Let me start with a question: When you opened your lunch pail at school, did your mother pack you hummus with jicama sticks? (Are you googling jicama right now?) Mine certainly didn’t. I’m a solid, 1970s-born Gen Xer, and the funkiest thing I ever had in my Little House on the Prairie lunchbox was a half-eaten bologna […]
The issues around labor, the challenges to hire and retain, and the desire to continue upgrading and managing on boarding and benefit programs are all topics that business owners in any industry bemoan. Agriculture has our own very unique set of issues AND opportunities to contend with, so this week, in keeping with the 6 […]
You’ve probably heard the phrase’ the future is now,’ and it is for us in agriculture. Welcome to my next six-part series, where I’ll be covering my take on the future of the industry, starting with the significant shifts happening that will (or already are!) affecting everyone from the farm to the corporate offices of […]
This week I’d like to share a recent article that appeared as my monthly column, The Farm CEO Coach, in Top Producer. Take a read below and you can find these in realtime each month on www.agweb.com. Thanks always to my friends at Farm Journal Media for working with me to publish these columns!
It’s imperative to spend quality time thinking strategically about the roles of today, tomorrow, and into the future. Roles at the farm now are different and the change going forward will blow our minds. There are jobs that don’t even exist that will be integral aspects of future farm management. With that in mind, there is […]
What is business culture? While it’s hard to define, culture exists and it is felt by everyone. What’s most interesting is, culture of a business is either created or it’s just simply tolerated. Culture shifts when new leaders take the helm and when new people join the work team. Culture can be changed intentionally with a conscious effort, […]
Workplace assessments, seems like extra work we don’t really want to do, right? BUT, it is estimated that as many as “60 percent of employees undergo workplace assessments a year.” (UNC Kenan & Flagler Business School) Honest and anonymous feedback from your work team can really help leverage your and your team’s professional growth and development. We can […]
In agriculture, we’re conditioned to just “handle it,” putting aside uncomfortable issues or long-standing problems in favor of tackling immediate needs like harvest season or calving. Yet, such reactive thinking is not the way of the future. Proactive, forward-looking approaches are necessary to meet new demands. The first step in building a strategy to coach […]
I hate to remind you…but the summer is nearing an end. What’s interesting about this time of year is that people always seem to come back to work more focused as the evenings cool and the kids go back to school. Maybe that ‘back to school’ attitude from our youth will always be ingrained in us. […]
Many of us watched firework and spent time with family, all while celebrating the holiday this past Fourth of July weekend. The 4th of July is all about Independence- and so is agriculture. The reason I wrote Who’s Running Your Farm (Next)? 5 Steps to Develop and Coach Your Next Generation is to help ensure financial independence for the next […]
