How do you handle feedback? A strong leader listens even if they don't fully agree. Listening builds trust. When trust is high everyone is open and honest with each other, and everything is easier. Listen to this video-cast and learn to improve your feedback skills. The result? Your business will run smoother, your stress will be lower and your employees happy.
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Business Growth Strategy, Dairy Signal - PDPW
Managing Effective Teams – Dairy Signal Episode 1
We are excited that Liz is a part of the Dairy Signal Show. It's a series of presentations that PDPW (The Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin) puts out 3x/week. Liz will be participating at various times throughout the year. We'll keep you updated when she's on, and post recordings of her talks here on our blog. In January Liz had her first episode. She spoke about 'Managing Effective Teams." You can listen to it below. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS: Hire Right Onboard effectively Right people on the bus Train Communicate (Listening and speaking) Giving & receiving feedback Stay & Exit...
Business Growth Strategy
Sometimes Ya Gotta Let Go
As business owners we are good at adding. Adding more acres, more sales, more landlords, and more employees. More is a sign of success; at a certain point, more can limit new opportunities. Some opportunities may be growing the farm, succession planning, or building your employee team. There comes a time when you have to let go to get more of what you want. Work - Your time is valuable and there isn't enough time to get all the work done. Every year your time is squeezed even more. Has your role changed but your tasks haven't? Are you doing...
Succession Planning
Is your family committed to the farm?
Lack of a shared vision may be one of the most significant threats to sustaining a family business through multiple generations. Roughly 83% of family farms do NOT make it to the third generation. Developing your own family's vision will greatly increase the odds in your favor. Your family farm is not the same as it was when you started it. It has evolved over time due to financials, demand, land availability, technology, and hard work. You have and will continue to feed the world in a highly competitive environment. When farming was financially sustainable many farms wanted to continue...
Business Growth Strategy
Do you have the right people on your bus?
Is there a Third Question to Ask? You have probably heard the phrases, "we need the right people on the bus," and "we need the employees in the right seats" on that bus. These phrases imply we need to find the right people to join our businesses and then make sure they are in the right spot. This sounds reasonable. But is there another question you need to be asking? It's not a secret that farms have a competitive advantage when they consistently find good employees and keep them. Part of keeping an employee is placing them in a role...
Succession Planning
The Power of a Transition Plan
And the Failure when there is none. Bob, a dairy farmer college of mine, operated a successful 600 cow dairy. Like most of us, he thought he had a lot more time left in this world. Unfortunately, Bob was diagnosed with cancer on a Monday and died just two weeks later. The biggest business obstacle to his wife and daughter was the absence of the paperwork that allowed his business to continue. As leaders of successful dairy operations, you understand the importance of developing and using documents. My guess is your farm office is full of manure maps, dairy comp...
Business Growth Strategy
Don’t Ask If You Can’t Handle the Truth
As business owners, you want content and engaged employees who stay for the long haul. That requires open lines of communication and an effort on your part to seek feedback to improve employee morale and culture. However, sometimes it is hard to handle the truth, and some business owners don’t believe their team’s suggestions have value. Asking for input and then not initiating a plan to repair the problem is like adding more fuel to the fire. It is one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a leader. When you ask but do nothing in return, employee engagement decreases...
Uncategorized
Keep Calm and Carry On
Keep Calm and Carry On Lessons on Resilience & Hope from Great Britain -1939. I saw this phrase several years ago and never paid much mind to it. What does it mean, and where did it come from? Does it apply to us today? The year was 1939. World War ll was about to begin, and the horror of an invasion was on the doorstep of Great Britain. Great Britain was not prepared, and defeat seemed inevitable. There was a massive national movement to get ready, but even then, the outlook was grim. There were many ideas about what to...
Business Growth Strategy, Leadership
Influential Leaders. Inspire? or Deflate?
Each day, we, as leaders, influence our teams. We influence them with our passion, work ethic, and desire to progress. We can either be a positive influence or a negative one. The choice is ours. Great leaders understand the importance of positively influencing others. They help them grow and reach their goals. They communicate well and teach their employees to feel a sense of ownership. More importantly, they are authentic. They lead by example. Influential leaders motivate everyone to become their best. Positive influence is powerful. Negative influence is also powerful. But instead of motivating towards growth, it fosters distrust...
Business Growth Strategy
Three questions to ask of any new business venture
All that glitters is not gold. Farm incomes are down, and it may be tempting to start an off-farm business to produce non-farm income. You are probably excellent at production ag, but how well do those talents translate to this new venture? One owner confided to me that, "We have so many business ventures come across my desk in a week we would choke if we tried to take advantage of all of these good deals." His point was the deals were good, but they took his focus away from his core business. Another farmer bought a sawmill production plant...