I look at it like this: If you’ve taken your child to the field, or they work alongside you, then you have already started — and you’re further along in the process than you think.

The most successful farm transitions take place over time. A solid succession is a process, not a one-time transaction. The most common obstacle to getting started is procrastination because we put things off when we are uncertain of what’s involved, or we think it will be difficult.

Procrastination keeps us stuck.

I understand that you have a million things to do, but if something happened to you today, what would happen to your farm?

“But I don’t know how to start the conversation about the future,” you say.

You know what? It’s normal to feel overwhelmed with the process of transitioning your farm. From the starting line, the process ahead looks foggy, and we think we only have one shot to get it right.

Then, so many of us aren’t certain about what we want in the first place. And is that what everyone else wants? Is there even a common goal regarding the farm’s future?

This type of planning also involves discussing the most difficult topics (e.g., death, finances, divorce, trust), bringing up emotions that make many of us uncomfortable.

So, how can you gain some succession planning traction? Here’s six suggestions to get you started.

1. Ask yourself: What’s the end game?

Why do you do what you do? You and everyone involved in the business should really sit with that question for awhile. Mull it over, write it down — even send it to me. I’m here to make you successful and that includes asking hard questions that make you think. (Hint: there are no right or wrong answers.)

2. Ask yourself: What’s at stake?

The biggest risk on farms today is having one person in charge of everything. If you go to work every day without processes or plans written down, or without having up to date wills or agreements, you are putting millions of dollars in flux. This means that potentially more of what you built or saved could end up with someone you don’t want instead of protecting the ones you love most. Loving your family and making sure they are taken care of may be your most important reason to start the succession process.

3. Hire a coach or facilitator

Effective succession planning requires 80 per cent non-technical work (e.g., reflection and communication). It’s not your job to facilitate hard discussions while also trying to be present in the conversation, stay curious and take notes. An objective third party should be brought in to lead important conversations outside the scope of day-to-day meetings.

4. Learn to balance logic with emotion

Emotions can be dangerous. But we can also find ways to manage those big emotions and related decisions. We don’t want to (and can’t) completely remove emotions from the equation and the truth is, you can’t make a decision without them. Emotion is okay. It means you are passionate about your business and your values. But there must be a balance between emotional and logical decisions, and we can only find that balance after we’ve looked at all the facts.

5. Play the what-if game

Start thinking about what you want — both in your head and in your heart. Because what you think in your head may not be the same as what you know in your heart. That disconnect could get you in trouble. Ask yourself, “If something happened to me, what would happen to this farm? Is that what my family would want?” Once you have an idea of what that answer might look like, it needs to be discussed and documented.

6. Communicate the right things

We don’t necessarily need more communication; we need the right kind of communication. Farmers might be experts at discussing the day-to-day, the markets and logistics, but sometimes it’s harder to discuss the uncomfortable things such as a living arrangement or finances. We need the right things at the right time. This requires asking permission of everyone involved in the succession process with the help of a coach who can facilitate conversations to make the process easier.

The post Farm succession: Where to begin? appeared first on Country Guide.

As a farm owner managing multiple areas of the business, you don’t have time to waste. Like me, you are looking for a return on time spent. So, when you receive an invitation to an event, you probably ask yourself, “If I go, will I learn something or meet someone that will help me get closer to my farm goals?”

Farmers who have a growth mindset are always trying to improve, exploring ways to adapt their thinking and processes. This mindset means you’re never fully satisfied with your current state. You always want more and you’re constantly working towards your new ideal (a.k.a. the vision you have for your farm). Conferences can provide an opportunity to reflect on how you’re doing things compared to others. Ideas from others can also motivate behaviour change resulting in new (improved) habits.

In the interest of encouraging a growth mindset, and to highlight how conferences can be a great way to connect with and learn from others in the industry, here are my top five unconventional ideas that I picked up at past conferences:

Don’t dismiss differing perspectives

At the 2023 National Outstanding Young Farmers competition, Alberta’s regional winners, Greg and Sarah Stamp, recounted their story of farm succession. Here’s why their story was different: it was the daughter-in-law, Sarah, city born and raised with a background in psychology, who worked with her father-in-law to create the farm’s succession plan.

Every succession plan needs a “driver,” a family member who can move the planning process forward. This family had two leaders from two generations with different perspectives and with two valuable backgrounds when it comes to planning succession of a farm family business (i.e., farm management and psychology). The reason this collaboration worked was because they identified and shared common values and goals, which helped them create a path for how they would work through the process. It’s also an advantage to have someone see your farm from the outside in (the daughter-in-law’s perspective).

