SYNERGIES BETWEEN FARM MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Those in the position of farm management, might benefit from recognising some synergies that exist between Farm Management and Leadership. Leaders work with their team to define goals for their organisation, implementing strategies and outlining objectives. How managers lead, can heavily influence the success of a business, with particular regard to the human capital that is a resource of said business. Farming is about growing and nurturing, so one would think that it likely includes growing and developing people as part of maintaining a sustainable business.

Two common leadership styles are transactional and transformational. Transactional leadership tends to focus on a task and a process to achieve a result. It is often considered a transaction between manager and employee. Transactional leadership or management tends to be directed towards maintaining the status quo. This tends to work well in situations where processes and tasks are quite black and white.

Conversely, transformational leadership encompasses a style allowing time and effort to envision the future. Goals of what the future will look like, plus what the team need to achieve in order for success, are both areas requiring focus. Transformational leadership encourages learning and experience for employees, aiding in intellectual stimulation. Communication is critical for clearly messaging the vision for the business to employees. As part of this, consideration of the unique learning styles of individuals through more personalised approaches to interactions, can help towards reaching higher potential from employees, aligning the vision and future resources required for the business to grow. Inspirational motivation can further add to this. Ultimately, leaders serve as role models, with their values, actions and behaviours signalling to employees what is expected, thereby encouraging a corresponding response from their followers. Followers, or employees in this case, can then go on to influence the team in a similar manner, aiding a positive culture for people in the business.

Given the similarities that exist between farm management and leadership, leadership and capacity building may be a worthwhile professional development area of focus for farm managers. The first step may actually be recognising that as a farm manager, that person is a leader. Second to this, it may help to identify what type of leader the manager is, or aspires to be and how they can enhance their abilities as a leader.