Originally published on June 3, 2024 on CountryGuide
By Jeanine Moyer
Being your own boss, making your own decisions, reaping the rewards of your hard work. Self-employment has its perks as a farmer. But as every farmer also knows, self-employment has its risks and its downsides too. You’re the one who’s accountable, you’re the one who has to keep yourself motivated, you’re the one who’s always in danger of making costly and even disastrous mistakes.
Farmers work largely by themselves, especially on small to mid-size farms. But that no longer means you have to farm alone.
Strive for self-improvement
Jayden Buchanan, a southern Manitoba beef and crop farmer and owner of Crystal Creek Cattle, has been farming with his dad for seven years and has already made this profound observation. “Farm businesses are constantly changing and evolving, and as farmers and leaders we need to do the same,” he says.
His dad is Dean, and together Jayden and Dean have invested in leadership training to improve Jayden’s communications and the relationships that he expects will ultimately drive the success of their farm and family.
Dean has some added perspective on the issue too. Like Jayden, he also returned home after university to farm with his father. The difference, though, is that today, he and Jayden can do a lot more research into how to create and run a multi-generational approach to farming, and into how to understand each other’s communication and leadership styles.
Dean admits it took a miscommunication incident before he and Jayden agreed they should bring in a farm business coach to help them resolve their differences. But they haven’t looked back and now they feel they understand each other’s working and leadership styles much better and they work together as a team.
Before investing in farm business coaching and enrolling in the 11-month National Farm Leadership program, Jayden thought leadership was a loaded word, something you might use to describe a captain of a sports team or an authority figure but not his kind of farmer.
Now, he thinks differently about himself and he sees leadership as something we all experience in our daily lives. And now, he also sees his leadership style as something he can manage. “I recognize my leadership style is always evolving. I’m not perfect and I need to be open to different approaches,” he says.
Jayden’s new focus is on keeping an open mind he’s always seeking opportunities to learn and personally improve when working with others, including his dad, their farm employee and his siblings.
He’s also putting effort into building relationships that will be essential for the future of his farm business, especially when it comes to having the confidence to negotiate and advocate for himself.
Those relationships include not only employees and family but also sales reps, farm advisors and lenders. “I recognize I need to be able to take charge and make decisions in every business situation,” he says. “I’m accountable to myself, my family and my farm.”
Know when to ask for help
Meanwhile, father Dean Buchanan owns Thornbank Farm and says he’s proud to be working together with his family to foster healthy personal relationships.
“Family comes first for me,” Dean says. “The farm is important, but understanding my values and prioritizing my family helps guide my decisions.”
Integrity, communication and decisiveness are the top three qualities Dean wants in his leadership. He’s aware there are areas he needs to improve to become a more complete leader for his farm and for himself, and he says he’s learned a lot about his leadership style in the past few years as he’s embarked on a personal development journey.
Dean also admits he was inflexible in the past, taking a “this is the way we’ve always done it” approach to farm management. But now that he’s not the only one making decisions, he’s learning to consider new approaches and how to talk through and consider new ideas.
Investing in farm management coaching and leadership training has changed the Buchanan family and their working relationships, and it helps them navigate their differences, make informed decisions and plan for the future success and sustainability of their farm operations, both individually and together.
Dean advises fellow farmers who struggle with any aspect of their personal or farm life to reach out for help. “We need to eliminate the stigma of asking for help,” he says. “In our case, asking for help has paid dividends.”
Dean says he is proud to say that both he and his son are doing what they love, farming. They enjoy their livelihoods and their family relationships and they are achieving success — which they put down to their commitment to pursue continuous self-improvement and greater effectiveness as individuals and as leaders.
What to do next
Meanwhile, at Waterford, a couple hours southwest of Toronto, Philip Wiedrick is finding leadership isn’t always a straight-line kind of thing. It’s like how the best way to help a person can be to point them in the right direction, not to tell them exactly what they have to do next.
Wiedrick describes his farm structure as “small in some ways but large and complicated in others.” He farms alongside his dad as the owner of Mae-Mart Farms Ltd., a cash crop and 4,000-sow farrow, grower and finisher operation.