Learning is easy, implementation is hard — but not impossible

At one conference I attended, the presenter clicked over to a slide that said, “Learning is easy, implementation is hard” — and then moved on to the next slide without offering any advice for how to take action about the hard part.

If applying knowledge is the hardest part of the equation, then let’s focus on the “how.” Luckily, there’s a simple framework designed to help with implementation. Mark Verwey, partner at BDO Canada, taught an FCC Young Farmers’ Summit group (in which I participated) about how to implement a new habit using “prompts.” His particular challenge was keeping up with email, so he told us about how he created a new habit using a regular prompt. Every morning, he dedicated 30 minutes of focused time to read and sort through his inbox (habit) during his first coffee (the prompt) of the day.

Don’t fight to control what you can’t

Working harder is not going to lead you to a breakthrough, only to burnout. I truly believe that aiming for balance is the key to a healthy mind, business and family, but we don’t need or maybe even want a perfect balance, because we always need something to strive for. So, look at your “circle of control” and focus on the things you can control, not on what you can’t.

Don’t wait until you have all the information

After my husband and I attended the UnCommon Farms conference last year, I asked him what his biggest takeaway was. He replied with a quote that one of the presenters used, attributed to George Patton, a Second World War U.S. army general: “A good plan violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”

The essence of this quote is not to waste time trying to be perfect. All entrepreneurs struggle with perfectionism, which can lead to procrastination. Will you ever have all the information you need to make the “perfect” decision or develop the perfect plan? Can you ever be 100 per cent certain? No, but you can develop a business or transition plan that is a “living” document, that is, it changes as you progress and learn more.

Business coach Dan Sullivan, co-founder and president of Strategic Coach, has a concept he calls the 80% Approach. This method stipulates that entrepreneurs should get the first 80 per cent of the job done as quickly as possible. The key is to think of achieving 80 per cent as perfection rather than 100 per cent and to focus on this 80 per cent goal 80 per cent of the time. If you feel like you’ve thought too long or too hard about a decision, use this approach to respect your own time, to set deadlines and boundaries for yourself.

Listen and learn from others’ stories about overcoming obstacles

Arguably the most valuable part of conferences is who we meet and the stories they tell that resonate with us. You can often learn more from good storytelling than facts and figures on a PowerPoint presentation. Take the time to think about the personal experiences people share with you and ask yourself, “Would that work for my business? Why? And how?”

When I think about all the farm families I’ve met or coached, I always come back to the stories they’ve told me about the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. Because sometimes, answers can come from simply listening to others’ stories and, most importantly, by listening to yourself. CG

The post Five pieces of unconventional wisdom that can help you reach your goals appeared first on Country Guide.

When 45-year-old grain farmer KR Vreeling was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2009, he and his wife, Tammy, realized they needed to expedite their farm transition plan or, at the very least, that they needed a backup plan. With four children still at home on their Manning, Alta., farm this sudden turn of events would be life-altering for everyone, in more ways than one.

Farm succession frequently consists of two common sticking points. The pathway through and the outcome of both hinge on what seems like a never-ending string of decisions.

First, you have to figure out how to do it.

Second, you need to determine what a successful farm transition will look like to you and your family.

As if those two points aren’t headache-inducing enough, imagine that you must also add “expedited timeline” to the list. The situation becomes, as the old saying goes, a whole other kettle of fish.

But that’s exactly where KR and Tammy found themselves in the spring of 2009.

No strangers to big decisions

Something meaningful usually drives a big decision, especially when it comes to family.

For the Vreelings, it’s always been the desire to ensure opportunities for the next generation.

In 1949, KR’s maternal grandparents, the Luikens, and their eleven children emigrated from Holland to Hawk Hills, Alta., a six-hour drive north of Edmonton. They acquired a half section of land through a lottery. To gain title rights they had to clear 40 acres in three years as stipulated by the farm development lease program. In 1953, KR’s paternal grandparents also made the long trip from Holland to settle on a farm near Grand Prairie.

KR’s parents took over the farm in 1967. In 1984, a 21-year-old KR, who was farming with his father and brother, was ready to make his first business decision. He purchased land at a time when it seemed crazy to farm as there wasn’t much money in it, but “you did it anyway because you loved it.” Then, in 1987, KR launched an independent fertilizer company to generate additional income.

Things were looking up. He married Tammy in 1989, and the fertilizer company led to a trucking company. There were trucks on the road 24 hours a day: five anhydrous ammonia trucks, a water truck, a log truck and a propane truck.

But managing a farm, fertilizer and trucking company took its toll. They didn’t have enough time for the work they wanted to devote to the farm, and the trucking company phone would ring constantly, sometimes in the middle of the night. It was time for another big decision.

