on the market - I was reading probably two or three a month,” he says. “Some of them would say the same things, just in a different way. But sometimes that would trigger a thought.”
He compares reading to taking a shower.
“It cleans my mind of all the challenges, created a positive mindset and started inspiring me with thoughts and ideas in which I could deploy to make myself and our team more effective,” Stark says.
Stark is even basing a university course on one of those books: The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.
“It’s based on research, not just a general philosophy,” he says. “They have five attributes of exemplary leaders, and that’s kind of been my Bible over the years.”
Starke has also found a lot of value in hiring leadership coaches, even if you’re already in a company’s C-Suite.
"[Employing a leadership coach] was one of the most powerful things I ever did,” Starke says. “Not only did he humble me, but he really taught me a lot of the things that I abide by today and on a daily basis.”
He believes good leaders create good culture, and that leads to satisfied employees who will go the extra mile.
“When you start respecting people, trusting them, treating them like adults and inspiring them with where you’re trying to go, things happen that you can’t even imagine,” Starke concludes. “They do things that make you go, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’”
