Reading Time: 4 minutes GRIT | The Power of Passion and PerseveranceBy Angela Duckworth(Collins, 2018 • 368 pages, $33) What is the secret ingredient to success? Some say it’s innate talent. Others disagree and say it’s all about learned skills or hard work. And still others point to luck and being at the right place at the right time. […] Read more
What success really boils down to
Guide Books Review: GRIT | The Power of Passion and Perseverance
The Dream Gap
Bright Ideas: Many farms feel they treat their boys and girls equitably. Sadly, our columnist finds, the evidence doesn’t agree
Reading Time: 6 minutes By five years of age, girls have already begun to develop self-limiting beliefs. They stop believing that they can be or do anything. And they may never get that belief back. It’s a phenomenon that was identified in a 2017 report from Plan International, and it has also became well known as the Dream Gap, […] Read more
Women and men in conversation, and at work
Guide Books Review: 'You just don't understand,' and 'Talking from 9 to 5'
Reading Time: 3 minutes You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in ConversationTalking From 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work By Deborah Tannen(Morrow Paperbooks – $20 each) Men and women approach conversations from different linguistic landscapes, and this leads to opposite interpretations of the same words or intentions, and subsequent misunderstandings. “Misunderstandings arise because the styles are […] Read more
Bright ideas
Can we get better at decision-making?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Agriculture is too modest. There are so many intelligent, innovative and forward-thinking people in Canada’s agriculture industry — people who are hungry for bright ideas that they can play with, evaluate, adapt and adopt. This is an industry that loves bright ideas, which is why Country Guide is introducing this new bi-monthly column called exactly […] Read more
Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey
Guide Books Review: “Diversity is a strength in farming,” Rebanks says in his best-seller. But adds, “We do need efficiency gains and we can’t live completely in the past."
Reading Time: 3 minutes Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s JourneyBy James Rebanks Like a lot of farmers, James Rebanks is thoughtful. But unlike the rest of us, his thoughtfulness has helped him write a globally popular, best-selling and prize-winning book. It has even been named a New York Times editors’ book of the year, and it’s all about the questions […] Read more
A novel approach to estate planning
Guide Books Review: To your accountant, the target is to cut estate taxes. Your goal, though, can be to make your prosperity last for generations
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Naked Opus: Growing Your Family Wealth for the Long TermBy Chris Delaney This is a great read, tackling one of the most difficult topics every farm must face. How can a family build a future that lasts for generations instead of frittering away what it has worked so hard to achieve? So let’s start […] Read more
The rise of the new food engineers
Guide Books Review: The biggest threat to your farm isn’t commodity prices or interest rates. It’s science, and what’s going on in these labs
Reading Time: 3 minutes Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030: The Second Domestication of Plants and Animals, the Disruption of the Cow, and the Collapse of Industrial Livestock FarmingBy Catherine Tubb and Tony Seba How will agriculture, society and the environment be impacted by the onset of intense and broad disruption? It’s way more than COVID-19. Take a big breath […] Read more
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done
Guide Books Review: To Drucker, the way to thrive is clear. Spend more time on your opportunities, and less on your problems
Reading Time: 3 minutes An effective business executive is a doer who learns how to get the right things done to enhance organizational opportunity. According to Peter Drucker’s book The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, the effectiveness of an executive’s “doing” rests on five essential practices: time management, choosing what to contribute to […] Read more
Bulletproof your Farm
Guide Books Review: “If a family doesn’t take time to talk about — and agree on — a precise end destination, its members will always end up miserable.”
Reading Time: 3 minutes Bulletproof your FarmBy Andy Junkin 128 pages / Published independently If you find yourself in a situation where the family farm business must rapidly change in order to survive, but every partner is fighting for control and not listening to each other, what can you do to motivate everyone to make necessary, life-saving changes? Andy […] Read more
Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise
Guide Books Review: “Your role in the family business will ask much of you — your intellect, your emotional intelligence, and even your courage.”
Reading Time: 3 minutes Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise By Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer Harvard Business Review Press / 320 pages / $38 From the very first sentence on the first page, you’ll recognize this book’s relevance and value to a family farm business. The book can be best summed up […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