And so, in 2007, they sold the fertilizer business and by 2009, they had restructured the farm in a way that allowed KR to spend more time with his family and to coach hockey.

The worst news

But then, in the spring of 2009, KR received his diagnosis.

He underwent eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation to shrink tumours in his back and tailbone. His brother, Doug, helped manage the farm and KR’s son, Michael, was on the farm full time for seeding, spraying and harvest. In August that year KR had a stem cell transplant and spent three weeks at the Cross Cancer Centre.

“It was rough,” says KR.

One day, at a medical appointment, KR mentioned to the nurse that no one had ever given him a prognosis.

“I told her, ‘I have a family and young kids, a business…,” he says. “The nurse said, ‘I will tell you, but you have to decide what you will do with the information.’ The nurse went on to explain that typically this cancer is an ‘old man’s’ cancer and the averages (of survival) is that 50 per cent are gone in five years. That’s scary information for anyone to hear.”

KR was home in time for September harvest, and he was able to sit in the shop for an hour a day. But the shock of what the nurse told him weighed heavy.

KR and Tammy decided it was time to train Michael, 18, how to run the farm within five years.

When, in spring 2010, Michael rolled his ankle, he and KR were forced to switch roles. Michael was in the office and KR was back out in the yard. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it provided Michael with a “trial by fire” opportunity to hone his managerial skills.

Five years after KR’s cancer treatment younger son, Ryan, who was in Grade 12, and KR were on a trip to Fairview College where Ryan was working towards his green certificate credits. KR asked him what his plans were for the future. Ryan, who had showed an interest in the farm, replied, “I guess I can’t farm, because Michael is farming.”

“I told him, ‘Why not? The farm is big enough for two. If you want to farm, we will figure it out. There is more than enough farm to make it work’,” says KR.

Michael continued to farm, coming back home for seeding, spraying and harvest, while attending trade school at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology to receive his journeyman oilfield instrumentation certification. The family thought it would be a good idea to have a fallback career in case farming didn’t work out. Ryan ended up at Olds College and received his diploma in agricultural production.

Meanwhile, the five-year plan had expired, and the family moved on to another round of decisions.

The transition trial

Cancer was always in the back of KR’s mind, so getting the succession plan done was not an issue of when, but how.

The Vreelings attended a session with Elaine Froese, a farm family transition expert, and Jonathan Small, an advisor with MNP at the time. KR also attended Syngenta’s Grower University in London, Ont., so that he could learn how to develop and execute their plan.

KR learned that good advisors ask hard questions. When Small asked “Is this business worth transitioning?” the wind momentarily went out of KR and Tammy’s sails. They were proud of what they had built, but they also understood and appreciated the objectivity of the question.

Small met with each family member and then met with them as a group. After the initial discovery and analysis process, Small told KR and Tammy they should be proud of their kids as they have a strong work ethic and no entitlement issues. KR says that comes from “how we live our life day-to-day more than anything. We tried to teach them the value of money, and hard work. If you want something in this world, you’ve got to work for it. They put hours in, and we paid them.”

When Small put the succession plan on the table KR remembers sitting back and thinking, “Perfect, we’ve accomplished our goal!” He remembers Small asked, “So, when are we going to do this?” to which KR replied, “Well, not today.” Small countered with, “Well, why not today?”

“We’re missing a step. When is it ‘our farm’, when we are partners with our kids?”

– KR Vreeling

KR felt the kids weren’t quite ready and told Small, “It doesn’t feel right to us. On Monday it’s ours and on Friday it’s theirs? We’re missing a step. When is it ‘our farm,’ when we are partners with our kids?”

They decided on a three-year trial, making all partners thirds in the business. “We drew a line in the sand and did an asset valuation on what the farm is worth today,” explains KR. “Then, we’d draw a line again to figure out if there was any growth. If they checked the boxes then we would divide up the growth three ways and execute the succession plan.”

KR had a list of things he wanted to check off before transitioning the business. “The trial was the concession,” says KR. “They needed to show me they could run the farm. Number one was to take over marketing plans, get 1A licenses, and be able to do the books and at the end of the day still be brothers. We stipulated that if you can’t work together, we are not doing this because it isn’t worth it.”

The mechanics of a good decision

If there is anything I took from speaking with KR and Tammy, it’s their approach to decision-making and how they work together as partners to make decisions no matter how hard the situation. They have a process. Their ability to analyze, communicate, decide and move forward is unwavering. They have a quiet confidence — humble yet assured — and follow their values as they step into the unknown.