Like countless other young farmers, Wiedrick says he learned his leadership approach by watching his dad, and that by building on his dad’s leadership and focus on growth, the father-son duo has expanded the farm from one employee to 49.
Now Wiedrick recognizes he needs to enhance his skill set as a leader to match the growth of his operation.
A major expansion in 2022 saw the farm more than double hog production as well as purchase a manure application business, acquire more land and add a significant number of employees.
“As a leader I know I’m not where I want to be. I tend to show people what to do rather than help them learn and grow into their roles and responsibilities. I want to be able to foster employees to be their own leaders,” says Wiedrick who has always been involved in community organizations and volunteer leadership roles.
Every year, Wiedrick takes advantage of opportunities to strengthen and grow his skill set by attending education, training and industry events. Right now, he’s focused on leadership and is enrolled in the first Canadian cohort of the 21st Century Ag Leadership Forum, where developing his ability to lead and empower employees is at the top of his skills development list.
Says Wiedrick: “I’m always striving for self-improvement and applying what I learn about myself to support others and my farm.”
Start with yourself
Kelly Dobson, farm business coach and owner of LeaderShift, captures the importance of farm leadership in 10 words: “No business performs better than its leadership in the long term,” he says.
“Some farmers make it look easy and appear to make the right moves and decisions that lead to success. But it’s not by accident. The farmers who prioritize their performance first are more successful personally and professionally,” says Dobson.
So, how do farmers, especially those on smaller or average-sized farms, lead themselves? As the default leader of their farm business, how can they stay accountable to themselves to lead their operation and ensure success?
Dobson says farmers need to start thinking a little selfishly and start seeing themselves as the most important asset on their farm. “Ask yourself, how would I treat myself if I believed I was my most valuable asset? What investment should I be making in myself?”
In Dobson’s eyes, those who are willing to make a leap should start by investing in self-development and leadership.
Leaders require a variety of skills and all of them focus on building a person’s capacity to consciously lead. Dobson describes this as acting intentionally rather than reactively and he explains that most people don’t realize how much their behaviour is driven by the need to alleviate anxiety rather than a focus on achieving a specific outcome.
Dobson believes the complexity of today’s agricultural sector is revealing the signs of farmers who aren’t personally developing into who they need to be to manage their farms. He’s encouraged by the growing level of awareness of many who are seeking to enhance their leadership skills but sees many farmers exhausting themselves by working in ways that won’t support the scaling and sustainability of their farm businesses.
The most common problems Dobson observes on today’s farms are strained relationships, employee turnover and unmanaged stress.
“The greatest challenges of farm leadership, no matter the size or structure, come down to the capacity to engage on issues that really matter, the issues that drive the performance of the farm today and into the next generation,” he says, explaining that most people will describe this experience as trying to engage a family member or employee on a specific issue when it’s really more fundamental than that.
“People know a great deal about their challenges and opportunities. The barrier is that they often don’t know themselves well enough to engage clearly and transparently, and that puts them where they can’t engage because ‘that’s not who I am.’ I hear that a lot at the beginning.”
By contrast, he says high-performing people, who usually have had coaching and leadership development, know they can be themselves wherever they are. And no matter who they are with, they can effectively talk about what matters.
Achieve success
“Most people don’t make time for themselves. In many cases it’s viewed as selfish, but it’s absolutely necessary,” says Dobson, who challenges all farmers to seek self-awareness and lead their farms with a purpose. “Ask yourself the hard questions: who am I today and who do I want to be?” he says.
The opportunities to level up and improve leadership skills as a farmer are everywhere, from podcasts and books about leaders and self-improvement to workshops, coaches and immersive courses. Dobson reminds farmers who are interested in learning that the basics start with developing themselves as individuals before applying the concepts to their farm businesses. Says Dobson, “I’m in the businesses of helping people realize they are more than they think they can be.”
– This article was originally published in the January 30, 2024 issue of Country Guide.