So, what does a successful family succession and legacy look like? I think it’s an ability to make a series of good decisions as a family — even when it’s hard or the odds are against you — for the long-term success of the family. That’s exactly what the Vreeling family has always done.

KR’s idea of implementing the trial period allowed space to talk about the real issues and to set boundaries. But how do you get people to do the hardest thing on the farm: talk?

Tammy told them “I am the mother and wife, and I do not want to be in the middle. You’ve got to figure out a way to deal with it. If something is going on you need to talk about it, no complaints, and I don’t want to hear it.”

The other stipulation was that no one lives at the shop. It was important to them that when they go home, they leave work at work, creating a respect for the business of farming. “You’re not ‘just’ a farmer. This is a real thing, a real job and a real company,” says KR. “We tried to instill this respect and that it should all be treated with importance.”

The boys have found how to work together. Michael is the visionary, general manager and makes the marketing decisions. Ryan is the integrator, doing the books and developing crop plans. Tammy and KR are still major shareholders, and the family holds an annual general meeting each summer.

KR and Tammy had offered each of their children the opportunity to farm, but Sean and Carter wanted off-farm careers. Though both still help when they can, their parents are proud that the two boys are successful accountants in Peace River.

Ryan and Michael have also started a successful independent ag retailer just as their father did.

Letting go is hard

The challenge of letting go is as real a challenge as figuring out how to structure the handover.

KR says, “I want to drive tractor in the spring because I love seeding and I love combining in the fall. I still want to have value, and I want to see the success of the farm.”

KR and Tammy accept that sometimes you just need to park your pride. As Tammy notes, KR didn’t do everything the same way his dad did either.

“Our boys needed to find their own path,” she says. “As long as you can maintain a relationship with them, some things they have to learn on their own. We had similar complaints as every other farm founder going through this, wondering why wouldn’t they just ask? We could save them so much grief!”

Why didn’t they ask? Tammy and KR know now that it’s because the boys wanted to show them that they could do it. “They didn’t do it on purpose to hurt us; they did it to prove themselves,” says Tammy. “When we look at those boys now, they do things way better than we did.”

Each generational player — the now and the next — must define and redefine their roles.

KR maintains that not working on a succession plan is a selfish thing to do. “Part of the succession plan is that you don’t know how much you are in the way, a limiting factor. Once you move out of the way there’s a youthful enthusiasm that you start to really appreciate.”

He suggests getting started as soon as possible, because “You can’t rush it.”

The post The farm transition trial appeared first on Country Guide.

Kelsey Owen-Cooper is one of those people.

Owen-Cooper grew up in rural Ontario, surrounded by farm influences. Her grandparents grew up on farms, her father worked on a local dairy (frequent visits to his workplace sparked the idea that she wanted to work on a farm someday) and she married into agriculture. 

It was when she was working on her husband’s farm that she realized she loved agriculture and wanted to make it part of her career. So, she headed for Ridgetown Ag College and is now the co-production manager at Cooper’s CSA* where she handles beef and pork processing, sales and marketing.

Alongside farm work she also runs a marketing, content creation and consulting business for agriculture and small businesses. As a creative person she loves using her knowledge and experience — as well as the perspective of someone who didn’t grow up on a farm — to help tell farmers’ stories and bridge the gap between producers and the public.

“It’s been a journey I never could have imagined 10 years ago — and the doors just keep opening,” she says.

As an up-and-comer in Canada’s ag industry — one who is passionate, dedicated and working to ensure the industry’s success and sustainability — I wondered what she thought about her generation’s involvement in agriculture and what they think we should do better.

Danielle Ranger for Country Guide: Today’s workforce includes the most generations ever (five) at one time with millennials in the middle. What unique advantages does that cohort have?

Kelsey Owen-Cooper: Honestly, seeing “millennials” and “unique advantages” in the same sentence is a bit of a trip. Usually, we’re getting roasted for killing industries or eating too much avocado toast. I’m right on that cusp, basically a Gen Z in a millennial’s birth year (call me a zillennial), so my jaded side wants to roll its eyes. 

But the truth is, I think we do bring a lot to the table. We’re wildly adaptable — we’ve lived through more global curveballs than we can count, so shifting gears is basically our baseline operating mode. 

We also grew up as tech was exploding, so we not only understand it, we’re eager to use it, whether that’s modernizing farm practices, improving efficiency or telling our story online. Speaking of which, our social media presence is huge. 

We care about transparency, showing consumers where their food comes from and pushing back against lazy corporate marketing that tries to pin environmental blame on farmers while they skate by. And let’s be real: we’re hilarious. Our dark sense of humor gets us through the chaos of farming and life. 

Plus, we genuinely care. About the environment, about sustainability, about doing better. And we’re not afraid to question the way things have always been done if it means building a stronger future.

DR: What’s one tradition you think needs to be brought back or embraced more than it currently is?

Owen-Cooper: I’ve always sort of linked tradition with getting stuck in the past. But after mulling it over, I realized there’s one “tradition” we could stand to revive in agriculture: the tradition of not totally walling ourselves off from the rest of the world. 

It’s so tempting, isn’t it? In rural life — especially in Canadian ag, where we’re such a tiny slice of the population pie — it’s easy to just hunker down with people who think like us, value the same things and gripe about the same issues. 

And hey, I get it. Sometimes the rest of the world is … a lot. People can suck, especially when their values clash hard with yours. 

But here’s the kicker: for all our talk about city folks being “disconnected”, sometimes we’re the ones who are out of touch. We’re such a small minority, yet we can get weirdly defensive about our way of life instead of inviting others in or learning from them. 

So, if I could champion any tradition, it would be the practice of keeping the door open — of staying curious, connecting beyond our comfort zone and letting fresh perspectives in. Not because we need to abandon our rural roots, but because engaging with the bigger world actually makes us stronger … and a lot less cranky.

DR: What’s one tradition or mindset that needs to die?

Owen-Cooper: One mindset that absolutely needs to die — or at the very least get a serious overhaul — is this idea that the farm has to keep going no matter what, even if it means destroying your family or alienating your workers in the process.

I’d rather sell the farm than sacrifice my relationships. Period. And that’s not me talking with my head stuck somewhere dark. I’ve had some tough, heartfelt conversations with my own family about this. I’ve watched the air go out of them when I say it. Because for them, who’ve poured their entire lives into the farm, the idea that the next generation might just walk away feels like all their pain and sacrifice was for nothing. 

But here’s the thing: that exact mindset is why so many family farms are simmering pots of resentment. It’s the root cause behind family members who can’t stand each other, who bring their bitterness to the dinner table — or worse, project it onto employees. 

I’ve had countless shop talks with friends in ag who all have the same stories, and it’s heartbreaking. In my eyes, if parents and owners prioritized healthy relationships over simply keeping the farm afloat “because it’s been in the family for nine generations”, so many of these problems would solve themselves. I grew up playing sports and captaining teams, and I learned early that when you lift up the people around you — when you care more about them than the scoreboard — the wins come anyway. And not just on the field, but in life. That’s a mindset agriculture desperately needs more of.

*CSA = community supported agriculture

The post The wildly adaptable side of next gen agriculture appeared first on Country Guide.

But if you don’t think you’re great with people, not to worry. 

Many times, I’ve come across farm managers who have evolved their people skills in a short amount of time with dedicated effort. 

Try following the basics below to build your on-farm leadership skills. 

Go to them

Leadership is partly about empowerment and the best way to empower others is to ask for their thoughts. Asking the people around you “What do you think?” acts as a stop sign. It makes you pause for a moment, look around, assess and continue. It doesn’t mean that you need to change your direction; you’re simply gathering more information about the route. Maybe someone else might notice a leak in your tire before you do. 

As portrayed in the movie The Darkest Hour*, Winston Churchill was struggling with a decision during World War II that would affect the nation. He did something he had never done before: he went down into the subway and rode “the tube” to gather advice from citizens. 

He had no idea they felt so strongly about going back to war. The first world war had just ended, but they were prepared to fight again for their freedom at any cost. 

The point of this story isn’t just to highlight an incredible example of that generation’s resiliency, but to show you that you can’t always make major decisions without input or buy-in from the team around you. 

Go first

Management theories and advice from leadership books do not only apply to teams working in offices. When it comes to managing a team or being managed by a business leader, everyone has similar needs and issues. 

For example, people need to feel that they can trust their leader if they’re going to commit themselves to a bigger purpose.

But it’s a myth that as a leader you must gain your employees’ trust before you can show your vulnerability. 

One easy way you can build trust is to show your team that they can trust you. I suggest that you check out The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. You can ask ChatGPT for a summary of the five points, but what’s important to note here is that teams often face several pitfalls as they “grow together.” 

Show them you care 

I asked my dad for a leadership story about my grandfather who, in the 1980s, founded and developed Harvest Services, an after-market combine parts manufacturing company. In its heyday my grandfather managed 17 people. 

Dad said that every single morning Grandpa Bert would walk through the office and shops to greet everyone with a “good morning.” Even just a smile would make his employees feel appreciated, motivating them simply by knowing that someone cared they were there. He rarely lost his temper and while he used few words to communicate, he always seemed to say the right things. 

Call yourself out

As a leader you cannot call out others without having the awareness to call yourself out when required. We all make mistakes and there will always be situations where we wish we could have handled things differently. So, stop saying you should (or shouldn’t) have done this or that and start acting on it. Remember that vulnerability is the fastest way to trust. 

The CEO of AG1 had a ritual every Sunday afternoon during her kids’ nap time. She would think about someone she admired and imagined what that person would do or say in her position. Based on those reflections, she emailed herself one thing she planned to improve that week. At the end of the year, she had 52 things she called herself out on and over which she took ownership and improved.

Some people are just naturally good with others. Some need a bit more guidance to help them work on their self-awareness. And that’s okay. Because what matters is that you want to improve.

The main causes of team conflict are usually confusion or misunderstandings about what a leader is thinking, how important something is to them and how to get it done the way the leader envisioned it in their mind. 

Keep sharing your vision and your expectations while balancing accountability and empowerment. 

It might be one of the hardest jobs you’ll ever have, but it will also be the most rewarding.

*The movie’s producer took artistic license with this scene. There is no record that this happened in real life.

The post You don’t have to be a people person to be a good leader appeared first on Country Guide.

Every day I look around for stories that can help me understand what is or isn’t working on our farm. It might be small anecdotes or maybe a line from an employee or a supplier that sticks with me. If I can understand what works on our farm, I can probably also apply those lessons to my consulting clients since all farms share similar issues. 

Stories are also a great way to help us understand the many facets and stages of leadership, such as the ones below. 

Early stage: You’re young, broke and possibly more driven to build your enterprise than you’ll ever be. You may not have the experience that your parents or grandparents have, but you can and will leverage your passion, drive and dedication to get you further, faster. 

But don’t dismiss what you can learn from the stories of previous generations’ experiences. There’s no greater teacher than history. For example, you might ask parents and grandparents how they lead others through a crisis. Gather insights about how they pulled their family and team through and apply those lessons in your business.

Find out more about your family’s history and how they managed to get where they are, why and what drove them. Was it the desire to create a better quality of life for their children, an act of absolute selflessness? Because a true leader is selfless, putting the needs of others ahead of their own. Consider how you might practice this, especially if you’re thinking about a family and children of your own. What will you have built and protected to make sure that they will be taken care of? Find a purpose that is bigger than yourself.

Midlife/mid-career: You’ve helped build a good business, and personally and professionally you’re still improving and growing. You know the next steps are to “take over” the farm, whatever that might look to your family enterprise. Maybe the transition process has stalled, but you know that it must happen, and soon. 

One of my favourite transition stories is about a couple of boys who asked their parents, “Why not today?” What a great question! This forced the current owners to lay out their expectations and timelines for how both generations could work on transition together. If you’re in this stage, it’s a great opportunity to demonstrate your leadership chops and drive the process forward. 

Retirement, or stepping away over time: First of all, you have permission not to work so dang hard. You are not your farm, not your yields. Whether you believe it or not, you do have an identity outside the farm. 

One of my most rewarding coaching success stories took place over a couple of years. This family went from not talking to repairing their relationships and being committed to maintaining those relationships and the business. 

The parents had built the business up from nothing, farmed it for forty years and then rented it out to their daughter. We finally got the parents to the point where they were ready to pull the trigger on retirement — and they adapted in a flash. 

Yes, your identity, your ethos, your entire world will change. But the opportunity to be a mentor and teacher to others is still part of being a farmer. In fact, it just might be the most important part of being a farmer. 

Your wisdom, wealth of experience and knowledge are the farm’s greatest asset. Share your greatest leadership stories: how did you motivate others to do their best? What did you do to help bring out the best in people? How can you add the most value to the transition process, training and development programs and mentorship? Take the reins! 

Remember that you don’t need to be the boss to be a leader. That’s the wonderful thing about leadership: you can lead with any title, any level of experience and at any stage of your career.

The post How to develop a leader’s mindset at every stage of your career appeared first on Country Guide.

I look at it like this: if you’ve taken your child to the field, or they work alongside you, then you have already started — and you’re further along in the process than you think.

The most successful farm transitions take place over time. A solid succession is a process, not a one-time transaction. The most common obstacle to getting started is procrastination because we put things off when we are uncertain of what’s involved, or we think it will be difficult. 

Procrastination keeps us stuck. 

I understand that you have a million things to do, but if something happened to you today, what would happen to your farm? 

“But I don’t know how to start the conversation about the future,” you say. 

You know what? It’s normal to feel overwhelmed with the process of transitioning your farm. From the starting line, the process ahead looks foggy, and we think we only have one shot to get it right. Then, so many of us aren’t certain about what we want in the first place. And is that what everyone else wants? Is there even a common goal regarding the farm’s future? 

This type of planning also involves discussing the most difficult topics (e.g., death, finances, divorce, trust), bringing up emotions that make many of us uncomfortable. 

So, how can you gain some succession planning traction? 

1) Ask yourself: What’s the end game?
Why do you do what you do? You and everyone involved in the business should really sit with that question for awhile. Mull it over, write it down — even send it to me. I’m here to make you successful and that includes asking hard questions that make you think. (Hint: there are no right or wrong answers.)

2) Ask yourself: What’s at stake?
The biggest risk on farms today is having one person in charge of everything. If you go to work every day without processes or plans written down, or without having up to date wills or agreements, you are putting millions of dollars in flux. This means that potentially more of what you built or saved could end up with someone you don’t want instead of protecting the ones you love most. Loving your family and making sure they are taken care of may be your most important reason to start the succession process.

3) Hire a coach or facilitator
Effective succession planning requires 80 per cent non-technical work (e.g., reflection and communication). It’s not your job to facilitate hard discussions while also trying to be present in the conversation, stay curious and take notes. An objective third party should be brought in to lead important conversations outside the scope of day-to-day meetings.

4) Learn to balance logic with emotion
Emotions can be dangerous. But we can also find ways to manage those big emotions and related decisions. We don’t want to (and can’t) completely remove emotions from the equation and the truth is, you can’t make a decision without them. Emotion is okay. It means you are passionate about your business and your values. But there must be a balance between emotional and logical decisions, and we can only find that balance after we’ve looked at all the facts.

5) Play the what-if game
Start thinking about what you want — both in your head and in your heart. Because what you think in your head may not be the same as what you know in your heart. That disconnect could get you in trouble. Ask yourself, “If something happened to me, what would happen to this farm? Is that what my family would want?” Once you have an idea of what that answer might look like, it needs to be discussed and documented.

6) Communicate the right things
We don’t necessarily need more communication; we need the right kind of communication. Farmers might be experts at discussing the day-to-day, the markets and logistics, but sometimes it’s harder to discuss the uncomfortable things such as a living arrangement or finances. We need the right things at the right time. This requires asking permission of everyone involved in the succession process with the help of a coach who can facilitate conversations to make the process easier.

The post Farm succession: Where to begin? appeared first on Country Guide.

As author James Clear said so perfectly: “Being in motion (busy) does not equal action.”

In the coaching world we call busy days “buffer days” since they act as a buffer between action days and free days. Everyone needs busy days, but your goal should be to have more action (results) days in a week than busy days.

You could spend a month thinking about a task, pretending that you’re working on it, or you can just do it. Why delay the inevitable? Is it because you fear that it won’t turn out perfectly? I’ve learned that doing is better than perfect.

Another reason we might prioritize busy tasks or delay action tasks is because we believe that we have more time than we do. And Parkinson’s Law posits that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. Elon Musk once said that if you give yourself 30 days to clean your home it will take 30 days, but if you give yourself three hours it will take three hours. If success and happiness are the result of how well you manage your time, life becomes all about timing and timelines — that is, concrete action over busy-ness.

A lack of self-awareness might be another reason to choose motion over action. Most people think they are among the hardest workers, when in reality there are a handful of people producing the majority of results. I can say from my own experience that when I’m busy it feels like I’m accomplishing something that day. But what was I actually doing? My mentor once asked me, “Is what you’re doing right now getting you closer to your goals?”

Wait — what are my goals? I had to sit down and think about what my personal and professional goals should be and then break them down into day-to-day actions. Because here’s the flaw in humans: when we’re busy it’s easy to trick ourselves into believing we are accomplishing things.

As farmers, we love being in motion. We identify as “farmers who are farming.” Have you ever met a farmer who, when asked what they do, responded with “farm manager,” “business owner,” or “an entrepreneur” who was “managing or running a business”? The truth is, we don’t do enough of those things — the working “on” the business as opposed to “in” it — enough.

We are also creatures of habit. Have you ever felt the sudden urge to drive to the city to pick up parts or groceries when you should be home doing some of the action stuff? I used to do this when I didn’t want to sit at the desk and stare at a screen. But I realized that this craving for motion came from growing up on a farm doing farmyard and field work.

For half the year, the most productive seasons of farming are related to tasks such as spraying, seeding, combining or trucking. Those are the days when you know exactly what needs to get done. But before you know it, the crop is in the bins, the trucks are on the road and we throttle back from 100 to zero. That’s the flaw in running a business: we think being in motion equals action, and motion is king for those most critical months of the year.

To use another example, let’s consider succession planning. The challenge here is that we often frame succession as a “what-if” plan. It’s tough to get someone to work on what ifs. But I believe that we can create actionable steps and create a repeatable process that allows us to get results — results that get you closer to your goals, i.e., doing what you want to do and feeling good about it. Solid action, not just motion.

Here are some other examples and ways you can turn motion into action:

• Do you need a will? Call the lawyer today to set up an appointment and tell your spouse. Make it mandatory to get something signed after that meeting. It may not perfectly represent your wishes, but you’ll have started to cover your bases and you can always make revisions later.
• Do you need to train an employee? Design a training plan with deadlines, then book time with the trainee in your calendar.
• Or, what if you feel like it’s time for the kids to take on more managerial roles? Start having those conversations. Lay out your expectations and non-negotiables. Set up a trial run and a review process and then implement and stick to mandatory weekly meetings. Most importantly, set a timeline for each phase of your transition away from certain roles within the business.

Action can be just as interesting and exciting as motion. Better still, you’ll not only feel like you’ve accomplished something, but you actually will.

The post When motion doesn’t equal action appeared first on Country Guide.

If this sounds like something you’ve said to yourself, have you also asked, “Why don’t we?”

Ten years talking about making a plan but still not having it written down, or not making any real changes in the way your farm operates, can be pretty frustrating.

Why do people put off important things?

Maybe it’s because you’re not sure about exactly what you need to do, or maybe you don’t know where to start.

So, let’s start right here, right now.

Think about your current situation. What’s the ideal outcome or end game? How closely is the “now” aligned with your future vision? How big is the gap from where you are to where you want to be? Assessing this gap can help you figure out at least one thing that can get you closer to your ideal outcome.

When we put things off, we are putting off the inevitable. The saying, “If you don’t make the plan someone will make it for you” comes to mind. Procrastination is one of the most self-sabotaging things we do to ourselves. But why? This brings us back to the root question: ask yourself why you are putting off your future plans.

• Is it fear of failure: Are you afraid of making the wrong decision about the future or saying the wrong things and starting a fight?
• Is it uncertainty around a decision: Do you have enough information (e.g., do you know who really wants to take over the farm)? Or maybe you’re not ready to retire and feel forced into it because you started the process.
• Is it perfectionism: Are you avoiding planning because you’re worried you won’t be good at talking about hard things?
• Is it a lack of motivation: Are you just not that excited about having tough discussions, so you keep putting them off?

To help you understand what keeps you stuck, ask why, over and over. In fact, ask yourself why five times. (See image below for an example.) The Five Whys of Root Cause Analysis is a big name for a quick, but valuable, exercise. Asking why progressively five times helps you unearth the root cause of a problem. This insight allows you to develop the details of a solution to that problem. You may be shocked at what you come up with during just a few minutes of introspection.

Now that you understand your procrastination triggers, look for your “purpose of planning,” i.e., what’s the real purpose for moving forward?

If you are more of an emotional person, look for purpose in feelings. Focus on the resulting feeling you will have as you work through the hard steps of the succession process. Also consider how do you want to feel? Maybe you want to feel accomplished, confident, competent, or simply at peace that you’ve got your ducks in a row. Building trust with yourself is the truest form of confidence. And confidence will help you take action.

If you are more of a logical person, the purpose will be more about protecting the business from risk and increasing profitability. In this case, focus on the results of potential actions. How will they improve the business operations and profits?

It also helps to reframe the way you look at planning. There’s a saying in the army, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” A plan can always change but having the skills to be great at the act of planning makes your team more adaptable. Learning how to do the planning is how you come together to solve real issues and keep working toward your shared vision and achieving goals.

I frequently hear something else that often trips us up: “But I don’t know how to start the conversation.”

It’s a good idea to explore how other farms started their planning process.

Once, when my dad was speaking to clients who were unsure what to do as they worked their way through the succession process, he advised them “talk to every person who’s been through it and get as many perspectives as you can.”

So, how can you turn “10 years of talking” into one actionable step towards your goals?

Understand what your ideal situation is. Envision it. Then dig into what’s holding you back, the fears, the purpose, and how that purpose will benefit you, the farm, the family and your legacy.

Because doing something with a purpose greater than you will take you a lot further, a lot faster.

– Danielle Ranger is a family farm coach and farmer in north central Saskatchewan where they grow wheat, canola and oats.

The post When farm plans fail appeared first on Country Guide.